Cautious sense of relief, optimism from businesses

A quick nosey through business reports and predictions tells me that New Zealand small businesses are doing pretty well in the global shape of things.

Xero’s new Small Business Index showed the small business sector was performing better than average for the second month in a row across all four measures – sales, jobs, wages and the time it takes to be paid.

Looking more closely at the numbers, it’s good news, but we’re not there yet.

Small-business sales increased by 14.3% compared with last year, but we have to remember that we went into lockdown in the last week of March 2020.

Jobs numbers increased 3.7% year on the year, with the exception of hospitality which experienced a 7.8% decrease.

Small-business wages (average hourly earnings) were up 3.2% year on the year but the 2019 average monthly increase was 3.8%.

Time to be paid has decreased to 21.2 days which is good for small-business cashflow, but more than double the 10 days prompt payment goal that the Government self-imposed in June 2020 and widely recommended.

In chatting with local business owners, I’m hearing a sense of cautious relief and optimism. Many businesses have been doing at least as well as their owners had hoped and, in some cases, better than ever.

A key element locally is that those who are doing online sales are seeing uptake across the board. So, yes, we are shopping online as well as buying local, but some of our local small businesses are taking advantage of that trend by selling into other local, national and international markets.

At The Business Hive, we’re seeing a steady increase in the number of businesses getting in touch for contacts and connections – including newcomer businesses.

We’re seeing outstanding collaboration between traditionally competitive business, including in our own building project.

We’ve also noticed an increase in partnered-business promotions, where local businesses are working together to cross promote their products and/or services.

Right now, local businesses are also being asked for their input for the Waitaki District Council’s long-term, destination management and spatial plans. Make time to look ahead – your input now could help shore up many longer term benefits for our region.

Keep being engaged.

Follow the Oamaru Business Collective if you haven’t already.

Winter is coming and opportunities will keep coming too. Let’s get on and make the most of them.

• Cara Tipping Smith is a director of The Business Hive and the Oamaru Business Collective chairwoman.

Source: https://www.oamarumail.co.nz/opinion/cautious-sense-of-relief-optimism-from-businesses/

New Business Collective leader

The Oamaru Business Collective has a new leader.

Design Federation creative director Annabel Berry has stepped down from her role as chairwoman, and has been replaced by The Business Hive director Cara Tipping Smith.

Ms Tipping Smith knew she had big shoes to fill, taking over from Mrs Berry who founded the group in 2019, but said she was excited about the challenges ahead.

She had been involved with the Oamaru Business Collective from the start – “way back when it was just an idea Annabel had”.

“I think we all knew we needed a collective group to accurately represent local businesses, but it took Annabel to bring us together to make it happen,” she said.

She was “incredibly grateful” Mrs Berry would remain on the committee, continuing to help give local businesses a voice and increase their visibility in the community.

The committee had decided to rotate the chair role each year, to give board members the opportunity to drive a different focus.

“We decided that we would share the load,” Ms Tipping Smith said.

Last year, the Oamaru Business Collective became an incorporated society, with a paid annual subscription.

There was a variety of businesses signed up – from health practitioners to the trades. While their individual needs varied, there were commonalities, as the majority were small businesses, she said.

The collective holds regular social gatherings, hosted by different businesses.

“That’s been really interesting seeing people actually connect, not network,” Ms Tipping Smith said.

“Actually have a conversation with someone else in business, and it’s amazing just how powerful those connections are.”

The committee also met regularly, and would continue to organise events, such as Shoptober, and advocate on behalf of businesses.

Post-lockdown, the feeling among Oamaru businesses was mixed.

“I think it’s fair to say everybody’s got some kind of hardship,” Ms Tipping Smith said.

“There’s a lot of positivity, there’s a lot of ‘it’s not as bad as we thought it would be’, there’s some commentary around ‘we haven’t seen the worst of it yet’.”

A drop in spend in Otago and Southland was “still really hitting” – especially small businesses.

“That’s kids school fees, or the new van – it’s actually real money to them.”

At present, the council’s destination management and spatial plans were what the committee was most focused on.

While the destination management plan had a tourism focus, there was also potential to attract people to move to the Waitaki district, Ms Tipping Smith said.

“Of course, our tourists are limited – but actually, the people coming through could also wind up being newcomers. They could be the people who go, ‘this place is cool, we want to start a business here’, or ‘we want to employ people here’, or, actually, ‘we could run our business from here’.”

Ms Tipping Smith was passionate about making business ownership and management an attractive, “real” career choice.

“We are looking at what’s happening in other regions and going if we want to attract people?’.”

The Oamaru Business Collective committee is made up of Ms Tipping Smith, Mrs Berry, Cathy Maaka, Dawn Brown, Jeremy Holding, Rachael Keen, and Simon Berry.

Source: https://www.oamarumail.co.nz/community/new-business-collective-leader/

Collective for local businesses

Back in the day, when people asked me what I was studying and I said, “psychology”, their response was usually to fold their arms, take a step backwards and say something like “are you analysing me?”.

Let’s just say psychology didn’t make me the most popular girl in the pub.

That all changed when I decided to lie and tell people I was studying palmistry. Cue a line-up of people with their hands out, palm up, asking me what I “could see”.

I learned that the way information is presented makes a difference.

Psychology is a science and like all sciences, it depends on numbers.

I quite like numbers. They either add up or they don’t.

So, a couple of weeks ago, when the Otago Chamber of Commerce put out some numbers about how it had distributed central government money to help support businesses in our region, I was interested.

Scrolling down the list of districts I read: Dunedin City, Clutha, Central Otago, Queenstown, Waitaki and then, last on the list, Wanaka. Wanaka’s not a district. Wanaka and Queenstown are part of the Queenstown-Lakes district.

At least they are in every single other government or regional authority report I could find.

Interest piqued, I went down the rabbit hole. Turns out, it was one of those dusty, shallow, lazy sort of rabbit holes that don’t run very deep.

With some quick maths, I recognised that, of all the funding distributed, Queenstown-Lakes received on average, about 61%.

Within that, it received 78% of the tourism transition and 58% of the Covid-19 advisory support money allocated to the Otago region.

By contrast, Waitaki received an average of 2% to 3%.

Personally, I can’t begrudge the support delivered to Queenstown-Lakes. It has by far been hardest hit.

Why create a separate Wanaka district? You can make up your own mind about that.

For us, the focus is local.

That’s why we’ve signed up to the newly incorporated Oamaru Business Collective.

We think it’s important for local businesses to have local representation that doesn’t have to juggle the interests of any other district.

The Oamaru Business Collective is more than a retailers’ group. It offers collective support for all local businesses; professional services, trades, manufacturers, hospitality and more.

Membership starts from $10 per month and the first event – a social media workshop – is free for those signed up.

Join the Facebook group for details.

• Cara Tipping Smith is a director of The Business Hive, and an Oamaru Business Collective committee member.

Source: https://www.oamarumail.co.nz/opinion/collective-for-local-businesses/