Rising to the occasion!

Here we are in our bestest wedding attire to celebrate the Royal wedding today! Now folks take a good look...yep that's our Wayne in a suit and Sam in a tux...wonderful effort boys. And of course our ladies looking luscious! We even made it onto the front page of www.wanakalive.com

We suspect there may be some champagne on ice....cheers!

Revealing Wanaka - now we are just showing off!

Now we know this was just the sneak preview and there are a few more out now but we wanted to show our friends at Xero that they should come visit us more often! Jealous much?

Royal Wedding Watch

Everyone is talking about it huh!! Some of us remember staying up to watch Diana and Charles marry, very exciting. There seems to be lots of channel options to watch with several NZ reporters over there covering the event. Best to watch, so you can say you did, it'll be an extravaganza!!

Employment Relations and Holidays Act

Changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Holidays Act 2003 were passed by Parliament in November 2010. Most changes for both Acts came into force 1 April 2011.

The legislation introduces a wide range of changes, many of which will affect our employer clients. Some of the changes make employer life simpler, some spell out what should already be best practice, and others will invariably add to the administrative burden of employing staff.

For a more comprehensive read, refer to the Department of Labour’s booklet – ‘Changes to the laws on employment relations and holidays’, at www.ers.govt.nz

Business confidence VS consumer confidence

Business confidence vs. consumer confidence

‘Consumer confidence’ is an economic indication of how optimistic consumers feel about the economy and their own financial situation and their saving and spending activity. It basically means that if people feel financially stable at work and home, they tend to spend more.

‘Business Confidence’ measures how businesses feel about their financial state. Business confidence in New Zealand generally refers to the results of the monthly Business Outlook Survey put together by the National Bank of New Zealand, which surveys 1500 businesses nationwide. The survey asks questions about the business’ opinions on what will be happening in the 12 months in areas like interest rates, unemployment, investments and exporting. These questions give a fairly accurate gauge on business mood and feelings on the business climate.

As you can easily imagine these two surveys can offer some clues for you in your business but probably best taken with a grain of salt to ward off self-perpetuating outcomes. However, consumer confidence can help you decide whether to keep high-value items in stock, outlay cash in advance or take risks with a new product of service. Decreasing consumer confidence may have you treading carefully about decisions, expenditure and risk.

We certainly know that recent physical events and national disasters had a huge impact on the psyche of the country. Business owners and consumers confidence has been somewhat wibbly wobbly and the outcome has been a fifty-fifty approach to both one of caution and the other half ‘carpe diem’ – let’s get on with things type attitude!

As usual, your best tools are a practical approach and a good business advisor.

Festival of Colour in Full Swing

Well there is excitement in the air with the anticipation for the first few performances and shows of the Wanaka festival of Colour. Wanaka turned on all her Autumn glory on Saturday presenting a stunning day for the artists in the Park, Flow with her trademark stencils and Simon Kaan doing what he does best. A fabulous exhibition at Gallery 33 on Friday had a great turn out with a stunning line up of high class New Zealand artists.

Tonight we have music from Elixir and Micheline. Plays called Rita and Douglas, Guru of Chai, local talent in Riverside Drive and the infamous Hotel taking place in an Edgewater hotel room.

Be there or be square!

Business Vitamins

Changing some basic habits in business can be a bit hard to swallow when in the middle of the hard slog. Take a read below and pick out one change you can implement in your business today.


1. Learn how to delegate and make it a daily habit
We often delude ourselves that it’s easier to do something ourselves rather than teach a staff member the process. That initial time spent transferring knowledge and skill is a powerful investment in leveraging our own time.

2. Fight procrastination
Procrastination is referred to as the ‘thief of time’. The simplest trick in dealing with procrastination is to do the hardest tasks first.

3. Focus on one thing at a time and stop multi-tasking
Recent research indicates that people who constantly multi-task take longer to complete tasks and make more mistakes. Get into a real work zone. Turn off your mobile phone and your email and disconnect from all distractions and possible interruptions for blocks of time. You’ll be amazed at what you achieve.

4. Set realistic goals
Goals should be SMART – Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound.

5. Make business planning a weekly event
Set aside time each week to review, adjust and look forward. Lock these times permanently into your diary or online calendar.

6. Promote your business regularly and consistently
It’s amazing how businesses just expect potential customers to know that they exist. There are plenty of low cost ways to promote your business, so create a simple marketing plan.

7. Learn something new
What you choose to learn may be directly related to your business or completely unrelated. Depending on how you choose to learn, you may meet new and interesting people who may become customers, colleagues or friends.

8. Drop what doesn’t work for you and move on
If a technique, a product or a business relationship isn’t working for you, take stock. Don’t keep investing a lot of energy into trying to make the unworkable work. Move on. Something better will turn up.

9. Give something back to your community
Find a cause that matters to you and give what you can. Serve on a worthwhile committee, be a mentor, volunteer or simply make regular donations to the groups in your community that make the place you live a better one.

10. Put time for you in your calendar
Business owners lead demanding lives. All work and no play is a recipe for mental and physical disaster. If you have trouble freeing up time to do the things you enjoy, write time regularly into your schedule to ‘meet with yourself’ and stick to that commitment. If you won’t invest in yourself, who will?

Government extends earthquake support package

The current Earthquake Support Subsidy (ESS) to help employers keep paying wages will be extended for two weeks to 18 April, followed by a further six-week round with tighter criteria.

The next round will be available to employers who, can't operate because of physical barriers caused by the earthquake, can demonstrate ongoing viability and have already been receiving ESS round one. The next round will not be available to employers experiencing a loss of trade, or sole traders.

Employers who can show they need only short-term support, before being able to pay wages themselves, will continue to get ESS at gradually reducing rates over the six week period. The rate of $500 gross per week for full-time employees for the first fortnight will reduce to $375 for the second fortnight and $250 for the third fortnight.

Businesses that do not meet the new criteria, but which have exceptional circumstances may be considered on a case-by-case basis by an extensions panel, made up of Canterbury employer representatives.

Employers who wish to access ESS will need to re-apply for both, for the two week extension by 30 March and for the second round by 7 April.

The current Job Loss Scheme for workers of $400 per week for full time employees will also be extended for an additional 2 weeks until 18 April.

Application forms will be available at workandincome.govt.nz.

Thanks to nzsica.com for this info.

wanakalive.com is live!

Above our office is the Radio Wanaka office and broadcasting studio, yes Reece Crescent is where it all happens! Well it seems the team have been beavering away and have built a pretty snazzy community website called wanakalive.com

The website was officially opened this morning by Prime Minister John Key, nice. The site sits nicely alongside the Wanaka tourism site and has really helpful community content not unlike the Radio Wanaka.

The site has community news, weather, property, line advertising, jobs and more. Log in check it out and support the welcome addition to the Radio Wanaka tool kit. Well done Ed and the team!