Mike Warmington is a director at Platform 1, a Newmarket-based specialist firm that has spent 15 years helping founders exit their businesses differently — maximising value, protecting what they have built, and transitioning gradually into the next stage of life beyond the grind of a 40+ hour week. This is what Mike says: Optionality Is Built Early, Not When You’re Ready to Exit. This something that some owners only realise too late... Your best options exist before urgency s

Due Diligence Traditionally, in the context of buying and selling a business, due diligence is the deep investigative process undertaken by a purchaser before the deal is completed. This is where the buyer starts lifting floorboards. They review employment agreements, supplier contracts, customer concentration, leases, compliance issues, intellectual property, tax positions, and operational systems. They scrutinise the financial statements in forensic detail — often with acco

How US legislation created a multimillion-dollar opportunity for a Wellington entrepreneur In 2002, the United States enacted the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, commonly known as “SOX”, in response to a series of major corporate collapses including Enron and WorldCom. The legislation introduced sweeping new obligations around corporate governance, financial accountability, and record retention for publicly listed companies. One of the less publicised but commercially significant consequ