You can become a registered user of business.govt.nz by registering for ‘my business’.
Registered users can personalise how they use the site, subscribe to our e-newsletter businessINSIDER, receive email alerts and save their work and favourite topics to come back to.
Registering for ‘my business’ is easy and only takes a few minutes. Select ‘Register now’ and then complete and submit a registration form. We’ll send you an email asking you to confirm your registration.
You can update your profile, manage your subscriptions, and cancel your registration at any time.
As you move through the site, business.govt.nz keeps track of where you’ve been and remembers the last ten pages you’ve visited. Theses pages appear in a list under the ‘Where I’ve been’ section of ‘my business’. Selecting any of these links will take you back to that page.
Quicklinks provide a fast and easy way for you to get to your favourite places and pages on business.govt.nz. You can set quicklinks for most of the content on the site. All you need to do is select ‘Quicklink this’ and the site will save the content or page. You can save and display a maximum of ten quicklinks, and view and remove your quicklinks in the ‘My quicklinks’ area of ‘my business’.
If you’re a registered user your quicklinks are automatically saved at the end of your session. You’ll find them listed under ‘My quicklinks’ when you next visit the site.
Registered users can set alerts on specific content or pages in the site and be emailed when that information changes.
The site emails alerts once a day for each alert you have set. If nothing has changed and there’s no reason to alert you, the site won’t send you an email.
You can set an alert for any content by selecting ‘Set an alert’.
You can view and remove your alerts within your ‘my business’ profile. Selecting any alert in your ‘My alerts’ list will take you straight to the alerts area of your ‘my business’ profile. Don’t forget, you need to be signed in to set an alert.
Comments are a way for people to share their ideas, opinions and expertise on the site’s business tools, information and topics.
All visitors to the site can read any published comments. When there are comments on a topic you’ll see ‘View comments (3)’. The number in brackets lets you know how many comments there are on a topic.
Registered users can make comments about any of the content on business.govt.nz. You can make a comment by selecting ‘Comment’, then completing and submitting the comment form. When your comment has been reviewed and approved, it will be published on the site for others to see.
All comments will be published at the discretion of business.govt.nz. Comments containing content that is illegal, obscene, abusive, objectionable, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringes intellectual property rights, or is otherwise injurious to a third party will not be published. Comments must not contain software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of ‘spam’.
A checklist is a collection of steps, activities and useful resources to help you tackle a business challenge or complete a task.
All users can view and access the checklists on business.govt.nz. You can check off tasks or information as you work through – your progress will be updated as you go, and expand (show) or collapse (hide) the details of each of the steps. You can also make notes in the ‘my notes’ area of a checklist and download a checklist to your computer as a Microsoft Word document or an Adobe PDF file.
Registered users can save their work, notes and progress on a checklist within the site, to come back to at a later time. And you can view, update and remove your checklists in the ‘My checklists’ area of ‘my business’.
Anyone can receive RSS feeds for content on the site – just select ‘Get RSS’ to subscribe. If that topic or content changes the site will automatically send notification (by RSS) to your RSS reader.
You’ll also find a selection of current New Zealand business web feeds on business.govt.nz. This means you can view a selection of news feeds from different websites and subscribe to a site’s feed, without having to go the original website.
RSS or Really Simple Syndication enables you to automatically receive news and information directly to your computer. Subscribing to free RSS feeds of your favourite online content is an easy way to keep up with all the latest business news and information.
You can subscribe to an RSS feed for any content on this site by selecting ‘Get RSS’. This means that if that topic or content changes, the site will automatically send you notification (by RSS) to your RSS reader.
The site also collects business RSS feeds from other websites and displays them in one place on the ‘New Zealand business feeds’ page. You can subscribe to these RSS feeds directly from the site.
You don’t need anything to view the RSS feeds displayed on business.govt.nz. Simply click on the link and view the information.
To subscribe to and receive RSS feeds from business.govt.nz and other websites, you’ll need an RSS reader or aggregator. This is software that collects any feeds you have subscribed to and displays them in one place, so you can view them when it suits you.
You can search for and download many free or inexpensive RSS readers on the web. Both Yahoo and Google have links to some of the RSS readers that are available.
Registered users can subscribe to receive communications from business.govt.nz. This includes our email newsletter, businessINSIDER. You can subscribe to these services when you register for ‘my business’, and subscribe and un-subscribe any time within the ‘my subscriptions’ section of your ‘my business’ profile.
