But it is not people wanting to lose weight, it is a business idea they want to grow and Mr Grey is the man they go to.
He is the growth adviser for the regional business partner programme at the Otago Chamber of Commerce.
The programme is sponsored by the Government and delivered by the Chamber of Commerce.
"It’s a bit like everybody’s New Year’s resolutions," he said.
"Quite often over the years we’ve found a bit of an influx of inquiries coming over the Christmas period — I think it’s just down to that — people’s New Year’s business resolutions.
"People have a chance to think about things over the Christmas break and look at perhaps a business idea they’ve been thinking about all year and finally they think ‘right, New Year, we’re going to look at doing something’."
He said some of the resolutions had sprouted into very successful businesses and didn’t discount it happening again this year.
"Particularly around Dunedin there’s a lot of IT businesses [that] sprang out from the Christmas holidays.
"Got to give everybody a chance and you never know what’s going to succeed and what isn’t."
Mr Grey said the programme would give advice on where to take an idea next or align new businesses with other support organisations.
"There are three parts to the programme. There’s the capability vouchers which help upskill business owners and key managers through anything from accounting to marketing to strategic planning.
"There’s also Callaghan Innovation that supports early stage research and development.
"There’s also business mentors New Zealand," Mr Grey said referring to the not-for-profit organisation that offers mentoring throughout the country.
Mr Grey said he was never bothered by the increased enthusiasm at this time of the year.
"It’s what we do, we’re all here ready to help.
"No worries — whatever people are requiring. Sometimes they just want a chat.
"Some people just want confirmation they’re on the right road."
He recently took a call from a man who had an idea for a business but little else.
"I certainly advised him to do a bit more market research into what he was looking at just to confirm there was going to be some sort of need.
"It can be quite basic or we could refer him into one of these programmes."
The Regional Business Partner programme helped businesses across the board "from early start-ups through to reasonably well established companies looking to do new things or looking to create some new technology.
