http://www.argentinatradenet.gov.ar

Argentina Trade Net is a free service created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Argentina. The aim of this service is to facilitate contact between prospective importers in New Zealand with exporters in Argentina in a straightforward manner.

The service works in two ways:

1. Importing companies register their area of interest, for example; agricultural machinery, leather products, food products, professional services such as web or graphic design etc. This information can be seen by potential suppliers and they are able to make contact quickly and efficiently with the importer. In order to use this service, companies must contact the Embassy of Argentina in Wellington who will register without delay on the importers behalf.

2. Potential importers have access to a list of exporters of the product they may be interested in, including the most up to date contact details. This service, available also in English, can be accessed by any party and no registration is required.

An additional feature within this website is the event finder, which is a database of all the industry related events being organised in Argentina where one can search by event type, industry, region etc.

For more information please contact:

Veronica Hennig

Commercial Affairs

Embassy of Argentina

14th Floor, 142 Lambton Quay

Wellington

Phone: 472 8330 ext 4

commercial.affairs1@arg.org.nz

Membership and Marketing Manager

Monique Weston is now on maternity leave and we wish her all the best for her upcoming new addition to the family. Bronwyn McKinnon has been appointed Membership and Marketing Manager for the next 12 months. You will all have the opportunity to meet her over the coming weeks. Bronwyn has a fantastic relationship management background and will be a real asset to the Chamber. While she settles in, please direct any queries to me. holly@manawatuchamber.co.nz or 06 3501823

NewsFocus

The April edition of the NewsFocus is being written now and is filling up fast. If you would like your business to be included, whether as a new member, because you have news, or want to write a 'behind the scenes' article, please let me know as soon as possible.NewsFocus articles are written by me, or you. Usually a mixture of the two. If you'd like to know more, or register your interest, please e-mail holly@manawatuchamber.co.nz 

Website

Photos from the Mayoral Welcome to New Residents, news and information have all been added to the website. www.manawatuchamber.co.nz

Mayoral Welcome to New Residents

Was a great success, thank you to all of the businesses that took part and those who encouraged their new staff to come along.

Manawatu Chamber of Commerce hosted Morning Tea - Assessment of Prior Learning - Otago Polytechnic

Thursday 25th February, 10am. Chamber offices, 26 Broadway Ave, 3rd floor AMP Building (above Visique Optometrists) "APL is an internationally-recognised, academically valid way of recognising the understandings that people have gained through their experience. It can help adults to build upon their current careers or develop new ones, based on what they have already learned through experience."Find out more about how this programme could benefit your staff to gain qualifications relevant to you and your team's work.Qualifications which may be achieved range from certificates through to degree level. More information is attached.Please rsvp to me holly@manawatuchamber.co.nz

Wine, Women and Song

Caccia Birch, Sunday 21 February, 4pm, tickets $30 ($25 groups of ten or more), book at Ticketdirect or the Regent 0800 484 2538As a special treat for Chamber members, thanks to Malcolm Hopwood PR, Communication and Events, and Fresh Central, complimentary nibbles and wine are provided at the interval for members in the Nannestad Room. This is first come first served and a great change to do some networking while enjoying a fantastic concert!

Business Sector Forum -

Thursday 4th March Information on this was sent out with last week's e-mail. PNCC has informed me that this forum is specifically for businesses in the development sector (builders etc). Further forums are to follow which will be open to all businesses.

Business Time

The Manawatu Standard has featured a number of Chamber members in this column already, it's great to see you sending in your news! If you have interesting things happening with your business, make sure you let them know! Send an e-mail to editor@msl.co.nz with Business Time in the subject line.

Have a great week!

Holly.

I had a really common case with marketing collateral the other day, one that I thought I would share with you, so you don't make a similar mistake. It is something I see and hear often. It is something that is easy to address, will save you money on your marketing, and more than likely boost your profit line.

This client was out to save money on every aspect of a promotional DVD. He was going to script it himself and just get me to do the voice over, for a "negotiated" budget price.

The script arrived. It was his business so he had the product knowledge and the passion. The script covered most bases adequately, and it was written to time with the DVD images, which was all good. However, when I read it out aloud, it chopped and changed tense, from past to present, and it hopped in and out of first person, all for no rhyme nor reason. There was no summary or any call to action at the close. Most importantly, it had aspects that would date it and make it obsolete inside six months.

I called the client and chatted through the script. I then found there were things he had wanted to explain (to go with the images on the DVD) but he "couldn't put into words", so he left it out altogether. There were two other features that were major selling points that he had not managed to work into his copy, so again, he just left them out.

I tweaked his script, managing to work in the two extra features and explain how another feature further benefited the end-user, recorded it, and a couple of hours later, I sent it to him.