The business.govt.nz calendar lists upcoming business events and important dates, such as Inland Revenue tax dates.
You can download an event’s details to your PC or your PC’s calendar programme. You can do this by viewing an event and selecting ‘Download event details’, or by selecting one or more events (with a tick) and selecting ‘Download details of the events I’ve selected’.
You can choose to download the details of a calendar event as a standard iCard file and place it directly into a calendar programme such as Microsoft Outlook. Some users may have problems downloading multiple events at one time due to their operating system, browser or calendar programme. If this happens, try downloading the events one at a time.
business.govt.nz has a list of useful business and industry contacts. You can choose to view contacts for your region or industry.
You can also download a contact’s details to your PC or your PC’s address book. You can do this by viewing a contact and selecting ‘Download contact details’. This downloads the contact details as a standard iCard file and enables you to place them directly into a contacts programme such as Microsoft Outlook.
It’s important to us that business.govt.nz is accessible to everyone. The site has been designed to meet the New Zealand government web standards and accessibility best practice. If you believe any of our content is not as accessible as it could be, or your requirements are not being met, please contact us.
Our shortcut keys enable you to move around and use the site without a mouse. You can also increase the size of the text displayed on your screen to make viewing content easier.
Some of the features on this site require you to have cookies and JavaScript enabled on your browser. You can choose to disable the use of cookies and JavaScript, but this may affect your ability to use some of the site’s features and view some content. You need to have cookies and JavaScript enabled to register, sign in to ‘my business’, and access your personalised content.
Some of the resources on the site are specific to certain industries or business sectors. When you register you can select one or more industries or sectors that relate to you or your business.
| Industry or sector | Description | Example |
| Accommodation | Providing living quarters for public convenience. | B&B, hotels, motels, home stays, holiday parks, lodges, motor camps. |
| Agriculture | The production and management of livestock, crops, vegetation, fibre (wool), and soil. | Feeding, housing, and maintaining of animals such as cattle, dairy cows, sheep, goats, hogs, horses, and poultry and handling their by-products, related activities of tillage, fertilization, pest control and harvesting, agribusiness. |
| Beauty and personal services | Beauty therapy, personal wellbeing and related industries. | Hairdressing, cosmetology, personal trainers, beauty therapy, health massage, perfumery, electrolysis, hair removal, image consultants, make-up artists, manicurists, sun tanning, life coach, gyms. |
| Building | Creating or modifying commercial, industrial, institutional and residential buildings and other structures. | Blocklaying, bricklaying, builders, carpenters, electricians, plasterboard stopping, plasterers, plumbers, gasfitters, painters and paperhangers, tile installation, architects, excavating, land surveyors, interior finishing. |
| Business and professional services | A business or professional who receives payment for an activity which usually needs specialised expertise. This expertise may come from years of experience and/or education and training. Expertise includes marketing, monetary, legal, taxation, insurance or investment matters. | Accounting, auditing, taxation, business consultation, costing specialists, payroll, secretarial services, management, brokers, financial planners, banking, investment, legal, insurance, commercial law, marketing, project management. |
| Café, restaurant, bar and food services | Selling prepared foods, drinks or snacks in a face-to-face environment or catering and vending. | Cafés, restaurants, bars, pubs, takeaways, catering. |
| Computer, software and Information Computer Technology | Providers and developers of computers, software and information technology. | Web technologies, e-commerce, server technologies, telecommunications and data networking technologies. |
| Construction | The building or assembly of any infrastructure. Building can be considered a sub-set of construction. | Roads, bridges, prefabricated concrete, reinforced concrete shells, construction equipment, dams, experimental stress analysis, fire engineering, oil rigs, tunnels and tunnelling, sewers, water or gas mains, pipelines, railways. |
| Creative arts and design | Involved with creative arts practice, design education, research or innovation. | Film, television, music, fashion, media, interior design, animation/visual effects, design, desktop publishing/digital imaging, fine art, floral design, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, multimedia design, photography, set/exhibit design, sound engineering, web design, writing, journalism, communication, media studies, theatre, dance. |
| Domestic and facility services | Maintaining domestic, residential, office and business properties, including appliance rentals and interior and exterior cleaning and maintenance and management | Cleaning, window blasting, home help, lawn mowing, home appliance rentals, home sit, maid service, facility management. |
