Hi,

On Tuesday this week, we had the opportunity to celebrate International Woman’s Day at an event to celebrate local Hutt Valley Women challenging the norm.

We are very lucky to have some amazing women leaders in the Hutt Valley. They are doing some very special things for their businesses, for young people and their own teams, and for our community. It was really great to be able to run an event and hear the personal and inspiring stories of the impact Colleen Upton, Priya Sharma and Sarah Comber are having every day.

Unfortunately, our next event with Christopher Luxon, Leader of the National Party, has had to be postponed as he has Covid. We will get that reorganised as soon as possible.

In this issue of the Hutt Valley Business Weekly we are pleased to share:

• Break the Bias – International Woman’s Day event
• Apply Now – new financial support for businesses affected by Omicron
• Financial Support Available For Workers In Self-Isolation
• Isolation Period Reduced From 10 to 7 days
• Local
  • What The Upper Hutt City Council Is Doing To Help Promote Your Business
  • Finding Staff To Support You Through Omicron
  • 2022 Civic Award Nominations Are Now Open
• Upcoming Events
  • Nicola Willis - Leadership & My Journey From Corporate To Politics
  • POSTPONED: Breakfast with Chris Luxon, Leader of the Opposition – new date to be advised
• Upcoming Training
  • Keywords, Google Rankings And Driving Traffic To Your Website - A FREE Workshop
• Member Offers
  • Wrap Up the Financial Year and WIN!
  • Members Offer: Rapid Test Kits and Masks
  • Win A Car AND Support The New Wellington Children’s Hospital

As always if you need support or assistance please do not hesitate to let me know at patrick@hvchamber.org.nz or 021 248 1203.

Break the Bias – International Woman’s Day event

Yesterday was International Women's Day and the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce celebrated this special day along with 35 other local female leaders at the Women In Business Event: Celebrating Local Women Challenging The Norm. 

Despite the current outbreak a number of women from across our business community came together to connect, share stories and inspire each other to break down barriers be the best version of themselves and support other women to do the same. 

Annette mentioned the attendees left feeling privileged to hear from three leaders who spoke about their journeys, their challenges, their successes but most importantly their passion to help bring other women and young people into their industries.

As part of the event the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce was able to support Dress For Success Wellington and attendees got to hear from them and the work they do to support young women. A big thank you to everyone who donated garments.

We would like to give a final thank you to Colleen Upton ONZM from Hutt Gas and Plumbing, Priya Sharma from 360 Logistics Group, and Sarah Comber from Fulton Hogan. You all told your stories so well and inspired everyone at the event. Your commitment to your work, to supporting young people on their vocational education journey, and to your families, is very strong, and we should all celebrate your hard work.
 
What a way to start the day !

Apply Now - New Financial Support For Businesses Affected By Omicron

The key parts of the targeted support for businesses affected by Covid include:

• As part of the Covid Support Payment, each COVID Support Payment will be $4000 per business plus $400 per full-time employee, capped at 50 FTEs or $24,000. This is the same rate as the most recent Transition Payment. Applications open 28th of February.
• Changes are also being made to the Small Business Cashflow Loans Scheme to increase the amount of funding available to eligible businesses through the introduction of a ‘top up’ loan. The top-up loan will allow those firms that have already accessed a loan to draw down an additional $10,000 with a new repayment period of 5 years and the first 2 years being interest-free.
• Any businesses struggling to pay tax because of the impacts of COVID should log on to myIR to see if they can delay starting payments to a later date, or if any part of the tax could be written off. IR can help with both GST and provisional tax due.

To find out more: click here.

Financial Support Available For Workers In Self-Isolation

There are also, two different payments available when workers need to self-isolate because of COVID-19 or are waiting on a test result and can't work from home. These are the:

1. COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme
2. COVID-19 Short-Term Absence Payment.

Employers or the self-employed can apply for these payments to help pay wages. There are no revenue tests. 

To find out more about these payment options, click here.

Isolation Period Reduced From 10 to 7 days

The isolation period for COVID-19 cases and their household contacts will be reduced from 10 to 7 days.

Household Contacts will need to have a rapid antigen test at day 3 and day 7 of their isolation period. If they become symptomatic they should also get a test, and if the result is positive, they are required to isolate for seven days from that point.

If a person is isolating and still has symptoms after 7 days, they are advised to stay home until 24 hours after symptoms resolve. The change will come into effect from 11:59pm Friday 11 March.

To read more about this update click here.

LOCAL

What The Upper Hutt City Council Is Doing To Help Promote Your Business

The Upper Hutt City Council Marketing team created a PDF and put together all the support they can offer you if you're starting a new business or creating and promoting an event within Upper Hutt and Wellington. 

They will also work closely with you and their business economic team to figure out which tactics best suit your requirements

To have a read of this PDF click here.

Finding Staff To Support You Through Omicron

We expect that many businesses will have developed business continuity plans to support your business through any disruption created by the Omicron variant. You may be splitting your teams in some way if you can, or simply planning for the disruption of staff needing to isolate. This may mean you need staff for short periods of time to provide some cover. We can help with this.

The Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Jackson Street Programme have worked with the Ministry of Social Development to come up with a way to help:

• Match employers with someone on the Jobseeker benefit for whatever length of time required. i.e. a day, a week or more
• Streamline the process with only a few details required
• Eligibility for the MSD Wage Subsidy if the employment turns out to be longer term.

To view a summary of this opportunity click here.

2022 Civic Award Nominations Are Now Open - Nominations Close April 8th

Nominations have opened for the Hutt City Council’s Civic Honour Awards. There are some fantastic volunteers in Lower Hutt and this is a great opportunity for the Hutt City Council to acknowledge and celebrate the work that they do in our community.
 
