What does Strategize Auckland do?

Strategize Auckland is a strategy implementation practice for owners of $500k–$50m Auckland businesses. The core offering is a 52-week guidance programme with two fortnightly strategic sessions per month, monthly billing, at $12,000–$24,000 per year. The practice covers business recovery, business improvement, growth strategy and project management. Run by Steven Parker, principal, from Albany / Rosedale on Auckland's North Shore.

How much does a business coach cost in Auckland?

In Auckland, independent business coaches typically charge $1,500–$3,000 per month. Cohort programs like The Icehouse Owner Manager Programme run $5,000–$15,000 one-off. Strategize Auckland's 52-week guidance programme runs $12,000–$24,000 per year (effectively $1,000–$2,000 per month) with two fortnightly strategic sessions plus implementation work. About half of clients qualify for Regional Business Partners NZ co-funding for the first 3 months.

What is RBP grant funding in New Zealand?

Regional Business Partners NZ is a New Zealand government scheme that co-funds capability-building business advice for established SMEs. It works as a capability voucher — co-paying a portion of advisory fees from an RBP-accredited provider. Strategize Auckland is an accredited provider. About half of new clients qualify; funding typically covers a portion of the first 3 months of engagement, with a potential second 3-month window in the new financial year.

How is Strategize different from a business coach?

Business coaches typically run weekly one-hour conversations focused on accountability. Strategize Auckland is positioned as a strategy implementation practice — fortnightly strategic sessions plus the implementation work in between, with a senior advisor (Steven Parker) in the room across recovery, improvement and growth work. The practice also brings a curated alliance network (accountant, banker, finance specialist, marketing partner, PR contact) when a client's situation needs specialist support.

Who runs Strategize Auckland?

Steven Parker is the principal of Strategize Auckland. He runs every introductory call and every fortnightly client session personally. The practice operates from Level 1, 55 Corinthian Drive, on the Albany / Rosedale boundary on Auckland's North Shore. Strategize Auckland operates under the wider Strategize methodology — head-office infrastructure, RBP accreditation, the assessment framework — delivered locally by Steve.

When should an Auckland business hire a business consultant?

Typically when an owner is past survival mode (trading 3+ years, $500k+ revenue), the business has plateaued or is losing margin, and the owner is the bottleneck. Pre-revenue businesses should use Business Mentors NZ. Sub-$500k owner-operators should also use Business Mentors NZ. Owners who want weekly cheerleading should hire a coach instead. Owners who want a strategy deck and to execute alone should hire a boutique consultancy. Strategize is for owners who want a senior advisor working alongside them on the actual changes.

Does Strategize Auckland work with trades businesses?

Yes. Builders, painters, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, joiners and cabinetmakers are a significant part of Strategize Auckland's client mix. The work typically focuses on quoting margin, project gross margin tracking, subbie management, variations capture and operating cadence. The 52-week programme structure suits trades businesses well because the implementation work between sessions runs through the operations manager and estimator, not just the owner.

What suburbs in Auckland does Strategize serve?

Strategize Auckland is based at the Albany / Rosedale boundary and works across Auckland metro — North Shore, Auckland Central, East Auckland, West Auckland, South Auckland. Sessions are delivered at the Albany office, at the client's premises, by video, or on Saturday mornings. Specific suburb coverage with dedicated content includes Albany, Rosedale, Takapuna, Newmarket, Auckland CBD, Mt Eden, Ponsonby, Parnell, East Tāmaki, Manukau, Henderson, Howick, Pakuranga, Devonport, Silverdale and over twenty more.

Studio Runway Planning for NZ Game Developers: How Long Can You Keep Building

sp8002

Jun 10

4 min read

Between funding events, one number governs every decision a game studio makes: how many months of building remain at the current burn. Most studio founders can quote a runway figure. Far fewer can say what is actually in it — whether it counts the publisher tranche that depends on a milestone that is slipping, whether it reflects the salary review due in three months, or whether the GDSR rebate in it is dated realistically. Runway planning is not the spreadsheet; it is the discipline around what the spreadsheet is allowed to claim.

In short: Run three runway scenarios — confirmed funds only, probable, and optimistic — and make decisions on the confirmed-only line. Map the runway to development milestones rather than calendar months, and set decision dates at least six months before the confirmed-only line ends. The most common runway errors in NZ studios are treating contingent inflows as confirmed, underestimating wage drift in a sector growing this fast, and hiring ahead of the milestone that justifies the hire.

