2008 A New Year in business …………….begin at the end


Well it’s nearly at an end. Christmas and New Years Eve has come and gone. Northlanders have been able to take time out and reflect on the year that has been and the year to come. Maybe there have been a few new years resolutions? Lose Weight? Give up smoking? Spend more time with family? Start a business?

Some interesting facts on new years resolutions. Most people make several resolutions. Two-thirds of resolution makers commit to start something, and one-third wants to stop or decrease something. Persistence pays off in the resolution business. After six months, 57 percent of the promise keepers were still keeping their resolutions intact.

2008 what does it hold? We know from the regular quarterly Chamber of Commerce confidence survey that businesses have become more cautiously watchful in their planning and outlook. Don’t let these sort of results from surveys affect your business. If you take the time to look at your own vision, have a plan of attack to get you there and take on board others experience and advice then, you and your business will succeed, no matter what the latest business confidence survey says.

How about the business you work for or own? Wouldn’t now be a good time to take some time out with your team and make a few resolutions? Or to put it another way invest some time in strategic planning.

How do we make a new years resolution for your business.

Here is a simple two step process

Step 1 – Begin at the end. What will your business look like when you are finished with it? To describe this you need to ask yourselves questions like; why am I in business? Is it to earn an income for the rest of my life? How much income? Is it a vehicle to create value through capital growth? What value do I want to build my business up to? Will I sell my business? When? Will I pass the business over to family? What plans are in place for these?

Step 2 – With the end in mind put in place a plan to drive your business to that ultimate outcome. One way to do this is to spend some quality time with forward looking accountants, business coaches and anyone that can bring in generic skills involved in building businesses. Invest some time in the Northland Chamber of Commerce and talk to the staff that can put you in touch with some of our member businesses who can assist business reach their aspirational goals. In other words experts who can assist you in driving your business towards that vision you described in step one.

The Northland Chamber of Commerce offers a one stop shop for those looking to start business or needing some direction. Through our Biz Networks agency we are able to steer you in the right direction.

With an active Chamber in your community, there are many things that will happen. Certainly not everything will help to propel your business to some new level of corporate utopia, but many things will indeed create steps for you to get there. Whether through business to business networking or taking advantage of all the work going on behind the scenes (government lobbying, member discounts, strategic planning) the Chamber can only be as strong as the many voices it represents.
So another suggestion for a new years resolution is to get involved in making the business community you work in stronger by building a strong Chamber of Commerce in your community. Your involvement does not have to translate to a major time commitment. Simple responses to a member survey will often be enough to decide how a community stands on important issues. You could also go another step and consider running as a board member at the Chamber of Commerce AGM in February this year.
Enjoy 2008. The Board and Staff of the Northland Chamber of Commerce look forward to seing you at one of the many networking events this year.

The Northland Chamber of Commerce is the networking, education, advocacy and marketing group for Northland business, and is part of a nationwide network of 30 and a world-wide movement of 21,000 chambers. Subscription to the free fortnightly chamber e-news can be arranged on info@northchamber.co.nz. Enquiries to 09-4384771 or www.northchamber.co.nz, www.kaiparachamber.co.nz and www.farnorthchamber.co.nz
You can have a say on this by going to the Northland Chamber of Commerce Feedback website on www.northchamber.blogspot.com

Chamber of Commerce Christmas Message

Yesterday seemed like January, and now it’s almost Christmas. Hopefully time to spend some valuable hours with those who are close to you. Sit back, relax and prepare for another successful Northland year. If you can do something for someone who is less fortunate then yourself go for it?

Our Region is up there ahead of the best. I was at the NZ Chamber of Commerce Conference in November and the majority of the people there commented to me on the positive direction Northland was enjoying. We are, and are seen as a region to be part of at the moment.

When appraising the economic and community value of Northland it’s hard to comprehend that this is the same region that was seriously affected by the reforms in the eighties and the following soft recession years.

Today, it is obvious that Northland is a region that is well on its way to realising its potential in the new Millennium and has gone to great lengths to ensure that its residents and businesses will continue to prosper for years to come. Through the hard work and dedication of its business community, Development Agencies, elected leaders and hard working employees Northland is continuing to Stamp its mark within New Zealand.

