For Pinterest Sake

If you've not gotten down on this little number, it is time to check it out! Pinterest is a beautiful virtual pinboarding network. The execution is devine and the ease of use is awesome. Its about choosing things you like, looking at what everybody else likes and pinning it! Check it out at www.pinterest.com sign up and play.

P.S. Findco does not have a pinterest board because we have work to do and rugby to play! Warning becomes addictive and time consuming, pin it!

Student Loan Scheme Changes

Changes to student loans will make it easier for you to manage and repay your student loan, whether you’re in New Zealand or overseas.

The majority of changes will take effect from April 2012, with additional changes being introduced in April 2013.

Adding “SL” to your tax code

If you're in New Zealand and earn salary or wages, you need to add "SL" to your tax code from 1 April 2012 regardless of how much you earn, unless you have an exemption. This will ensure you're making the right repayments toward your student loan through your pay.

Find out more about student loan repayment tax codes and your obligations

Repayment exemptions for full-time students

You can apply for a repayment deduction exemption if you're studying full-time and expect to earn less than the annual repayment threshold ($19,084 for the 2013 tax year). You can now apply for this exemption through your online services account, so you're exempt from 1 April.

Find out more about the repayment deduction exemptions

Reduced rates for secondary earnings

For borrowers with more than one job, you can apply for a student loan special deduction rate for your secondary earnings if you earn less than the pay period repayment thresholdfrom your main job. You can now apply for a reduced rate through your online services account, for deductions to be made from 1 April 2012.

Find out more about the special deduction rate

View all your loan information on one site

From April 2012, borrowers currently studying will see a complete and up-to-date view of their loan balance including their StudyLink transactions through Inland Revenue's secure online service.

Register for secure online services.

StudyLink will be transferring loan account information to us on a daily basis. This means the statements you'll receive from us will also include your StudyLink transactions so whether it's online or on paper, you will see your total loan balance every time.

Pay period repayment obligations

If you're earning above the pay period repayment threshold in New Zealand, your student loan deductions every pay period from 1 April 2012 will be considered your repayment obligation, unless there's a significant over or under-deduction. Your repayment deductions are generally considered final. However, we'll check your pay details regularly to make sure your deductions are correct.

• If there's a significant under-deduction, we can require you to have catch-up deductions made through your employer to recover the amount.
• For significant over-deductions, you can either request a refund or have this applied to your loan balance so you may be eligible for a 10% voluntary repayment bonus.

If you have income from other sources such as interest, dividends, rental or business income, you may still be required to have an annual end-of-year assessment.

Find out more about repayment obligations, and

Find out about significant over and under-deductions

Extra repayments through salary or wages

You can ask your employer to make extra student loan repayments through your salary or wages. Just let them know how much extra you want to pay and your employer will send us your extra repayments along with your standard student loan deductions each month.

Find out about making extra repayments

Annual administration fee

An annual administration fee of $40 will be charged to your account if you have a student loan balance of $20 or more, unless you have been charged StudyLink's establishment fee in the same year.

Changes to late payment penalties

From 1 April 2012, the late payment penalty will be called late payment interest and will reduce from 1.5% to .843%. There will be further changes to how this is calculated from 1 April 2013.

Recalling the entire loan amount

For borrowers who have consistently been non-compliant with their repayment obligation, we now have the power to demand full repayment of a student loan, whether or not the entire amount is outstanding.

Shorter repayment holiday

Government has proposed changes to shorten the repayment holiday for overseas-based borrowers from 3 years to one year, and to require borrowers leaving New Zealand to apply for the repayment holiday and provide a contact person, from 1 April 2012.

Excluding losses from calculating repayment obligation

There is also a proposed change that from 1 April 2012, you won’t be able to use losses from business or investment activities to offset your income and reduce your student loan repayment obligation.

Alternative contact person for new student loan applications

There is also a proposed change for borrowers to provide an alternative contact person for all new student loan applications for study starting from 1 January 2013.

Other changes announced in Budget 2011

Government has also announced further changes to student loans in Budget 2011.

