About

Meet Monique – business owner, marketing specialist, intrepid traveller, lover of fine wine and good food, and proud mother to chocolate Labrador Yogi

While our experience stretches across many industries, we particularly enjoy working with food & drink producers and tourism operators. We simply love sharing food, drinks and experiences with the rest of the world. We’re also passionate about supporting local businesses and helping to grow vibrant, prosperous communities. 

About SMS HQ

We help small and medium sized business owners remove sales and marketing barriers so their business can continue to grow sustainably. Through coaching, marketing and project management, we combine business and marketing thinking to develop meaningful, differentiated and authentic brands for businesses. 

We build your specific strategy on our integrated marketing approach of genuine relationship building and setting manageable and measurable goals.

It’s simple – we mean what we say and we deliver what we promise. 

About Monique

Monique Wijnen moved to Nelson, New Zealand in 2006 from The Netherlands where she worked in marketing for a medical device manufacturer. 

For seven years she ran Funky Furniture, a bespoke furniture business, with her partner Hans. She had other jobs too, which all seemed to centre around sales, marketing and supporting local businesses.

Over the years she’s helped many business increase their turnover and profitability by improving their marketing – through her work at Waimea Truck and Crane, Mahana Estates, Nelson Honey, NZME Radio, Uniquely Nelson, Waimea Weekly and – since 2017 – SMS HQ. 

Monique holds Bachelor Degrees in International Tourism Management & Consultancy as well as Marketing Communication and has spent time working in The Netherlands, France and South Africa before settling in New Zealand. 

What drives us

Monique is passionate about empowering people and giving them the sales and marketing tools to succeed in business. 

“This passion started when I was in university and, while researching township tourism in Cape Town South Africa, saw up-close the difference business coaching made to the success of small businesses,” she says. “It was 1999, a time of great opportunities for business-savvy entrepreneurs who just wanted to make a living in their own neighbourhood that would allow them to support their family.”

“Government organisations and NGOs offered help where they could, and while there might not have been a lot of money to hand out, people were happy to share their skills and experience. What I saw and experienced during my time in South Africa as a 21-year old has made a lasting impression.”

“Give a man a fish and he’s hungry again in an hour. Teach him to catch a fish and you do him a good turn.”

Anne Thackeray Ritchie

“While this quote is over a century old, it still resonates with me today. It’s also what drives me every day and where the concept for SMS HQ came from; a genuine desire to help business owners improve their sales and marketing skills so their business can continue to grow sustainably, support their extended family and help build a prosperous community.

If you like what you’ve read so far and want to grow your business, please get in touch. I’d love to help.”

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