From Band Member to Business Owner – Kristen’s Story

As a kid, did you ever dream about playing in a band? Well, Kristen Hapi did just that. Not only did he play in a band, he spent most of his adult life traveling around the Asia, staying in hotels, playing gigs and living a relatively carefree life. He even met his wife whilst being a traveling bandie.

The constant moving around from place to place meant that Kristen never really had time to grow roots. It was all fine until COVID hit. As countries began to close up their borders, Kristen made the decision to return to Aotearoa with his wife and hunker down there while things blow over.

It was during this period of time circa 2020 that he thought about laying down roots in his own whenua. However, being a traveling bandie wasn’t a readily transferable skill to corporate work. So Kristen had to figure out ways to make ends meet back in NZ.

Through his contacts, Kristen learned of a new outfit called Fire and Safety Testing NZ (Fast NZ) doing electrical test and tagging. After speaking with the franchise owner, he agreed to buy into the franchise as a franchisee. Thus began his life as a business owner.

Through Fast NZ, Kristen has worked with big brands such as Mitre 10 and Inghams.

And then, he needed an accountant

Now this was back in the early days of SH Advisory. In fact, Kristen is one of our very first clients. Back then I was very active in various small business FB groups. It was through an article shared on these groups that Kristen came to learn about us.

Kristen had no idea how tax and accounting works, but he was told that as a business owner, he needed to get his finances in order. And so, we (or rather, I – back then it was just me!) did exactly that for him. By setting him up on accounting software, managing his book keeping and ensuring that he had regular reports on his business performance.

Most importantly, whenever Kristen has a question, we’re there to answer it for him.

And yeah, boring tax stuff. We took care of that for him (and still do!).

Buying his first home

After a few years of running his business, Kristen approached me with an opportunity to buy a house. Never did he imagine he’d be able to own a house after many years as a traveling bandie. But here he was, financially stable and looking at owning his first home in NZ.

Working together with his mortgage broker, our firm provided the financial statements that the bank needed and a set of (very nicely done) forecasts. These helped Kristen and his wife get over the line when it came to getting that first home loan.

Its moments like this that really put a smile on my face – knowing that we’ve made a real difference in the lives of our clients.

What does Kristen say about us?

“I’m super happy to have worked with Sam and SH Advisory over the last 5 years. I was told that before you go into business , make sure you have a good accountant , and that has turned out to be the best decision I’ve made. I look forward to the next 5 years with Sam!”  – Kristen Hapi

What’s next for Kristen?

These days, Kristen is quite hungry for more business. Even though he’s roughly tripled his sales from 5 years ago, he’s still on the lookout for more clients. He’s even in the process of buying out a business partner’s client list.

And remember that first home he bought? Well, now he’s looking at turning it into a rental and upgrading to a flashier home!

But wherever Kristen goes, we plan on continuing to help his business grow, build up his financial confidence and keep on doing boring tax stuff for him (because boring tax stuff is still important!).