Bay of Plenty Business News April/May 2017

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10 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS April/May 2017 Tauranga's pier - a step towards a “sensational” waterfront Crowds enjoy the new pier, pontoon and stairs at Tauranga waterfront. Tauranga new waterfront’s development opened to the public in April, giving residents the chance to get a little closer to the water. The $2.8 million project featuring 50 metres of tidal stairs, a new 27 metre pier and a new 24 metre floating pontoon was opened to the public in time for the Tauranga National Jazz Festival over Easter Weekend. The facility allows views across the water and gives residents the chance to head down and dip their toes in the water, enjoy a coffee or a bite to eat from the local shops while sitting on the steps and soaking up the harbour. “This is an exciting opportunity to celebrate Tauranga’s waterfront and enjoy renewed connections to the water”, says deputy mayor Kelvin Clout. Tauranga city councillor Max Mason, chairman of the council’s Economic and Investment Committee, says internationally competitive cities have “sensational” waterfronts. “This is an exciting and important project for Tauranga. This project connects our city centre to the waterfront. It provides an opportunity once again where people can access the water and take advantage of our city environment. “This is the first project that delivers on The Heart of the City project, which we believe will create a vibrant, safe and successful city centre in Tauranga.” The Heart of the City Council-led projects include the new civic administration building and surrounding open space, business cases for a museum, city library and performance venue and future investment in the waterfront and streetscape. The council allocated $8 million to be spent in the first five years and a construction contract of $2.8 million was awarded to HEB Construction for the tidal stairs, pier and pontoon project. “Alongside the new steps and pier, the incorporation of public art into the facility has been important to this project and to reflect Tauranga’s marine history and connections”, say Kelvin. Etched into the stairs is a karakia and story about Tauranga and it is possible to see different parts of this depending on the tide level.” Artist Elliot Collins worked closely with Ngai Tamarawaho in the development of the artwork and use of the karakia. The karakia and poetry have been painted in colours reflecting the surrounding environment. An artist's impression of the Tauranga waterfront project. ITS FLU VACCINATION TIME AGAIN So host a flu vaccination clinic in your workplace Services available in Tauranga and Rotorua Call us today 0800 464 432 eve@go4health.co.nz www.go4health.co.nz 47 Fraser street, Tauranga www.facebook.com/Go4healthnz Services include: Hearing tests Lung function/spirometry tests Comprehensive health checks Pre-employment medicals Workstation assessments Drug and alcohol tests Flu vaccinations Hepatitis vaccinations M5289P
BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS April/May 2017 11 The challenges associated with managing time Everyone only has 24 hours in every day, yet some people appear to be able to achieve more than others. Why is that? It’s because they know exactly what they want to achieve. In order to better manage time it is vital to set your direction, ensuring you’re on track and the goals you’ve set are being met. There are two types of goals – short-term and longterm goals. Long-term goals are the one, five, 10 or even 20 year goals which you establish first so you can work towards them with your short- term goals. These are goals that take less than 90 days to achieve, are part of the bigger picture and you plan them weekly. Goals need to be results driven and measurable. They need to be positive and realistic while providing you with a challenge - and they must have specific deadlines. But, in any given day we may have a number of urgent deadlines placed before us, have team members and perhaps irate customers to deal with. How do we decide what to do first? What else needs to be dealt with and in what order? If we’re being driven by urgency in this decision process, it’s time to think again. A book, First Things First by Stephen R Covey and A Roger Merrill categorises the way we spend our time in four ways: 1. Important/urgent – eg crises, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects, preparations 2. Important/not-urgent – eg prevention, values clarification, planning, relationship building, team meetings 3. Not important/urgent – eg interruptions, some phone calls, some emails/mail, some reports, and some meetings 4. Not important/not urgent – eg trivia, busywork, junk mail, some phone calls, “escape” activities But just because something is urgent, doesn’t mean it’s important. A quick way to differentiate is to ask whether the activity is contributing to an important objective. If not, it’s probably not important. If you find urgency is driving you, consider the cost. What important things – maybe even “first