Accreditation key for Rotorua business woman

When it comes to Minding Your Own Business, Kaikaute Services' Kathy Folley knows what she's talking about - and she now has the certification to prove it.
Kathy recently became Rotorua's third accredited partner for MYOB business management software, used by more than a million businesses in New Zealand and Australia.
"It was a lot of work, but it was worth it."
Although other providers can work with the MYOB software, Kathy says she wanted to be accredited because of the resources and on-going training this offered and for the exposure listing on the MYOB website will provide.
On-going training is a bit of a theme for Kathy - she is constantly looking for courses to do - out of interest and to increase the services and level of expertise she is able to offer clients.
After 42 years in the accounting industry, Kathy is actively interested in learning new things - from Lean management to online marketing.
Kaikaute offers administrative services such as accounting, bookkeeping, taxes, budgets and payroll, as well as training for software such as MYOB and Kathy describes training as one of the best parts of her job.
"We train people on-site or here in our offices, but often it is better to work on-site because it is in their environment, with the systems and computers people will be using everyday. It is quite a satisfying part of the job."
But Kathy prefers a number of shorter sessions to one intensive day's training.
"People can only take so much on board at a time. I prefer to break it down into parts according to what people can deal with."
And she has no problem with people calling up for help after their training.
"I would rather they rang me and asked what they should do than struggle on. If they try to do things on their own, it can make the situation worse and it will take longer to sort out later."
Training others also provides an extra nudge to keep up with changes in systems and new products.
Kathy started out on her own, working from a home office.
"But it came to a point about six or seven years ago when I found I did not have time to do everything. The business continued to grow and I started employing part-time staff."
She now employs a second accountant, an administrator/bookkeeper and "a gorgeous watchdog" and tries to find people with specialty areas to add to what she can offer clients.
Expansion also led to the conversion of her garage into office space.
Despite her South African heritage, she wanted a Kiwi name for the business and could not believe her luck when she discovered kaikaute was Maori for accountant or bookkeeper.
"My name starts with K, my husband's name starts with K and all our children's names start with K so I was looking for a name that fitted. It could not have worked out better."