Miss McKenzie (53) recently moved her women's designer clothing store Paint The Town Red into larger premises in St Andrew St, quadrupling floor space from about 40sq m to 160sq m.
After opening the shop four years ago, followed by another outlet opened in Gore two years ago, it was definitely time to expand, she said.
While fashion and colour has always been a passion for Miss McKenzie, it was not always her chosen career.
After growing up on a farm in South Otago and then travelling overseas, she returned to New Zealand and completed her accountancy studies.
That led her to Wellington where she worked for multi-national companies like IBM and Colgate Palmolive.
But when she turned 40, she decided she was not really suited as an accountant so she secured an Annah Stretton franchise and opened a store in Wellington, concentrating on size 14-plus designs. She loved it and learned plenty about running a store.
Then she decided to move back to Otago to be closer to family and, after several years working back in accountancy, she opened Paint The Town Red in 2011.
''I did always want to come back to fashion because it's what I love,'' she said.
Having been a ''big girl'' for a long time herself, she had first-hand experiences of going into shops and getting ''withering glances'' from sales assistants.
While she was aware that lots of designers were doing ''great stuff'' for larger women, she could not find them.
''As a consumer, I couldn't find the things I was looking for. I didn't want frumpy Osti frocks,'' she said.
Miss McKenzie headed to Auckland for two weeks and door-knocked suppliers, leading to the creation of Paint The Town Red, which catered for sizes 14-24.
When she first opened, she recalled having to fight for the labels which were quite territorial.
Now labels approached her and that allowed her to be selective in her buying because she could pick the best, she said.
Referring affectionately to her customers as ''my girls'', she said she wanted them to be proud.
It was not about waiting until they were 5kg smaller; rather it was a matter of ''get on with what you're doing now and enjoy it''.
''Our slogan is attitude through clothing. If you feel good in what you're wearing, you actually exude it. Confidence is sexy. A positive happy smile is infectious,'' she said.
Some customers came in the door looking dejected after shopping experiences elsewhere, but when they walked out with a ''zip in their step'', that was what gave her a buzz, she said.
The store stocked jewellery, accessories and giftware so it was also a place for what she fondly referred to as ''skinny minnies'' to shop.
''You don't need to be a bigger girl to come in,'' she said.
Miss McKenzie has an auto-immune disorder and when she told her specialist
she was leaving corporate accounting to become self-employed, he expressed concerns, given stress was the main activator of her disorder.
But after doing 60-hour weeks and reporting to New York, she did not find her new retail career stressful.
''I find it very easy because I do enjoy it. I love colour, I love helping people. Someone asked me the other day which part of it do I love the most ... I actually like all of it, I even like the paperwork.''
Her accountancy background proved useful, although she laughed about how she was the ''worst accountant''.
''I don't have a business plan ... it's a bit like the carpenter that never does his own fence. It's all in my head. It just happens.
''I don't have a long-term plan so I don't know where I'm going next but I do like challenges and I do like to challenge myself, so who knows?'' she said.