things” – are not receiving your time and attention? Consider the activities you’ve completed successfully and which have had a positive effect your lives or business. They’re most likely to be activities that are not driven by urgency, mostly falling under seven activities: 1. Improving communication 2. Better preparation 3. Better planning and organising 4. Taking better care of self 5. Seizing new opportunities 6. Personal development 7. Empowerment They are all important activities. So why aren’t we doing them or doing more of them? Probably because they aren’t urgent. They don’t act on you, you MONEY MATTERS > BY MICHELLE HILL Michelle Hill is director and partner at BDO Rotorua, Chartered Accountants and Advisers. To find out more visit bdorotorua.co.nz or email rotorua@bdo.co.nz have to act on them. Take time to consider how you spend your time and make some positive changes in the short term to help you achieve your long term goals. Making time for marketing I recently met with a Bay of Plenty business owner who wanted to launch a website but didn’t have the time to source photos or think about the written content. He had some major projects due that were demanding all of his attention but few jobs on his books afterwards, which was fuelling an increasingly urgent need to generate new business. When things get busy it’s easy to focus single-mindedly on the job at hand instead of devoting time to securing the next sale. This is a common experience for many small business owners. When things get busy it’s easy to focus single-mindedly on the job at hand instead of devoting time to securing the next sale. I’ve been guilty of it myself. Using the argument that it’s easier to keep an existing client than to find a new one, I’ve often thrown future-proofing to the wayside to ensure I deliver my current projects ahead of schedule. Exceeding expectations is key to most successful businesses, and for good reason. But when projects end and money gets tight, it becomes painfully obvious that building time into your daily schedule to ensure there’s more work on the horizon is also a must. Minimising downtime and making sure new work is coming in is even more critical for businesses that employ staff. After all, wages need to be paid, whether or not staff have productive work to do. It’s difficult to put a number on how much time a small business owner should devote to prospecting, marketing, and improving their business, but I’d suggest a bare minimum of an hour every single day is a reasonable starting point. This time can be spent identifying and approaching prospects, exploring advertising avenues, identifying media opportunities, attending networking events, or on any number of other activities that raise your business’ profile with those who you want to connect with. Of course, this kind of work doesn’t generally pay by the hour, so it’s vital that it elicits a return in the long run. Ensure everything you do is measurable so you can tell whether or not it is resulting in a return on investment. If you are placing online advertising with the goal of driving traffic to your website, it’s worth paying attention to the number of people clicking on your ad so you can calculate what you are paying per click. This can also be done for time spent approaching prospects. By quantifying how many of your approaches are resulting in successful sales, you can determine the kinds of approaches that are working, and which ones aren’t worth the effort. Finally, pressure on time isn’t the only obstacle for business owners looking to ramp up their marketing and development efforts. Sometimes financial hurdles can feel just as insurmountable. Fortunately there are a number of funds available that Bay of Plenty business owners can apply to if they need financial support. These range from New Zealand Story’s Creative Collective funding, which assists exporters with the costs of producing promotional videos, to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s Capability Development Voucher scheme, which co-funds coaching and training for people who want to build capability in a variety of TELLING YOUR STORY > BY JAMES HEFFIELD Director of Bay of Plenty communications consultancy Last Word Writing Services. To find out more visit lastwordwriting.co.nz or email james@lastwordwriting.co.nz. different capacities, including marketing. Securing funding support can be a game-changer, but it can also be onerous process, so it pays to ensure your business can clearly articulate how it meets all of the criteria before sitting down to develop an application. The Bay of Plenty’s very own job portal. Featuring a variety of roles from across the Bay, candidate profiles, locals’ tips on what to do and where to go, plus education and business resources. It really is better in the bay! Employers jump on board and get your job listing noticed! J2766A RAM WHAT DOES IT STAND FOR? Read Our Full Article To Find Out - or visit: www.stratusblue.nz TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FROM GROUND TO CLOUD
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