Smart – support for business
There are over 300,000 small to medium businesses in New Zealand. These businesses are a significant contributor to economic growth in New Zealand, but they struggle every day to survive and thrive.
International research reports that New Zealand has the highest activity of entrepreneurial start-ups of all countries studied. 14.7% of New Zealand’s labour force is employed by entrepreneurial start-up firms. The global average is 9.3%. (www.stats.govt.nz)
In New Zealand 95% of all business start-ups have fewer than five employees. 93% of all business closures were also businesses with fewer than five employees. (www.stats.govt.nz)
The challenges are huge, which is why Smart believes business owners are heroes. And often there is little or no recognition or support for these heroes – these business owners who may have their homes, assets, families and futures on the line to achieve their business dreams.
Smart was developed to support New Zealand business owners
Smart was founded by Adrienne Pierce, an experienced franchisor who noticed a tradesman take 20 phone calls in one afternoon while working at her home.
“Every time the phone rang he had to stop what he was doing to answer the call. It was such a waste of his earning potential,” Adrienne recalls. “He made promises to every caller but didn’t note anything down. I just thought there has to be a better way!”
There was…!
In brief
Adrienne and her sister developed the Smart concept in 2003, after Adrienne sold her shareholding in the successful PORSE Network Group of companies.
You can read more about Adrienne by clicking here.
During the development phase they talked to many business owners who were struggling to find time to do their core business because of other demands on their time.
Small to medium business owners can access accountants for GST returns, individual contractors for bookkeeping or secretarial services, call centres to take messages, lease serviced offices or work from home, but the Smart
team recognised a significant gap in the market: who can provide all the professional office support they need in one place?
“We can!” says Adrienne, who saw the opportunity to fill the gap.
Like all good ideas, the Smart offer is simple: to provide day-to-day office solutions for business owners so that those business owners can focus on the things they are good at, and the things they are passionate about – the things that generate income in their business and make them money.
To read a detailed account of the history of Smart to date, you can click here.
Primary Aim:
To be the trusted industry leader providing support for business in outsourced financial, phone, admin and payroll services throughout New Zealand.
Mission:
Our mission is simple… to save business owners time and money.
Time to spend working on your business, time to spend with family and friends, time to follow other pursuits, time to be healthy and happy.
Some people seem to think that money is a filthy word, but it’s not! Money is one of the things people go into business to gain – mostly more money than they would necessarily earn in an employed position. Money creates freedom and gives you choice, options to live the life you want. It’s not necessarily all about consumerism and greed. Money allows a person to give, and create, and grow in many areas of their life. Money is good and having more of it can have lots of healthy benefits.
Prosperity has a ripple effect through communities when prosperous businesses contract or employ locals, and use local suppliers. We believe that if businesses do well, the workforce does well and the economy does well.
Values:
Passionately supporting business owners
We are a group of positive, ’solution oriented’, people who are passionate about business and make business owners feel valued.
We relate to business owners because we’re business owners ourselves, and have also previously owned or managed other businesses. Smart understands the trials and tribulations that you face as a business owner each day, week, month, year. We want to help because we know we can make a difference for you the owner, your staff, your customers and your suppliers.
It’s helping and supporting business owners that pushes our buttons. We won’t just tell you what you need to do – we’ll roll up our sleeves and do it for you, working at the coalface alongside you – giving you practical support and helping you take care of business. We’re here to make your life easier.
Reliable, reputable & results driven
We work professionally with business owners as a team to achieve results – it’s that simple. Our absolute focus is on finding solutions and producing the results our clients need, rather than making excuses or placing blame.
In any business there are deadlines that must be met – including Inland Revenue Department reports and payments. We do our utmost to ensure your business meets these deadlines. Most things financial revolve around them – invoicing accounts receivable to make money so you can pay the IRD (lol), paying employees so they can pay the IRD (lol), paying your accounts payable so your suppliers can also pay the IRD (lol), etc.
We keep the promises and commitments we make with you as a client of Smart. If we are not reliable, reputable or results driven we have no business as the ‘work’ would not happen.
Professional, practical and personal
All of the work we do is hands on, practical processing and organising depending on what your business needs. Our people have a “can-do” attitude, with the skills and drive to get the job done right.
Smart operates from professional offices where you, your employees, customers or suppliers can drop in whenever they choose. Appointments are made if a detailed discussion is required or for monthly reporting meetings.
We’re an integral part of your business. The relationship we have with you becomes personal over time. It’s a by product of the relationship we build day to day, week to week. Clients stay with Smart for a long time (usually an average of at least two years) so we get to know each other really well – you, your business and employees, highs and lows. We work with you and your advisors (such as accountants). We’re working together for business success – yours and ours.
Open, honest & confidential
Our fair-minded approach to business doesn’t just happen – it’s all about open and honest communication.
We can’t help your business effectively if we don’t have the whole picture and vice versa – you can’t operate your business efficiently if you don’t have all of the information. It can be difficult to talk about business cashflow or solvency issues, or employee issues, and while we don’t give advice we won’t shirk this conversation and will provide the reports you need and give honest to goodness practical suggestions. Often it is these honest conversations that assist you to manage your way through difficult events in your business and your life.
We collect the mail, we take the calls, and we process the financials so we know what’s going on. We really appreciate that we are privileged to be in this position and we pride ourselves on keeping it confidential! It’s a huge part of our culture and systems to ensure everyone involved is on the same confidential page.
Responsible & accountable
Our paperwork is designed to underpin both your and Smarts expectations and responsibilities. We back ourselves to provide services that exceed those expectations. So we won’t tie you into a long term contract. Instead we rely on the standard of our service to keep you wanting to do business with us. We’re answerable to you and you hold us to account with a seven day notice period. We adapt and evolve with you and your business so we hold a lot of responsibility and we have a culture of standing up and being accountable for everything we do.
Admin experts who make it simple
We do admin all day every day – that’s what we do. We love it and we have a huge knowledge bank because we are a franchise system. Systems form the foundation of everything we do at Smart and we use these systems to organise and carry out your business administration. And we’re always looking for ways to improve “the system” – looking for the fastest, easiest, best way to do things to get the best result for you. Clients pay for a solution and we deliver that solution every time as agreed.
Many businesses fail to perform as well as possible because the owners or managers lack financial skills and the ability or time to pay attention to the key indicators that determine performance and profitability of their business. Financial success in business is built on a foundation of good records and reports. If businesses are not good at keeping their own administration up to date, then they need to find someone who will do this for them. Smart is the answer.
You can read more about Smart services by clicking here.
Smart was designed to be franchised right from the start and after six years the Smart concept is well proven, providing innovative administration and management support for business owners.
Passionately supporting business owners