The overarching question driving this research is, what are the critical success factors for Southern Māori SMEs at the different stages of the business life-cycle? To address this question the project team will undertake an in-depth case-study of Southern SMEs and in order to answer the overarching research question, the following questions will be investigated: 1. What are the characteristics of SMEs at the different stages of the business life-cycle (start-up, growth, resource maturity, take off)?