Over 60% of businesses were concerned about international supply chains when we surveyed them at the end of June. These concerns include costs, availability, delays, and other factors that will directly affect a business.
If this is your business, or even if you are just interested, then our Trade Breakfast on the 4 August is an event you must attend. Hear directly from the Minister for Trade and Export Growth, Damien O’Connor, about the government's views and the new Free-Trade Agreement with the European Union. A panel of experts including 360 Logistics, CentrePort, Export NZ and NZTE will also be on hand to answer your burning questions. A fully cooked breakfast will be provided. The event is kindly supported by Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce Gold Partner, 360 Logistics.
You can register here.
Spoiler Alert – I am not supposed to tell you this but here goes anyway. The Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards are coming to the Hutt Valley. We have booked the Lower Hutt Events Centre for 18th November and entries will open next week. (Oh, and don’t tell anyone – I mean tell everyone).
In this edition of our Hutt Valley Business Weekly:
- National Business News
The New Government Accreditation Policy: What You Need To Know If You Are In Business
Cadetships – Develop, Mentor and Train Your Permanent Māori Staff
- Chamber Updates
- June 2022 Business Confidence Survey Results Are Now In
- Riverlink Updates
- Travel Survey Underway – Tell the RiverLink Team How You Travel To Work
- So Much More Than A Bridge
- Local & Regional News
- Sweet As Hutt’s Hot Chocolate Challenge™ Now On Until July 24th.
- Upcoming Events
- Trade and Export Breakfast With Minister of Trade and Export Growth - Hon Damien O'Connor & Industry Experts
- Women In Business Event: Understanding Your Investment Options Featuring Sharesies CEO - Brooke Roberts & Industry Experts
NZTIWF – New Zealand Trade & Industrial Waters Conference 2022
- Upcoming Free and Paid Training
- A Practical Guide To Employment Agreements With Tony McKone, Employment Relations Specialist
- Tips For Navigating Business Banking
- Marketing Workshops From Our Digital Partners - Synthesis Marketing in Upper and Lower Hutt
- Member Offers
- Offer from Torpedo-7
NATIONAL NEWS
The New Government Accreditation Policy: What You Need To Know If You Are In Business
“If you want to hire migrants in your business to supplement your workforce – you will need to become Accredited”, says Immigration specialist and CEO of Woburn International, June Ranson.
On the 4th July 2022 the new Immigration policy reset came into practice and these are the new laws for employing a migrant worker. As a Labour Government initiative if you wish to hire a migrant you will need to apply for accreditation.
You can read all about it here.
Cadetships – Develop, Mentor and Train Your Permanent Māori Staff
Te Puni Kōkiri’s Cadetship programme supports employers to develop, mentor and train their permanent Māori staff at all career stages into higher-skilled roles.
How do Cadetships work?
Cadetships help Māori staff to develop new skills, improve confidence and leadership abilities and should lead to better employment opportunities.
Up to $10,000 is available per cadet (less for part-time cadets), to go towards a structured and tailored mentoring, training and development programme of at least six months.
How do employers apply?
For more information and to discuss the Cadetship programme contact the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce at patrick@hvchamber.org.nz or 021 248 1203 and we will put you in touch with the local Te Puni Kōkiri Regional Office.
Frequently asked questions about Cadetships and funding can be accessed here.
CHAMBER UPDATES
June 2022 Business Confidence Survey Results Are Now In
The Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HVCCI) completed this Business Confidence Survey in June 2022. The survey is completed with the support of Bronze Partner, Red Hot Business Coaching & Consultancy.
There are some major shifts in this survey on how the Hutt Valley business community is feeling about their business confidence. There are changes in both the 3-month and 6-month confidence with movement away from feeling moderately or substantially better to moderately and substantially worse. This is particularly true for the 6-month view where there has been a swing from moderately or substantially better to moderately and substantially worse.