As per our "negotiated agreement", the next morning I found the "budget price" we had negotiated had been deposited in to my band account, along with a 50% bonus.

When a client is investing $5k to 10k on a promotional DVD that will have a shelf life of 5 plus years, in the long run, what is the cost of an hours copy-proofing and tweaking to ensure it is correct, that you maximise your message, and that it won't be out of date in six months.

This latter applies in particular to profile brochures, take note Real Estate agents. Don't make timeline references in your copy. Don't refer to your children at a particular school-age group. That way, in five years when you go to have your marketing collateral updated with your new look, new hairstyle and new glasses, all you have to change is the photos and the layout. The words remain the same.

Jon Hogan - Words That Work has an extensive background in marketing, especially in the spoken word for scripts, DVD's, presentations and speeches.

Statistics New Zealand has just released the Business Toolbox, a free suite of online tools that provide quick and easy access to information for businesses. The Business Toolbox contains two tools:

• Market Mapper - businesses can visually pinpoint their target markets using 2006 Census data.

• Industry Profiler - provides details on industry performance over time, staff turnover, and survival of similar-sized businesses.For example, using the Market Mapper, you can create a population density map by selecting a number of characteristics such as age, income, household composition, and family type.

Using Industry Profiler, you can search a particular industry and view information such as survival rates, and new and ceased businesses by region over the last five years.To access the Business Toolbox, go to: www.stats.govt.nz/business_toolbox

Statistics NZ can also arrange for its Outreach team to demonstrate the tool and its uses at your place of work.

Business Toolbox is available on the Statistics NZ website - www.stats.govt.nz/businesstoolbox 

A national request has gone out from Ministry of Health who is interested to know what businesses can supply the following services with a view to creating preferred supplier arrangements.

Relates to the following TenderWatch Categories

110Coal and lignite peat

171Electrical energy

211Meat and meat products

213Prepared and preserved vegetables

214Fruit juices and vegetable juices

215Prepared and preserved fruit and nuts

216Animal and vegetable oils and fats

221Processed liquid milk and cream

229Other dairy products

234Bakery products

282Wearing apparel except fur apparel

284Safety and Protective Apparel

322Books, brochures and leaflets (except advertising material); maps; music, printed or in manuscript

325Stamps, cheque forms, banknotes, stock certificates, postcards, greeting cards, advertising material, pictures

326Registers, account books, note books, letter pads, diaries and similar articles, binders, file covers, forms and other articles of stationery, or paper or paperboard

328Newspapers, journals and periodicals

333Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous materials other than crude; preparations n.e.c. containing by weight 70% or more of these oils

334Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons, except natural gas

352Pharmaceutical products354Chemical products n.e.c.

381Furniture

424Fridges, freezers and cooling systems

445Machinery for food, beverage and tobacco processing and parts thereof

451Office and accounting machinery, and parts and accessories thereof

452Computing machinery and parts and accessories thereof

453Computer software454Office Stationery Supplies

481Medical and surgical equipment and orthopaedic appliances

491Motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers; parts and accessories thereof

510Prime contractor for building and construction

512General construction work for buildings

515Special construction & trade related work

516Installation work

517Building completion and finishing work

519Landscaping services & Property maintenance

522Civil engineering works

523Civil and structural design projects

611Sale, maintenance and repair services of motor vehicles; sales of related parts and accessories

613Retail sales of motor fuel631Food retailing services

632Non-food retailing services634Wholesale providers of food and beverages

641Hotel and other lodging services

642Food serving services

644Conference and events management

711Transport services by railway

712Other land transport services

731Passenger transportation by air

732Freight transportation by air

742Storage and warehousing services

747Travel agency tour operator and tourist guide services

748Freight transport agency services

751Postal and courier services

752Telecommunications services

754Telecommunications related services

811Financial intermediation services except insurance and pension fund services

812Insurance (including reinsurance) and pension fund services except compulsory social security services

813Services auxiliary to financial intermediation other than to insurance and pension funding

814Services auxiliary to insurance and pension funding

815Insurance Services823Property management services

841Project management relating to IT service and delivery

842Software implementation services843Data processing services

844Database services845Maintenance and support services of office machinery and equipment including computers846Web development services

847Records and information management849Other computer services861Legal services862Accounting auditing and book-keeping services

863Taxation services

864Market research and public opinion polling services

865Management consulting services866Services related to management consulting

867Architectural, engineering and other technical trade services

868Risk management services869Project Management - relating to all areas other than IT

871Advertising, marketing and communications services

872Personnel recruitment services

873Investigation and security services

874Building-cleaning services

878Human resources services

879Other business services

911Administrative services of the government

912Services to the community as a whole

913Compulsory social security services

914Policy advice and guidance for Government

915Procurement advice & 3rd Party Purchasing

916Banking and related services

931Human health services

933Social services

934Health research services

935Health and Safety

936Biomedical Engineering Services

942Pest Control and monitoring

951Services furnished by business employers and professional organisations

952Services furnished by trade unions

959Services furnished by membership organizations not elsewhere classified

962News and media related services

963Library, archive and museum services

D1IT disposals

D2Vehicle disposals

D3General disposals 

More information is available, please contact holly@manawatuchamber.co.nz  

NewsFocusWill be on your desks this week.

