Kelly Stratford and her husband Dan had a simple dream – they wanted to live in Northland and own their own business. To get there, they had to start in Auckland. Kelly worked in a pharmacy, as a customer services representative for a pharmaceutical wholesaler and finally as a supervisor. Daniel left the freezing works in Moerewa to train as a chef at AUT.

Together they acquired the skills to enable them to return home to Northland and work in their own business, The Trainspotter Café in the main street of Kawakawa. “Daniel is a great barista and chef and I do the books and management side of the business.”

The combination clearly works. In four years the Ngā Puhi couple has transformed The Trainspotter Café from a marginal business to a successful venture.

“When we first looked at the business it wasn’t making much of a profit, but we could see there was room for improvement.

We could also see that Northland had changed and the market for this sort of café was there. There are also trained people now who can staff a business like this. That wasn’t the case a few years ago,” says Kelly.

This year they also received external endorsement when The Trainspotter Café won the Yellow Pages Best Small Business category in the Northland Chamber of Commerce awards.

The road to success hasn’t been an easy one. “The business is open seven days a week and the responsibility is there 24/7.

“Also we have to work everything around the needs of our two pre-schoolers. But four years later we are still passionate about it and are here for the long haul.

As our reputation has grown so has our ambition. Our staff are awesome too and that has given us the confidence to plan for the future, so at the moment we are looking at ways of expanding the business and giving Dan the room to grow as a chef,” Kelly says.

Helping them consider their options for growth is Billy Mulcare, a business mentor contracted by Te Puni Kökiri’s Business Facilitation Service. The Business Facilitation Service provides assistance to Māori getting into business, or expanding an existing business, by providing access to specialised business advisory services. “Billy is helping us to think about our goals for the business and how to achieve them. After four years we are still learning and looking for new ways to analyse the business and the opportunities we have. Aside from everything else, we want a happy workplace – for us, for our staff and for our customers.”