Whilst the clouds of COVID-19 seem to be changing somewhat and even dissipating, they are being replaced by the darker clouds of cost impacts for a business. These darker clouds of rising inflation, rising interest rates, cost of goods and services to run a business, and supply chain challenges/costs are all increasing their importance and are supporting the change in business confidence.
Click here to read the executive summary and full results of our Business Confidence Survey.
RIVERLINK UPDATES
Travel Survey Underway – Tell the RiverLink Team How You Travel To Work
The RiverLink team are currently asking the community how they travel to work to help them plan for changes to the transport network.
They want to hear about travel patterns and needs so they can focus on the solutions that are important to the community.
Click here to take part in the survey today!
So Much More Than A Bridge
RiverLink is so much more than a bridge across Te Awa Kairangi Hutt River. Of course, a large part of the RiverLink project is the new bridge and transport interchange at Melling. The latest artist’s impression of the transport improvements for RiverLink is shown above. This includes the new Melling Interchange and river bridge, relocated train station, park and ride facilities, pedestrian and cycle bridge, and walking and cycling paths.
In addition to all of this (which will be very good for the city) Riverlink is a crucial part of delivering safer and more connected transport options, better flood protection, and urban revitalisation, for tens of thousands of Kiwis who live, work, and travel through Lower Hutt every day.
LOCAL & REGIONAL NEWS
Sweet As Hutt’s Hot Chocolate Challenge™ Now On Until July 24th.
A record 20 hospitality operators including cafes, restaurants, pubs, a bakery and a sweet shop in Lower Hutt’s City Centre, have created their own signature hot chocolate drinks for people to enjoy throughout the school holidays during the annual “Sweet As” Hutt Hot Chocolate Challenge™.
Customers will be the given the chance to vote for their favourite hot chocolate via QR codes available at each café with the winning hot chocolate declared at the end of the challenge. There are several events an options to choose from during the challenge happening from the 7th to the 24th of July 2022.
For the full list of the 2022 Hot
Chocolate Challenge participants, events and voting information visit:
sweetaschallenge.nz | https://www.facebook.com/sweetaschallenge | https://www.instagram.com/sweetaschallenge/
UPCOMING EVENTS
Trade & Export Breakfast With Trade & Export Growth Minister Damien O'Connor
Join us to hear from the Minister for Trade & Export Growth on current Trade agreements, current international trends and the government's focus and direction for growth.
The Minister will be joined by the following speakers in a panel discussion & Q&A.
- Derek Nind, Managing Director, Managing Director, 360Logistics
- Kristy Grant, Advisory Board Member, EXPORT NZ
- Anthony Delaney, CEO, CentrePort
- Ann Clifford, Customer Director - Central North Island, NZTE
Event supported by our Gold Partners, 360 Logistics.
When: Thursday 04 August
Time: 7:30am - 9:30am
Where: Lower Hutt Events Centre, 30c Laings Road, Lower Hutt
Price: From $55 + GST
Women In Business Lunch With Brooke Roberts, Sharesies Co-Founder
Many women in business are incredibly financially savvy but often don’t have time to ensure that their future is secure with the right investment.
Hear from Brooke Roberts, Co-Founder of Sharesies about how and why Sharesies was created and how simple and fun investing using investment platforms such as Sharesies can be.
Hear how women typically manage risk and invest plus advice for you to take control of your finances to grow your personal wealth and ask questions as part of our Q & A.
Guest Speakers:
- Karen Smart, Business Owner, NZ Home Loans Harbour City
- Joanna Newlove, Investment Adviser, Forsyth Barr Lower Hutt
- Pippa Hogg, Wealth Adviser, BNZ Private Bank
Take time out to ensure that you are investing in you and your family's future and book now.
When: Thursday 18 August
Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Where: Lower Hutt Events Centre, 30c Laings Road, Lower HuttPrice: From $45 + GST
NZTIWF – New Zealand Trade and Industrial Waters Forum 2022
Are you a business in the Hutt Valley that has a focus on Industrial Waters?