Mayoral Welcome to New Residents

There's still some places left for this, so if you've been thinking about promoting your business to Palmerston North's new residents as part of the business expo, you'll need to let me know before 12pm Wednesday. Basic info: $200 for a 3m by 2.4m stand, power provided, the expo takes place between 2:30pm and 4:30pm on Friday 12th March. Further information available for interested businessesPlease click here to register your stand.

Diversity Challenge 2010 (Phoenix Incorporated)

18th February, 9am - 4:30pm, Orlando Country Estate, bus transport, $150 per person, rsvp to Diana 06 3547520 ext 706 or phoenix.inc@xtra.co.nz Explore a range of diversity issues in a comfortable setting. Learn how to integrate these challenges to become part of your organisation's strengths. More information is available. Please rsvp before Friday.

Young Enterprise Scheme

On Monday 15th February, you have the opportunity to mentor our region's next business leaders. You'll be blown away by the creative ideas high school students have when putting together their own businesses for the Young Enterprise Scheme. I've taken part in this workshop for the past two years, it's fun, interesting and inspiring helping students shape their ideas from creative genius into workable businesses. All that's needed of you is 2 hours of your time, between 1pm and 3pm and excitement about what these students can create. Details: Monday 15 February1pm - 3pmJapanese Lecture Theatreregister with hannah@visionmanawatu.org.nzI'll see you there!

Wine, Women and Song

Caccia Birch, Sunday 21 February, 4pm, tickets $30 ($25 groups of ten or more), book at Ticketdirect or the Regent 0800 484 2538As a special treat for Chamber members, thanks to Malcolm Hopwood PR, Communication and Events, and Fresh Central, complimentary nibbles and wine are provided at the interval for members. This is first come first served and a great change to do some networking while enjoying a fantastic concert! Details of the room where this is provided will be with you next week, but mark the date in your calendars now!

IRANZ Annual Dinner

Here in the Manawatu we are spoilt with amazing events and guest speakers to the region. Murray Mexted, Managing Director of IRANZ invites you to join them for an evening of stimulating rugby debate featuring: BUCK SHELFORD, CHRISTIAN CULLEN, ANTON OLIVER, JEFF WILSON, GRANT FOX AND MOREProudly sponsored by Ricoh and Steinlager, all proceeds from this dinner go towards scholarships for promising young players and coaches. Thursday 11 February, Sport and Rugby Institute, tickets: table of 8 $1000, Men individual $150, Women individual $100 rsvp to mariska@iranz.co.nz

Business Time

The Manawatu Standard has featured a number of Chamber members in this column already, it's great to see you sending in your news! If you have interesting things happening with your business, make sure you let them know! Send an e-mail to editor@msl.co.nz with Business Time in the subject line.

Have a great week!

Holly.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting you scrap your promotional budget in favour of a front page lead but many people believe that the only way to get noticed is to spend money.

It's easy for businesses, retailers or service providers to overlook that what they do is genuinely interesting to other people.

I firmly believe there's a story and a photograph in every business. It might be the product, it might be the service, it could well be the individual behind it and their philosophy on life. Human interest sells stories.

When I was a newspaper editor I researched what people wanted to read. It was important for me. For men it was other people and what they did, for women it was retail stories. I don't think much has changed.

When you consider your advertising budget for 2010 think of the story about yourself, your business, its milestones and achievements, and the service and product you're offering.

Then write it down or get someone to help and make sure there's one or three compelling photographs to go with it. When that's done and you're satisfied then offer it to your local newspaper or specialist publication.

Don't believe that newspapers, magazines or the electronic media are only interested in negative stories. They're not but they're easier to find because few people are submitting the positive kind.

I think it's time Chamber of Commerce members broke the mould.

Malcolm Hopwood, PR, Communications and Event Management. Phone 06-354-1123 or 027-354-1234. Email kathi.malcolm@inspire.net.nz

Members blacksheepdesign, Outpost Digital Media and Massey University.

 Massey University is at the forefront of the research and learning which is helping New Zealand and the world to adapt to that change. It is the people at Massey whose discoveries, research, teaching and partnerships, make Massey New Zealand's Defining University. This presentation shows just a handful of examples of the excellent work happening every day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2L4wWkt6QY

(I will embed this video shortly, but for now, take a look at the link.)

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