Rosalie Lunson is the 2015 Waipa District Council Special Award winner for Outstanding Services to Business in Waipa.

Rosalie delivers the Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Certificate of Small Business Management and  Certificate in Applied Business Growth programmes for the Cambridge area.

She has been a conractor with the wānanga for 14 years and has taught more than 300 tauira in that time.

Rosalie says winning the award was a huge surprise.

“I certainly didn't know anything about the award prior to the presentation so was caught by surprise.” 

She believes “the thrust of winning the award” is due to her delivery of business courses for the wānanga.

Rosalie says the wānanga business courses she and her fellow contractors deliver are “brilliant” because they give tauira necessary business acumen and increased confidence.

“Te Wānanga o Aotearoa delivers excellent business programmes and is one of New Zealand’s most holistic providers of education.”

Rosalie says people wanting to launch business ventures need to have a good sense of money management and that business skills are “absolutely vital”.

“I think it is far too easy to start up a business without having any business management skills, or not knowing enough about what the person is likely to have to do to make a business succeed. 

“Because of this many suffer along the way and often fail.”

More than 97 percent of New Zealand businesses are small medium enterprises, says Rosalie.

About 400 people attended the Waipa business awards evening at the Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton on July 31.

During the presentation of her award, Rosalie was commended for her involvement with the Waipa business community, since joining the Chamber of Commerce in 2002 as an executive committee member.