Workshop aims to improve Bay’s economics
Economically, many people in the Bay could be better off, believes business mentor Fiona Newey.
The successful businesswoman said the key to running a business more profitably in our small and isolated community is clustering and collaboration - concepts she will be explaining at an upcoming workshop to anybody who needs to get inspired about self-employment, wants to set up a business or revitalise one stuck in a rut.
“I’ve had the pleasure of mentoring many businesses in Golden Bay since 2003, and many more in Nelson both privately and through the Nelson Tasman Business Trust,” said Fiona. “Shared ‘worry beads’ for entrepreneurial Golden Bay businesses are the export barrier of ‘the Hill’, the uncertainty and disillusionment of local and regional weekend markets, and lack of resources in achieving product placement into national boutique or chain stores.”
The workshop will be investigating the creation of business clusters and collaborative solutions or the grouping of complementary businesses to maximise strengths. Collaboration could be centred around marketing, distribution, product development and production. An example of a business cluster might be hairdressers, fashion consultants, beauty therapists, fashion retailers, makeover artists, and wedding planners combining to offer a package for events.
The aim of clustering is to create enough synergy to produce a result otherwise not independently obtainable – so the businesses all win.
“Clustering is about economic growth and maximising resources and efficiency. What I found in Golden Bay and across the Top of the South is that often people have a passion for something but their business is too small or people are not achieving their best with their marketing,” Fiona continued.
“People are very creative here but they need to look at what time and energy they spend on something without getting anywhere. A lot of people here produce a small amount of food like cheese, honey, prunes, jam or raw produce, and if it could be packaged and marketed I could envisage a delicatessen in Auckland or Wellington having a whole section of high-end Golden Bay goods on their shelves. You need someone who is good at marketing and someone who takes on the distribution and people need to legally and financially agree where they want to go.
“The Heaphy Track, for example, has 3000 bookings already since it opened up for pushbikes. We need to market this at the next TRENZ [Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand] fair and develop a package with someone who runs a guiding and a biking business, offering accommodation and transportation. This is about building strength and realising that businesses in the Bay are not in competition with each other but with similar communities in New Zealand.”
The workshop is also about determining individual business outcomes and provides an opportunity to identify possible partnerships with other businesses in the Bay. The workshop provides a forum for people to get together and explore projects, problems or goals they want to achieve and to enable people to identify and create a “dream team” to optimise outcomes and learn to network according to Napoleon Hill’s model of “mastermind networking”.
Fiona will look at four broad areas of business structure: becoming customer- or marketing-savvy, the team, processes and systems, and legality and finance in the context of five broad Golden Bay product themes. They cover art and crafts, food, fashion, wellness and tourism.
After gaining a qualification in education, Fiona has worked as a business mentor since 1996 and has been a member of Women in Self Employment (WISE) and the Nelson Tasman Business Trust (NTBT). She has been self-employed since 1984 when she kick-started and successfully ran a domestic and service personnel business that employed 4000 staff and had 40,000 clients all over the country. She was the first woman in New Zealand to franchise her business.
“Getting people into business has become a bit of a passion. I learned about business because I did it and it’s common sense,” concludes the business mentor. “I’m offering to workshop the concepts here where there is such a need for organised collaboration and clustering. Keep your individual identity but collectively solve how to develop a value-added, high-end product from raw materials.
“Would the ‘retired’ experts in this community who have ‘been there, done that’ be willing to lend their two cents’ worth to manufacturing, distribution, public relations and marketing? I would love to hear from them, as once clusters are formed, a specialist speed-mentoring session could be most useful, plus ongoing cluster guidance and direction – or I have many Nelson-based specialist associates offering to mentor in Golden Bay should the demand prove viable.”
The workshop will be held on Saturday 28 May 2011, from 1-4.30pm at the Junction Hotel, Golden Bay. The cost is $60 + GST per person and it is limited to 12 - 16 people. Everyone is welcome to attend. For enquiries please contact Fiona Newey on 027 232 2213 or 03 539 0266, or email her at fiona.newey@clear.net.nz
Ina Holst
