Blunt Kiwi business advice with numbers attached.
The #WhatsNext Podcast is a New Zealand business show built around straight talk, accountant-shaped pragmatism, and business-owner examples. Episodes move from tax rules and turnover targets to Google reviews, financial planning, property investing, and the reality of building a company through harder markets.
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The #WhatsNext Podcast is a New Zealand business show with a strong preference for plain accounting logic, owner experience, and direct commercial judgment. It is not interested in making business sound mysterious. The episodes frame companies as assets that can fund a better life, but only if the owner learns the rules, understands the numbers, and accepts the responsibility that comes with control. Property investment is a recurring foil. One episode challenges the long-held Kiwi belief that rental property is the default path to wealth, contrasting it with the tax treatment, deductibility, and upside of building a business. Another uses personal financial planning to pull the owner’s attention away from endless accumulation and back toward the life the business is meant to provide. The show also spends time on growth mechanics. It asks why many New Zealand businesses never reach one million dollars in annual turnover, then works through pricing, delivery capacity, sales cycles, business development, and the owner identity required to scale. Guest conversations make those ideas less theoretical. Amy Poaching from Leverage talks through planning, retirement income, investments, and the relief some owners feel when they realise they do not need to buy a rental property. Graham from Shadeland brings the speed-and-execution angle, with stories about quoting fast, solving harder problems, taking an early income hit, and looking after staff. Andy from Abstract Timberfloors brings the trade-business view, including local reputation, Google reviews, and the anxiety of becoming known in a region. The show is loose enough to joke about coffee, frozen vegetables, and Auckland’s mood, but it keeps circling back to practical business consequences. It suits owners who can handle bluntness and want usable prompts: raise prices, collect reviews, plan outside the business, reverse-engineer targets, and notice when cash flow trouble is becoming avoidance.
Made for: The show suits New Zealand small-business owners, trades operators, and growth-minded founders who want practical financial and operating advice. It is especially relevant to people weighing property, pricing, cash flow, reviews, investment choices, and the life their business should fund.
What sets it apart: It blends accountant-style commercial reasoning with informal, local business stories from New Zealand operators. The result feels less like generic entrepreneurship content and more like a candid working session about turnover, tax, reputation, execution, and owner behaviour.
The #WHATSNEXT Podcast is a life changing resource that you can use to make huge impact in your business & life! Hosted by Chartered Accountants, Luke Kemeys & Phillip Smith. With these two leading the charge, there is no doubt that you'll find a heap of value and a non jargon approach to business. Consider nextAdvisory as the value library for business resources. Listen to find out #WhatsNext for your business. Grab our free business planning template our most successful client's use: https://nextadvisory.nz Want to book a call with us to discuss your business? Folow the link below: https://nextadvisory.nz/#book-online Follow us on Facebook, YouTube Instagram and LinkedIn.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It turns owner-level finance and growth targets into concrete operating decisions through candid conversations and coaching.
The #WhatsNext Podcast keeps business advice close to decisions an owner can make on Monday morning. Luke Kemeys and Phillip Smith move between conversations with operators and practical teaching, including a recorded coaching relationship followed over several sessions.
This is where your cash-flow plan gets the same scrutiny as a cafe tab.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical cash-flow refresher that stays focused on timing and behavior.
This episode is a practical reset on cash flow. It shows why money can feel tight even when a business looks healthy, and it keeps the point grounded in day to day operating reality. Summer swings, stock clearance, and hospitality payment terms make the timing issue easy to see.
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
Naval Ravikant on epistemology, startups, and crypto, from David Deutsch to Vitalik Buterin.
Alex Theuma interviews SaaS founders and investors on scaling to $10M-plus ARR.
Guy Raz traces founders' origin stories and fields live advice-line calls from entrepreneurs.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
In this session, Gordon reflects on his progress over three months in a client training program, highlighting significant personal and business growth.
This episode explores how employees can buy into their employer's business, covering topics like no-money-down options, succession planning for older business owners, and assessing financial readiness.
The hosts discuss common cash flow problems in New Zealand businesses, emphasizing that cash flow issues stem from behavioral challenges and poor planning rather than external factors.
The #WhatsNext Podcast episode with Amy Poaching from Leverage focuses on why business owners and couples need a personal financial plan, not just a business plan.
The #WhatsNext Podcast examines why 85% of New Zealand businesses do not reach $1 million in annual turnover and identifies the operational barriers behind that statistic.
The #WhatsNext Podcast episode with Graeme Peter Shadelane centers on Shadeland's Northland shade-and-shelter business, including branches in Whangarei and Kaitaia and work for schools, cafes, and homes.
Andy from Abstract Timberfloors talks through moving from solo trade work in Mount Maunganui to a team of three, plus a school-leaver apprenticeship planned for November.
Buy now, pay later is teaching customers to judge a $300 purchase as $50 over six weeks.