COOK ISLANDS: Digging deep to grow and thrive
Teava Jnr Iro, Maria Maoate and family are the dream team behind AVA Excavations Ltd in the Cook Islands. Based in Titikaveka, Teava and his awesome crew do the hard yards managing all earthwork projects, such as clearing land, carting away vegetation, and generally prepping building sites prior to construction. Maria works behind the scenes, keeping the essential accounting and admin tasks up to date, marketing, and looking for ways to move the business forward.
AVA Excavations was set up during COVID-19 in early 2022 before borders reopened, which was definitely a challenge. Both Teava and Maria saw a need from residents for earthworks that were within their budget, and this is where AVA could help. Maria quips, “We don’t know why we started it then, but we did! I guess because we weren’t in the tourism industry, the economic environment was ok for us. We started with one small machine, and business was steady, so at the beginning of 2023, we started promoting the business properly on Facebook, and things really took off.”
Mid 2023, it became clear that a bigger machine was needed. Around the same time, Maria attended the Women in Business course with Taki Tahi, where she heard about Business Link Pacific and the Business Support Grants. Immediately seeing how AVA Excavations would benefit from a financial boost, Maria spoke to BLP’s representative, who connected her with Iokopeta Williams at IMW Accountants.
What AVA needed was assistance securing finance for a new excavator. The application for a Business Support Grant caught the eye of BLP’s banking specialist, who contacted the banks and was able to move the financing project forward quickly. “This was a huge help for us. I don’t think we would have got the financing we needed as fast without the support of BLP.”
To be eligible to apply for a Business Support Grant, projects must satisfy at least one of five categories (https://about.businesslinkpacific.com/project-eligibility/). AVA Excavations qualified under the Finance category, allowing grants to be used to secure additional finance and advance business growth.
“The new machine has opened up new business opportunities for us and means we can do much more on one job before moving to the next. We are working more efficiently now.” With assistance from BLP and accounting advisor Iokopeta to secure additional finance and a new understanding of the due diligence process, Maria is now more confident about applying for other funding opportunities to grow the business further.
In fact, as a result of this experience with BLP, Maria is currently working with Iokopeta to move their accounting system to Xero, creating greater efficiencies in AVA Excavation’s administrative processes. “We had a great experience, and BLP went out of its way to help. We wouldn’t be here now with this new machine, nor would we be transitioning to Xero if we hadn’t made the connection with BLP.”
Business Support Grants or subsidised business advice are available through Business Link Pacific for qualifying businesses. Details of the support available can be found on their website: https://about.businesslinkpacific.com/what-are-blps-finance-services-support/, and specific details of the eligibility categories can be found here: https://about.businesslinkpacific.com/project-eligibility/.