You might work in industrial, agricultural and food manufactures of trade waste, or work for a regional council or local council (trade waste & compliance officers) or be a regulator or liquid waste operator. You might also be employed as a process engineers or an environmental scientist, or be a student with an interest in industrial waters
If yes, this conference might be for you.
When: Thursday, Friday & Saturday - 17, 18, 19 August
Where: Wharewaka Function Centre, Wellington
UPCOMING TRAINING
A Practical Guide On Employment Agreements
Tony McKone, Employment Specialist, from Silver Partner McKone Consultancy is running a workshop on Employment Agreements
Tony McKone is Director and principal consultant for McKone Consultancy.
Before moving into Human resources Tony spent time as a line Manager and has a personal understanding of the challenges that employers are faced with.
In this session, Tony will cover the basics of Employment Agreements:
- Give an overview of the employer’s obligations
- Have an understanding of different categories of employee
- Have an understanding of what to include in an agreement
- Know how to present an offer of employment
When: Wednesday 10 August
Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Where: Hutt Valley Chamber Of Commerce, Level 3, 15 Daly St
Price: No Cost
Tips For Navigating Business Banking
- Do you need help navigating business banking in the current economic climate?
- Are your transaction banking, working capital and foreign exchange solutions fit for purpose?
- Are you being priced off the correct base interest rate?
Join us to hear from Cameron Bagrie & the team from Chaperon NZ with some tips on how to stay informed, Bank fit & Bank Smart.
Understand your credit rating and how to improve your chances of accessing credit.
Hear how regulatory environment is affecting business lending and how to navigate this.
Event Sponsor, LINK Business Brokers & Chaperon NZ are helping businesses extract maximum value. Book now.
When: Thursday 30 August
Time: 7:30am - 9:30am
Where: Hutt Valley Chamber Of Commerce, Level 3, 15 Daly St
Price: From $50 + GST
Digital Marketing Workshop: Driving Traffic To Your Website Through Keywords and Better Google Rankings
Websites are a vital part of building businesses, growing brands, driving leads and creating sales. Is your website doing the job?
At this session, Richard Smith from Synthesis Marketing, will take you through the key steps you can take to make your website work harder and smarter for your business.
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.
- Resources to boost your efforts.
Synthesis Marketing is the Digital Marketing Partner of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce. Their objective is to create better businesses through smarter marketing.
When: Wednesday 17 August
Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Where: Upper Hutt Central Library, 844 Fergusson Dr, Upper Hutt
Price: No Cost
How To Turn Customer Insights Into Sales & Profit - Marketing Workshop
The value of knowing what your customers are thinking.
At this workshop, Synthesis Marketing will cover…
- The business value of customer insights
- Proven tools and techniques to uncover customer insights
- Sure-fire ways to translate customer insights into tangible results
- Top 5 tips for keeping customer insights front and centre in your business
When: Wednesday 27 July
Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Where: Hutt Valley Chamber Of Commerce, Level 3, 15 Daly St
Price: No Cost
MEMBER OFFERS
Winter Friends and Family Event - Save Up To 50% Off at Torpedo-7
Torpedo-7's Winter “Friends and Family” event has started! They are also excited to introduce the opening of their brand new Petone store, where members will have a great opportunity to shop at their new store with an even greater discount.
Valid Dates: 02 – 17 July 2022
How to redeem:
In store - Show the attached flyer. Store staff to scan the barcode
Online - See the promo code on flyer to use at the online checkout: 5AFDD3E2
Terms and Conditions: Discounts are off RRP. If the product is already on promotion customer will receive the lower offer or promo pricing. Not all products are eligible for a discount. Not available in conjunction with any other offer. Excludes Burton, Electronics, Freight, Gift Cards and Workshop Services.
We have several member offers on our website.
To view our complete list of member offers, click here.
EMPLOYMENT
Do You Have A Role That You'd Like To Get Filled?
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 our vacancies, click here.
Thank you to all our Partners
As always, special thanks to all our Members and Partners for your ongoing support.
