Hi Pulsarblu,
For business advice and info, try
www.biz.org.nz - an NZ-wide government sponsored enterprise agency. ?They provide all sorts of information including training and advice.
If you're in Canterbury, the Canterbury Development Corporation are pretty good. ?See their website at
www.cdc.org.nz. ?They provide training and also have low-cost incubator units to help get small businesses off the ground.
The IRD also have teams of small business advisors all over NZ. ?They will come out to see you at home or work. ?And they do it for free. ?No point in paying any more than you have to! ;)
Going back to the original theme of this thread.....
....Before we got here, I wasn't expecting to see many high-end European motors such as BMWs, Mercs, Range Rovers, Jaguars etc because everyone told me how ?expensive they were compared to NZ wages. ?The reality is that there are loads of prestige vehicles over here and I've seen more Ferraris in Chch than just about anywhere else I've been! ?Okay, I don't know whether these cars are bought, leased or stolen but the fact that they're on the road says a lot about disposable income. ?
The point about not converting NZ$s to GB?s is a good one, although I think it can be qute revealing sometimes....
We paid ?180 for a PSP in the UK last summer and bought the same thing in NZ at Christmas time for $180. ?Looking through the paper, you can buy a new Toyota Landcruiser here for $79,950, yet the same model in the UK is ?49,950. ?How does that work? :-/
I'm sure there will be loads of comparisons the other way. ?I'm not trying to say that NZ is cheaper than the UK, only that wage levels don't give us the whole picture on their own. :)