• Borrowers with an overdue repayment obligation of $500 or more that's been overdue for 12 months or longer won't be able to borrow through the Student Loan Scheme. This applies to all student loan applications received on or after 7 February 2013 and includes amounts under instalment arrangement.
• The repayment threshold will remain at $19,084 until 31 March 2015.

Pay period threshold for student loan deductions for 2013 tax year

If your pay period is ...	the repayment threshold is ...
weekly	$367
fortnightly	$734
4-weekly	$1,468
monthly	$1,590

Thanks IRD!

Think Different

Peter Economides for Apple 1997 TBWA/Chiat/Day

Here are Findco we most definitely try to Think Different. This tasty little article posted on the Xero blog is a nice little insight into how to differeniate yourself in the marketplace:

There have been some really good discussions over in Xero Community and its great to see everyone sharing ideas across lots of different industries.

Now we start getting into the fun stuff: differentiation and positioning. It’s a huge topic so today I’ll just cover off ‘attributes’ and ‘consideration sets’.

Simply put, differentiation is what makes your product or service unique from your competitors. As we all know, business is competitive so you have to define attributes of your offer that make you stand out from everyone else.

Positioning is what you do to the mind of the customer. That is, you position the product in the mind of someone, rather than necessarily making changes to the product itself. One commonly quoted example of this is ‘Volvo: Safety’. Engineers may argue with you that there are other cars that are equally, if not more ‘safe’ but Volvo has put a stake in the ground that the attribute ‘safety’ is theirs.

Sound confusing?

An easy way to think about this is to ask yourself:

“What am I going to buy for lunch today?”

Instantly, your brain will start to shortlist options based on various attributes of the products or services around you. Your brain will form what’s known as a ‘consideration set.’

“I want something healthy so I might get a salad from Molly’s Salad Bar”

Molly’s Salad Bar owns the attribute ‘health’ in your mind.

“I’ve only got five minutes so I’ll have to get something quick from Hunger Busters”

Hunger Busters owns the attribute ‘fast’ and gets put to the top of your consideration set.

Here’s how you can translate this into your own business with a simple consumer behavior exercise.

For this example, leave out price versus quality for now- I’ll cover this off next in a pricing strategy piece.

1.Think about what features or ‘attributes’ you want to own in your customer’s mind to establish your competitive position. Try to keep it to three or four. Be specific. Attributes like ‘friendly’ or ‘innovative’ need to be fleshed out to something tangible a customer can see and believe.

2. Scribble down a list of your direct and indirect competitors and think about how you perceive them in your own mind. What attributes are you rating them on and what attributes do you think they own that you may want to own, or stay away from? Look at the whole business. Companies can own negative attributes such as ‘high staff turnover’ or ‘you always have to wait for ages.’ Be honest about what is front-of-mind for you.

3. Get someone else who may not know your business or industry to give you their view. Show them some websites of your competitors and ask them what their snapshot view is. Remember that it is about customer perception, which may not necessarily be reality. Try to get an understanding of what is triggering their perception. For example, “he keynotes all the industry conferences, must be a thought –leader.”

Read the article here on the Xero Blog

Thousands Attend Warbirds

It was a stunning day for Warbirds Over Wanaka, where 30,000 spectators enjoyed everything from vintage Tiger Moths to the Royal New Zealand Air Force's aerobatic team.

A mock World War II air raid, complete with 10 airborne fighter planes representing Allied, Japanese and German air forces, came complete with explosions, tracer fire and air raid sirens, ensuring the historic warbird element of the event lived up to its name.

A highlight for many was All Blacks captain Richie McCaw's commentary for his other sporting passion - gliding. During the demonstration McCaw managed to give some good-natured ribbing to flyers of "powered" aircraft, saying the skills needed to fly a glider were the foundation of flying.

The two-day biennial event, expected to be visited by up to 65,000 people.

www.stuff.co.nz 8/04/12

Trev the Lotto Winner!

Don't ya just love this photo of "NZ most eligible bachelor". This is Trev the 34 year old from Waikato who just scooped Lotto on the weekend to take home $34 million!!

He reckons nothing will change, he will keep his job at the supermarket and maybe take a trip and buy a nice car.

Trev and his family celebrated on Sunday, with a roast....love it!

