Case Study: Business Mentors NZ
Building Better Businesses: How CGF’s Mentorship Programme is Strengthening the Construction Sector
Running a small construction business in New Zealand has never been easy, and in the current climate with rising costs, labour shortages, and economic uncertainty the pressure on business owners has never been greater. Many are technical experts in their trade. Far fewer have had formal support to develop the business skills that determine whether a company survives and grows.
New research from ConstrucTrend 2025, a national survey of carpenters, electricians and plumbers, found that 56% of employers identified financial management as a skill gap among recent graduates, while 60% pointed to business marketing as a weakness. Costing and quoting, one of the most financially consequential skills for any trade business, was flagged as a gap for 56% of recent graduates and 38% of experienced tradespeople. Perhaps most telling of all: nearly half of trade business owners started their businesses within just five years of completing their apprenticeship, often before they had developed the financial and commercial skills to run one successfully.
That’s exactly the gap that CGF set out to address when it formalised a partnership with Business Mentors New Zealand (BMNZ) in May 2025.
What the Programme Delivers
Through the partnership, CGF has funded access to one-to-one business mentoring for small and medium-sized construction businesses across New Zealand. BMNZ brings a national network of more than 1,500 experienced mentors, matched to businesses based on their sector, challenges, and goals.
Six months in, the results speak for themselves:
186 mentoring registrations allocated across 17 member associations 92% of eligible registrations have been matched with a mentor
91% of respondents report a positive mentoring experience
Participants span the full breadth of the construction sector from residential builders and architectural designers to quantity surveyors, kitchen and bathroom specialists, and specialist trades
Funded business mentoring for construction business owners. Click here to register your interest.
What Business Owners Are Saying
The feedback from participants captures the practical, real-world difference that mentoring is making.
“Understanding my own niche and how to position myself in the market, as well as creating opportunities for future growth that’s what I came for, and that’s what I got.”
Emma, Quantity Surveying & Dispute Resolution Consultant, Tauranga
“Having someone validate the direction we’re heading and encourage me when I stall has been the biggest benefit. It’s pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and address things I’d been avoiding.”
Victoria, Residential Builder, Christchurch
“Having someone to coach me, to talk about concerns and issues with someone who can offer real advice previously, being a business owner and manager felt lonely and isolating. That’s changed.”
Hayley, Project Management, Canterbury
What Participants Are Focusing On
The areas where construction business owners are seeking support through the mentorship programme closely mirror the skill gaps identified in ConstrucTrend 2025. The top themes in our programme include:
Business strategy and planning
Financial management and profitability
Marketing and attracting new clients
Managing staff and growing a team
Workload and time management
Leadership and personal confidence as a business owner
These are the same gaps ConstrucTrend identified at sector level. Employer survey respondents flagged costing and quoting, business marketing, financial management, and compliance with regulations as the most widespread shortfalls across carpenters, electricians and plumbers alike. The research also found that many tradespeople are self-teaching business skills or learning through trial and error exactly the kind of fragmented, ad hoc learning that structured mentoring is designed to replace.
Why This Matters for the Sector
The construction sector employs tens of thousands of New Zealanders and underpins the country’s built environment. When small businesses struggle, particularly those led by skilled tradespeople who started out without a strong commercial foundation, the consequences extend well beyond the individual owner. Employees, subcontractors, clients, and the wider sector all feel the impact.
BMNZ brings the infrastructure to make support like this possible at scale: a national network of over 1,500 experienced mentors, a proven matching process, and a track record of helping small businesses grow. By partnering with BMNZ and funding access for CGF member businesses, CGF is investing directly in the resilience and long-term sustainability of the sector.
Every business that becomes more profitable, better managed, and more confident in its strategy is a business better placed to employ people, deliver quality work, and weather future challenges.
With a further round of registrations planned for 2026, the programme is on track to reach its 300-business target and the appetite from associations and their members suggests demand will remain strong.
This is CGF’s Strengthening Capability pillar in action: targeted support, sector-wide reach, and measurable impact on the people who build New Zealand.