Stories and confessions from the Road.....
Between 20th April and 20th May the Northland Chamber of commerce hit the road with Enterprise Northland to deliver a short sharp thriving in a recession message. The message is all about managing six fundamental sides of your business. Our premise is that if managed well then your business will not only survive but thrive through and beyond adverse economic conditions.
The recession story that we are getting from Northland is a very mixed message. All Economic Indicators are in a state of decline including Employment, Interest Rates, Housing Prices, GDP, Consumer Spending and Commodity Prices; However – evidence from our travels shows that businesses can still thrive in these times and that the one attributable characteristic that we identify is ‘The Right Attitude’ within Business Leaders.
In General
- Retailers in the South of the Region are faring better than those in the Far North. Anecdotally due to the number of visitors from Auckland
- Contractors to the Agricultural & Primary industries are still finding it hard to keep up with Demand
- We have seen evidence of businesses doing exceptionally well as a result of changing the course of their businesses to fill gaps in the market created by ‘recessionary’ conditions.
- Regardless of Location those businesses that are Hands on and pro-actively managing the 6 sides of their business that are advocated in the Road show presentation are doing well
- All provincial areas provided great turnouts from local businesses. Dargaville turned out en-force with record breaking numbers
- Additional Seminars were held as businesses who attended organised other businesses to get to special seminars.
- We have heard some amazing stories of businesses that have suffered downturn that are slowly positioning themselves by buying and acquiring former competitors, locations and product lines.
- There is more major redevelopment work to be carried out in towns like KeriKeri.Major corporate still see these places as good areas to invest in.
- We held Six road show events in the Far North, Five in Whangarei District and Two in the Kaipara District
Information from our road trip along with our latest Business Confidence Survey indicates to us that in Northland – Businesses are generally getting on with business and are still singing the praises of being in business as outlined in our publication from one year ago ‘10best reasons for doing business in Northland’ (available from http://www.northchamber.co.nz/ )
Pro-active Business owners who implement the six steps outlined in the seminar will not only survive but thrive. If you don’t believe us come and see for yourself. The last Road show session is to be held at Forum North on Wednesday 20th May 2009 at 5.30pm. The Presenters Ken Wilson and Jeff smith will be challenging attendees to attack and work on the Six Steps with renewed vigour. If as Northlanders we harness our collective energies to assist each other, then when the inevitable upturn comes we will be sure to emerge in a much stronger competitive position and THRIVE.
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
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