It does always make you think, what would you do?

Thanks Stuff.co.nz for the image, you can read more here.

The Vanilla Dream

The vanilla plant flowers just once a year, offering a mere four hours to complete the intricate act of hand pollination. In this window of opportunity a dream has flowered. The Heilala Vanilla story is a PR dream: 100% natural, sustainable, organic, transpacific, sweet and delicious, much like Heilala’s own success.

The story begins with John Ross, boat builder, farmer and frequent visitor to Tonga. In 2002, following Cyclone Waka, John recruited six Rotary Club colleagues to deliver medical supplies, help rebuild houses and restore infrastructure to the Tongan village of Utungake in Vava’u. In return, a local chief gifted him the use of dormant land. Upon discovering wild vanilla orchids growing, he developed a vanilla plantation, enhanced job prospects for locals and created Heilala Vanilla.

Producing vanilla seed pods is extremely labour intensive, requiring optimum growing conditions. John engaged the expertise of his son-in-law Garth (agriculturalist and IT consultant) to harness this rare opportunity. They carefully matched organic growing principles with the virgin soil, sustainable coconut husk frames, hand pollination and the Pacific sun, achieving the first Heilala vanilla harvest in 2005 - an admirable 40 kg. This grew to two tonne in 2010.

Upon harvest, the vanilla seed pods are imported to Tauranga where the vanilla products are manufactured and packaged per order. They are then dispatched to executive chefs, gourmet food manufacturers and specialty retail outlets.
Heilala Vanilla’s growing product range includes vanilla beans, vanilla extract, vanilla paste, vanilla syrup, ground vanilla, vanilla sugar and vanilla ice cream and has received numerous culinary awards.

From the early days of knocking on restaurant doors with a delicious nameless product it was clear they required a strong brand. The challenge would be enlisting the right advocates - the brand needed to entice. Margins are much tighter on small orders, but they knew this temporary pain would spark wildfire momentum and secure the big orders.
Down the track, John oversees the Tongan plantation. Garth is in charge of research and product development and daughter Jennifer (a qualified accountant with a marketing degree) is onboard to manage sales and marketing. We spoke with Jennifer about their journey to date.
Biggest challenge? Giving up the security of her day job. ‘But if you have the passion then it’s definitely worth it’.

Best management decision? Implementing quarterly Client Advisory Boards with specialised ‘foodies’ to drive their focus and direction. ‘In a family business tunnel vision can be a natural stumbling block’.

Advice? Jennifer was fortunate to utilise her accounting skills within the business, stressing ‘every entrepreneur needs guidance, advice and a close relationship with their accountant’. Clearly defined budgets and goals, performance measurement, viability testing and patience are also required for any long term business model.
Jennifer emphasised ‘when engaging external services you get what you pay for’. Don’t scrimp on the things that support the backbone of your business, whether it be your branding, marketing, or business mentors.

Highlights so far? ‘Taking Peter Gordon and US pastry chef Natasha MacAller to the Tongan plantation’. The Heilala crew guided 20+ foodies to witness the source of Heilala Vanilla, and enjoy local produce prepared amongst the plantation by Peter and Natasha. Entering the Williams-Sonoma food retail chain (boasting 200 stores across America and Canada) was another memorable milestone.

Having direct ownership of the vanilla seed pods throughout the process, Heilala are proud to have control from plantation to pantry. This ultimately guarantees the quality and integrity of their product.

With each hurdle successfully mounted, the Heilala team keep moving the finish line. As they enter the American market they’re aware that initial margins will be tight, sales and profits low. But they’ll soon achieve the exposure and reputation their product deserves.
Having John on the ground has been vital to this multi-cultural business. Jennifer and Garth are equally committed to maintaining relationships with the locals, keeping in touch with the dream at its roots. When one day John steps back, their succession plan will have a solid foundation.

The passion, hard work and commitment of this Kiwi family and their Tongan colleagues have made Heilala a sweet story of generosity, imagination and ingenuity. It’s about rising to the challenge and seizing the opportunities that are gifted to you.

www.heilalavanilla.co.nz

Warbirds Over Wanaka, 3 days to go!