| Education and training | Focused on the activities of educating or training; activities that impart knowledge or skill. | Early childhood, driver education, operator training, adult education, after school care, child care, business colleges, outdoor education, swimming schools, language instruction, speech language / therapists |
| Health | Providing health care, advice and support or medical services. This includes primary, surgical, elderly and acute care, pharmacological and specialised services. Extends to animal health services. | Hospitals, residential care, caregivers, elderly care, rest & convalescent homes, respite care, special needs services, optometrists, pharmacies, prenatal, sexual health, weight and nutrition, orthodontic, dentistry, orthopaedic, physiotherapy, dermatology, disability services, sports medicine, massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal medicine, homoeopathy, osteopathy, mental health, nursing, midwifery, psychology |
| Entertainment | Amusement or diversion intended to hold the attention of an audience or its participants. | Music, concerts, radio, television, theatre, movies, theme and amusement parks. |
| Engineering | Analysis or design work requiring extensive preparation and experience in the use of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and the engineering sciences. The profession of or work performed by an engineer - divided into different branches, as civil, electrical, mechanical or chemical engineering. | Civil, mechanical, aeronautical, chemical electrical, photographic, sound, automotive, marine, heating and refrigerating, transportation, environmental engineering, power transmission and generation, electronics, communications, architecture, bio-engineering, lasers, computers, instrumentation. |
| Manufacturing | The transformation (mechanical or chemical) of raw materials into finished goods for sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-manufactures. | Fabrication, plants, factories, mills, packaging. |
| Food and beverage manufacturing | The transformation of raw materials into finished food or drink for sale. This includes pet food. | Baking and patisserie, dairy manufacturing, food processing and handling, food quality assurance, meat processing, viticulture and wine |
| Horticulture and landscaping | Horticulture is the cultivation of fruit, flowers, vegetables and shrubs. This can also be used to describe the commercial production of such crops on general farms (see Agriculture). Landscaping is any activity that modifies the visible features of a piece of land by planting or altering the contours of the ground. | |
| Forestry, logging and mining | The management of forests and timberlands through developing, cultivating, harvesting, transporting and selling trees for commercial purposes. Mining’s purpose is the extraction, concentration, smelting of minerals from a mineral deposit. | Forestry, logging, exploration, development of mineral deposits, constructing the mine and mining, extracting and processing of ore or tailings. |
| Fishing and aquaculture | Fishing is a term applied to any activity which aims to capture fish or shellfish for subsistence, scientific, commercial or recreational purposes. Aquaculture is the husbandry and farming of organisms that live in a controlled water environment, such as fish, shellfish, and algae. | |
| Print, publishing and media services | A provider of TV, print, film or radio services, be it for advertising, production, writing or other skills – but normally focused on editorial, communication or marketing needs. | The preparation (cleaning, proof-reading, formatting and structuring) and printing of material, editorial and advertising services, desktop publishing, digital printing, replication services. |
| Scientific research | Research based on, or contributing to, traditional sciences. | Astronomy, astrophysics, biology, biochemistry, botany, chemistry, earth science, forestry, genetics, geology, mathematics, physics, zoology |
| Property and real estate | Bringing buyer and seller together and assisting in the negotiation of contracts between them for transactions involving land and all physical property on, below or attached to the land. | Property rental. |
| Retail | Buying goods or products in large quantities, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then selling individual items or small quantities to customers. | |
| Service provider | Utilities and essential service providers | Gas, power, phone, television, water and internet service providers, telecommunications |
| Social and community services | Providing activities in the interest of, or of benefit to, the community, the public or its institutions. The activity may be to improve the condition of disadvantaged people in society. | Social and community work, counselling, youth work, therapists |
| Transport | Involved with the movement of people, goods and information from one place to another. | Airlines, couriers, taxis, buses, trains |
| Tourism | Providing services and facilities (such as entertainment, accommodation and catering) for consumption by tourists. | Adventure and tour companies |
| Sport, fitness and recreation | Providing an activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates, or a diversion requiring physical exertion and competition. | Gyms, yoga and pilates studios, sports clubs and amenities, climbing walls. |
| Wholesale | Selling or related to selling goods (generally to merchants) in large quantities for resale to the consumer. Often sells to a retail business, merchants, manufacturers, industrial firms, commercial, and other businesses. | |