The calculation studios actually need

Start with fully loaded monthly burn: salaries plus KiwiSaver and ACC, contractors, software and platform costs, rent, insurance, and the irregular items annualised — conference travel, legal, audit, hardware refresh. Divide confirmed funds by that number and you have the only runway figure that deserves the name. Then build the second and third scenarios: probable adds inflows with genuine likelihood and dates (a signed milestone payment, a documented GDSR claim); optimistic adds the rest. The gap between the confirmed and optimistic lines is your risk exposure, stated in months.

Wage assumptions deserve particular honesty in 2026. The sector grew to 1,418 full-time roles in the latest NZGDA survey — up 29.2 percent in a year — against a reported programmer shortage of roughly 30 percent. Studios competing for senior engineering talent are seeing real salary inflation, and a runway model that holds salaries flat for two years is quietly wrong from the day it is written.

We covered the sector numbers in more depth in What the NZGDA 2025 survey means for your studio runway.

Milestones, not months

A runway expressed only in months hides the real structure. Development funding is gated by milestones — vertical slice, playable demo, content complete, launch — and the inflows attached to those gates move when the gates move. The useful runway view maps confirmed funds against the milestone plan: which gate does the confirmed-only line reach, and what has to be true for the next inflow to unlock. A studio whose confirmed runway ends one month past a make-or-break demo milestone has a very different risk profile from one with the same month count and no gate dependency.

Set decision dates, not deadlines. If the confirmed-only line ends in month fourteen, the decision about what changes — scope, headcount, a publisher conversation, a raise — belongs at month eight, while every option is still open. Studios that wait until the wall is visible negotiate from weakness on every front at once.

The mistakes that shorten runway

Counting contingent inflows as confirmed. A milestone payment is confirmed when the milestone is accepted, not when it is scheduled. A GDSR rebate is probable with a date, never confirmed until assessed. The discipline is mechanical: every inflow carries a confidence label, and only one label counts.

Hiring ahead of the milestone. Headcount added in anticipation of a tranche that then slips is the fastest way to convert a funding delay into a crisis. Hire on accepted milestones and confirmed funds; bridge gaps with contractors where genuinely temporary.

Ignoring currency on offshore revenue. Ninety-five percent of NZ sector revenue is export. Advances, milestone payments and storefront revenue usually arrive in USD or EUR, and an adverse move can take months off a runway. A simple hedging or conversion policy beats an opinion about exchange rates.

Letting scope eat the reserve. Scope creep is a runway decision made without admitting it. Every unplanned feature is a withdrawal from the months remaining — the honest version of the conversation prices the feature in weeks of runway and asks whether it is worth that.

Where Strategize Auckland fits

Strategize Auckland provides the fortnightly senior advisory cadence that keeps this discipline alive between funding events — the three-scenario forecast maintained and challenged, decision dates set and honoured, and the hard conversations had at month eight rather than month thirteen. No game-design expertise is claimed or needed: the failure mode this work prevents is financial, not creative. For eligible Auckland studios, Regional Business Partners co-funding can offset the first three months.

Book a 15-minute call: strategizeauckland.info/book-online · 027 737 2858 · steve@strategize.co.nz · Strategize Auckland · Level 1, 55 Corinthian Drive, Albany 0632 · RBP-accredited

Figures in this article: NZGDA 2025 industry survey; NZ On Air GDSR scheme documentation; MBIE. Verified May 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How much runway should a game studio hold? Enough confirmed-only runway to reach the next funding gate plus a negotiation buffer — in practice rarely less than twelve months for a studio mid-build. The precise figure matters less than knowing which scenario it comes from and which milestone it reaches.

How is studio runway different from normal business runway? Studio inflows are lumpy and gated — advances, milestone payments, rebates — while burn is steady and dominated by salaries. That combination punishes optimistic forecasting harder than in most businesses, which is why the three-scenario structure matters.

What burn rate should a runway model use? Fully loaded: salaries with KiwiSaver and ACC, contractors, software, rent, insurance, and irregular costs annualised. Models built on payroll alone routinely understate true burn by 15 to 25 percent.

When should a studio act on a shortening runway? At a pre-set decision date at least six months before the confirmed-only line ends. Every option — scope reduction, publisher conversation, raise, bridge — is cheaper and stronger with six months in hand than with six weeks.