There are two types:

• Community Services (Civic Honour): recognises outstanding, long-term voluntary community service in Lower Hutt. There are 7 categories
• Youth Services: recognises outstanding voluntary community service in Lower Hutt from those aged 15-25

To find out more and to fill out a nomination form click here. 
Alternatively, you can visit hutt.city/civicawards.

Spread the word and nominate someone you think deserves one of these awards. Nominations end on April 8th at 5pm.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Nicola Willis - Leadership & My Journey From Corporate To Politics

As part of our Gibson Sheat Political Series, the Hutt Valley Chamber is hosting a breakfast with Nicola Willis, National's Deputy Leader & Spokesperson for Housing & Social investment.

• This is an opportunity for Nicola to engage with our Hutt Valley business community.
• You'll have the chance to hear why she decided to make the transition from corporate to politics and what she learned along the way.
• You'll be able to listen in on National's plan to support businesses & our local community through current challenges.
• You'll get to have your questions answered as part of the Q&A

When: Tuesday 05 April
Time: 7:30am - 9:30am
Where: Silverstream Retreat
Price: From $45 + GST

To register for this event click here.

POSTPONED: Breakfast with Chris Luxon,
Leader of the Opposition

You may have heard that Christopher Luxon has unfortunately contracted Covid and will be in isolation for the next 10 days. This means he will be unable to speak to the Hutt Valley business community at this event.

We have decided to postpone this event and we are working with his office to secure a new date. 

If you've already registered for this event you should have already received an email from us. If you haven't please email Annette annette@hvchamber.org.nz and we will assist you from there.

UPCOMING TRAINING

Keywords, Google Rankings And Driving Traffic To Your Website - A FREE Workshop

Our Silver Partner, Synthesis Marketing, will take you through the key steps you can take to make your website work harder and smarter for your business. Whether you are product or service focused, use websites to sell online or to generate enquiries, this workshop will give you hands-on tips and tools aimed at driving more traffic to your site.

Topics to be covered include:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and the keywords that matter to your business
• Paid online advertising
• Writing content that works
• Understanding website backlinks
• The value of Google’s “Near Me” searches
• Making gains by linking website and offline marketing
• Free resources to boost your efforts

When: Tuesday 29 March
Time: 5:00pm - 7:30pm
Where: Hutt Valley Chamber, Level 3, 15 Daly St
Price: No Cost

To register for this event click here.

Future Events & Training

We have several more events and training workshops coming up throughout the year. These will include:

• Business After Five networking events
• Gibson Sheat's Political Series
• BNZ Technology & Innovation Series
• Business Safaris
• Women in Business Events
• Learning & Development workshops from our partners

Plus many more!

To stay up to date with all our events & training, keep an eye out on future issues of the Hutt Valley Business Weekly. You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook to see these events as they come up.

MEMBER OFFERS

Wrap Up the Financial Year and WIN!

Our Hutt Valley Chamber member Speedy Signs are experts in signage and have been providing cross industry-wide solutions for over 30 years.

They are going to transform one lucky business vehicle into an amazing mobile billboard as part of their 'Wrap Up The Financial Year' competition.

How To Enter The Draw:

1. Place your order - Place your order for $500 worth of signage (or more) with Speedy Signs before 31st March. To be eligible for the vehicle wrap draw, your order must be paid in full. T&C's apply.
2. Stand by until we announce our winner - Sit back, enjoy your new signage, and keep an eye out for their winner’s announcement – who knows, it could be you?!

Click here to visit their competition page for full details and T&C's. 

Members Offer: Rapid Test Kits - RATs

Our Hutt Valley Chamber member and government supplier, Survive-It, are offering you a special deal on Rapid Antigen Tests.

Product Details:
Assure Tech Nasal Swab Rapid Test (20 per pack)
*Number of packs available for Chamber members – 300 packs of 20*

Price:
$185 / 20 pack box (Plus GST)

How To Order:
Please email Patrick at patrick@hvchamber.org.nz with the order quantity and we will connect you to Survive-It to finalise the order.

Members Offer: N95 / P2 Equivalent Masks

Our Hutt Valley Chamber member and government supplier, Survive-It, are also offering you a special deal on N95/P2 equivalent masks.

How To Redeem:
To redeem your special offer contact Steven. Email steven@survive-it.co.nz and mention to him you are a member of the Chamber.

Product Details:
Mask product details and specs: View product details.

Would You Like To Win A Car AND Support The New Wellington Children’s Hospital?

This is YOUR chance to win one of three great prizes with the first prize being a BRAND NEW CAR all the while raising funds to help support the build of the Wellington Region Children’s Hospital.

FIRST, SECOND & THIRD PLACE PRIZES

How To Purchase Raffle Tickets: Email Gaylene at gaylene@jdicoach.co.nz or text her on 0214 688 04 with your details and she’ll be in touch. 

Valid Dates: Ticket sales are on from 16 February to 09 May 2022.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Job Vacancies

Are you a member and have a role that you'd like to get filled?

Contact Andrew our Employment Coordinator. You can reach him on:   andrew@hvchamber.org.nz or call 049399821.

If you have a job suitable for a student get in touch with our Education to Employment Coordinator Amanda Walters at  amanda@hvchamber.org.nz or call 049399821.

To view more of our vacancies, click here.

MEMBERSHIP OFFER

Are You Or Your Business A Member Yet?

Your membership includes exclusive offers, members-only events, networking opportunities with local council and other businesses, promotion across our social media channels, website, email and network, FREE employer services, FREE weekly meeting room hire, plus many other benefits.

For more information on our memberships or how you can become a member email annette@hvchamber.org.nz or call 04 939 9821.

Thank you to all our Partners

As always, special thanks to all our Members and Partners for your ongoing support.