2007 has been an incredibly exciting year. All districts in Northland voted for a change to the leadership by voting in new mayors. We were hit , not once, but twice by adverse weather causing widespread flooding through the region. The Northland Chamber of Commerce continues to grow in membership and in influence; The 2007 Bayleys Northland Business Excellence Awards was the best one ever yet with another sold out venue and some worthwhile winners emerging.

Business Confidence Surveys in the North reflected a slight decrease of optimism to one of businesses reflecting a cautious approach as external factors such as Exchange Rates, Interest Rates began to bite. Another factors identified the lack of people with technical skills across all sectors, which is now regarded as a major obstacle to some businesses being able to grow.

2007 has also been a watershed year as the Government continues to self cull members through controversy; impose new unbelievable regulation such as anti smacking, electoral finance act and flexible working hour bills. The Chamber of Commerce continues to look after our ‘bottom lines ‘by fighting hard to have proposed legislation either overturned or watered down.

In 2008 The Chamber will be committed to the following goals as mandated by its Board of Directors:

To develop existing business and industry
To secure new industry suitable to the area in cooperation with local authorities
To create new jobs and new income
To build greater pride and self-esteem in the community
To maintain a repository and referral service for professional business information.
To respond to inquiries about the Region to help to unify business and industry into a strong, respected community force
To lobby on behalf of legislative issues that effect this business community
To promote good policy, good projects and initiatives

Membership in the Northland Chamber of Commerce is open to any business or individual providing employment or services in the Region. If you are not yet a member, please call us for details. If you are a member, please let us know what we can do to serve you better

Have an excellent family fun filled Christmas

China or NZ? - if this was 2008 would I be able to write this column……………


The Electoral Finance act is currently going through the parliamentary process and is likely to be adopted before Xmas.

Firstly what is it? According to Parliament the purpose is to strengthen the law governing electoral financing and broadcasting to maintain public confidence, promote public participation, prevent the undue influence of wealth and provide greater transparency on the part of the candidates. These objectives are all good and we would totally support any measures that attempt to bring transparency and maintain a level playing field.

The Prime Minister Helen Clark however says the key question over the Electoral Finance Bill is whether people want money to dictate who wins an election. Under closer scrutiny we discovered that the powers of the bill were in fact far reaching and quite totalitarian

It was only after recent lobbying that the Bills Authors removed the need for lobby groups such as the Chamber of Commerce to register with a pre determined (By the Government) State Authority however the Bill may still curtail the policy, advocacy and lobbying activities of industry organisations. Groups such as Chambers of Commerce may still have to be very careful about the use of words that refer to views on an issue which might persuade voters to vote for a party based on those views. This means it may not be possible for us to publish a summary of party policies on an issue and compare them with our own. Keeping our members informed of what parties’ policies are and comparing them with our own could be deemed to be persuading them to vote for a party under the Bill.

If this was 2008 it is very likely under the proposed bill that group such as The Northland Chamber of Commerce would not be allowed to express dissatisfaction with the Government of the day. The concern I have about this is twofold.

Firstly, The Northland Chamber of Commerce has existed for over 100 years to represent the interests of our members (Northland Business). We do this by questioning policy, suggesting business friendly legislation acting as the voice of business and being pro-active in ensuring our members know what policies the various parties are offering.

Secondly, although I just cant put my finger on it, this type of legislation reeks ever so slightly of moving along a continuum towards suppression of speech as opposed to ‘freedom of speech’
We are issue-driven not party driven. We are not in the business of telling members who to vote for but we do want parties to adopt policies that enhance New Zealand business. We also have a role in keeping our members informed as to where parties stand on particular issues affecting businesses. This legislation could prevent us from doing this.

It is surprising to see the Government really pushing this bill, its not very popular, with anyone. As a matter of fact the only good thing about ludicrous pieces of legislation such as this is the amazing way it has pulled people from all political spectrums together to voice their dissent including major Newspapers, political commentators, The Law Society, Human Rights groups and a new breed of protesters.

This remains a repressive and undemocratic bill. Any MPs who vote for the Bill should expect to suffer the electoral consequences of voting to strip New Zealanders of their ability to easily criticise political parties and MPs.

Therefore – While I can still legally do so, PLEASE take the time to explore whether your local MP, Party List members stands on this issue. Ask you local member whether they will repeal aspects of this bill if they are in power after 2008? If they supported this legislation in 2007 then you must send a very clear message by NOT placing two ticks in that parties column in 2008 at the General Election.