MEDIA RELEASE: 3 February 2016

New online tool displays wealth of support available to Wellington business owners

A free, online support tool has been launched for business owners in the Wellington region looking to grow, innovate or export.

Grow Wellington, a unit of the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA), created Wellington Business Help to make it easy for local businesses to assess their needs and then connect to local experts and freely available resources.

WREDA Chief Executive, Chris Whelan, says the tool is a New Zealand first.

“Wellington Business Help is a portal that allows businesses to easily navigate the abundance of support available across the region, based on their own requirements. This tool applies the experience gathered in the course of our day-to-day interactions with businesses looking to grow, and makes it accessible to anyone, anytime.”

“This tool will help Wellington businesses to grow by connecting them quickly and easily with the right help, at the right time.”

Wellington Business Help covers the myriad of issues commonly faced by businesses including registering a new company, market testing, preparing for export, protecting intellectual property, research and development funding and legal advice. It connects businesses to the regional support ecosystem including Creative HQ, Grow Wellington and the regional Chambers of Commerce and links to resources from these organisations’ websites and others such as Business.govt.nz, banks, and corporates.

For more information:

Lisa Crombie, Communications Manager, Grow Wellington, DDI 64 4 382 0063, Mob 64 021 709 939

[email protected]