Around 850 new businesses are established across the country every month and of the 400,000 small businesses in New Zealand, 70 per cent of those - around 280,000 - are one-man bands with no staff.

"That's a lot of people working out of garages or working in their spare room and that's where the isolation issue comes in," Craig Garner, who was appointed head of Business Mentors in June, said.   . . . . .