When the stakes get bigger, instinct isnt enough

Marketing Commercial

We help NZ business owners make better decisions, with experienced operators in their corner who understand both the market and the numbers behind it.

Senior growth strategy, without the cost of a full-time executive.

55k+ SHNZ Community members
CA. ANZ Chartered Accountant
NZ. Built here. Based here.
2 for 1 Marketing + Commercial
The Problem

Growth doesn't stall because you're not working hard enough.

Most NZ business owners aren’t struggling. They’re busy, respected, and doing all the right things.

But somewhere along the way, the revenue line flattens. You try a new agency, a rebrand, a different channel. Things happen. Nothing truly shifts.

The problem usually isn’t the tactics. It’s that the business has quietly outgrown the thinking that got it here. Every major decision still runs through you. Marketing feels disconnected from the commercial reality. And the strategy behind all the activity is hard to explain.

That’s not a reflection of your ability. It’s a structural gap and it’s exactly what Regard closes.

Recognise this?

If any of this sounds familiar, we should talk.

01. Revenue has plateaued and you can't identify the lever to pull
02. You're still the decision-maker for everything that matters
03. You're spending on marketing but can't trace it to actual growth
04. You can see the numbers, but not what they're telling you
05. Referrals are inconsistent and growth feels hard to predict
06. A full-time CMO or CFO hire feels like too big a risk right now
07. You've worked with consultants who delivered activity, not clarity
08. You need someone experienced to sanity-check your thinking
The Regard Difference

Most advisors solve half the problem.

Marketing consultants push for growth. Financial advisors watch the cost. Rarely does anyone hold both conversations at the same time.

Regard is different. We bring a marketing strategist and a commercial strategist to the table together, which means your growth strategy and your business economics are always in the same room.

The result isn’t just better advice. It’s strategic certainty.

"Where is our next $1M coming from? And can we afford to go and get it?"

What we solve

Three anxieties, one conversation.

Where will growth come from?

A clear growth strategy that connects marketing activity to revenue, built for how NZ actually works.

Does the commercial model stack up?

Commercial clarity beyond revenue — into margin, pricing, and the real economics of sustainable growth.

Am I making the right decisions?

Senior thinking alongside you when the stakes are too high to rely on instinct alone.

The NZ market reality

Most marketing advice was built for markets nothing like NZ.

Aggressive funnels. Cold outreach. Manufactured urgency. These tactics were designed for large, anonymous markets where no one knows anyone.

New Zealand isn’t that market. It’s a country of five million people where reputation travels faster than any ad campaign. Your next client probably already knows someone who knows you. They’ve formed an opinion before the conversation starts.

Which means growth here isn’t primarily a tactics problem. It’s a reputation, positioning, and clarity problem. That’s the insight behind our Reputation Revenue Framework.

"In NZ, reputation compounds faster than tradiitional marketing."

Is this right for you?

We only take on clients we can genuinely move the needle for.

We work with NZ business owners who’ve built something solid and are ready to grow it properly. Profitable, respected, and a little tired of making every big decision alone.

Great fit if you

Probably not if you

How we work

Simple to start. designed to compound.

We connect your marketing and your commercial strategy in the same conversation. The difference is depth and duration. A focused 90-day sprint to find direction and build momentum, or a full year of integrated strategic leadership embedded in your business.

Regard 90

A diagnostic and direction sprint

We pull your business apart from both sides simultaneously, marketing and commercial, and build a 90-day plan that connects the two.

Most business owners have never had a marketing strategist and a commercial strategist in the room at the same time working on the same problem. Regard 90 is what that feels like.

You finish it knowing exactly where the disconnect is between your marketing and your business model, and having already spent 90 days executing against a plan built to fix it.

The rhythm
Week 1
Opening session We review your commercial position and marketing together, then build your 90-day plan. The 3 to 5 actions that will move the needle most, with both lenses applied to every decision.
Fortnightly
Check-ins Short, focused sessions to keep momentum, surface what is stuck, and make sure the plan stays live. Accountability built into every fortnight, not just three milestones.
Week 6
Mid-point deep dive A fuller session beyond a check-in. We review what is working, what isn't, and reset the second half of the sprint with fresh eyes.
Week 12
Final review What changed. What you learned. Where you go next. Most clients roll into a second sprint or step up to Regard 365.

The Regard difference: Fortnightly contact means you are never more than two weeks from your next accountability touchpoint. This is not advisory that sits on a shelf between sessions.

Regard 365

A full year of integrated strategic leadership

Every major decision your business makes this year, pricing, hiring, channels, campaigns, investment, gets a marketing and commercial perspective applied before you make it.

That compounding effect over twelve months is what makes Regard 365 different. It opens with two dedicated half-days so the year starts with genuine depth across both marketing and commercial strategy.

From there, a consistent monthly and quarterly rhythm keeps the strategy live and the decisions sharp.

The rhythm
Month 1
Two opening half-days One session on your commercial position. One on your marketing. Both with Rachel and Leigh. The year starts with the deepest possible picture of where your business actually is.
Monthly
Strategy meetings Pre-work brief completed before every session so we arrive already knowing what has changed. No time spent catching up. Every meeting starts at depth.
Quarterly
Reviews with Regard Scorecard A deeper session each quarter with an updated Regard Scorecard. A proprietary one-page diagnostic tracking the health of your business across marketing and commercial dimensions simultaneously.
Always
On-call access Rachel and Leigh available between sessions for decisions, sense-checks, and anything that cannot wait for the next monthly meeting.
Month 12
Regard Review A formal written document capturing where the business started, what changed across the year, and what the next 12 months should focus on. Something you keep long after the engagement ends.

Not sure which fits? Start with a conversation and we’ll be straight with you.

Who we are

Build by operators, not theorists.

Regard was built on a simple belief: growing businesses deserve access to the same quality of strategic leadership that large companies take for granted

Leigh

Chartered Accountant · CA ANZ

Leigh is an experienced financial leader with a career spanning New Zealand, Australia and the United States – across assurance, advisory, and senior finance roles in complex, fast-moving organisations.

Leigh brings rare dual capacity: the technical rigour of a qualified CA and the commercial instincts of someone who has owned the numbers at a leadership level.

He has a proven record across ERP implementation, internal controls design, cash flow management, and building finance functions that drive decisions — not just report on them.

Rachel

Marketing strategist · community builder

Rachel has spent her career at the intersection of marketing strategy and digital execution – helping businesses grow their brand, build their pipeline, and translate ambition into traction.

She is the founder of Side Hustles NZ, a community of over 55,000 New Zealanders building businesses – which gives her a rare, ground-level view of what growing NZ businesses actually need. That community insight shapes everything she brings to Regard’s clients.

Rachel’s approach is practical and direct. She builds marketing strategies tied to real numbers, executable by real teams, and designed to compound over time.

The community behind the consultancy

Side Hustles NZ — where the insight comes from.

Rachel founded Side Hustles NZ to help New Zealanders turn their business ideas into real, sustainable companies.

With over 55,000 members, it’s one of NZ’s largest small business communities – and it gives Regard a front-row seat to what NZ businesses are actually struggling with, right now.

That insight doesn’t come from a textbook.

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