Contrary to popular belief CDS is not just here to save the day. The hospitality side of CD Security is dedicated to protecting the licenses of our clients against breaches of the Sale of Liquor Act. These breaches include allowing intoxicated or under age people to enter or remain in your bar. It is generally thought that we spend our nights stopping fights or throwing out drunks, however most of our time and resources are increasingly being dedicated to dealing with identification issues.

Literally, every weekend we are confronted with minors handing us ID's, which either do not belong to them, have been tampered with to change the date of birth or are just blatant fakes. Armed with these, there are numerous techniques these little sweethearts employ to attempt to gain access to the bar. They will rush you, try to distract you or sandwich themselves between a group of older people, hoping you wont pay too much attention to their pathetic use of the laser printer and sticky tape. For the ones that don't have access to such office products, they rely more heavily on scaling fences, walls and drain pipes. Alternatively if they have friends over 18 who are already inside, they could be let in a fire exit or unguarded window. Much like a burglar, they will do anything to gain access (illegally), for the reward inside.

Since July of 2009, CDS has retained 157 IDs, from just ONE bar. When a questionable ID is handed over, such as a drivers license, they are given a chance to prove themselves by signing a piece of paper to match to the licence, as well as being asked numerous questions that only the licence owner would know. These IDs, being evidence of fraudulent use of identification, are handed to the Police in weekly batches, where they are processed and the offender's information recorded. Surprisingly it is not the card board laminates that are the problem. 147 of the 157 IDs were not the presenters, meaning older sisters and brothers, cousins and friends are handing them on to your young ones by the truck load. A few cheeky/brave/stupid? kids have even tried using their own IDs, which state they are underage or occasionally an older persons ID who is of a different ethnicity than the presenter...interesting to say the least.

It is always surprising, the lengths that minors will go to, to get into the bar and the reasons are varied. Personally I think the problem is just that the kids like to act grown up and they all want what they cant have i.e. booze, and if that means looking cool in a bar, so be it.

Checking ID's does not only elicit interest when it is a minor presenting it, patrons above the legal age limit come with their own set of intriguing situations. Unacceptable forms of ID are frequently handed over and rejected much to the dismay of patrons who may be old enough. A perfect example is a nineteen year old who presents a passport which boasts a pimply fourteen year old whom they look nothing like (anymore?) and yet expects to be let in. Also we are often plied with documents which, in lieu of photographic ID, patrons hope to prove their identity with. Legally we can only accept photographic identification, be it a drivers licence, passport or 18+ card. The handing over in bulk of personal papers, from birth certificates to bank statements, demonstrates that the desperation involved in gaining entry to bars is not exclusively suffered by minors.

Requesting to see a patrons identification sails along the thin boundary society has set when it comes to age sensitivity. As a matter of procedure we ask to view ID for anyone who looks under 25. This is general practise throughout the country and yet generates a wide array of reactions. It is rather entertaining when a patron who's "18 and three quarters" thinks they're above being asked. Likewise the simple request can brighten a youthful looking thirty-something, eliciting giggles and blushing as if they truly were a teenager.

Unfortunately though, these teenagers can be costly. Even though minors purposely approach the bar with the intent to break the law, it is the bars and licensees which suffer. In many jobs mistakes of sheer human error can be easily undone; mistakes in our occupation however can result in breaches of the law. The consequences of any sort of slip are harsh and can involve job loss, fines of up to $22,000, seven day closure and suspension of licence, without which a bar cannot operate.

If you have read this far, you show dedication and perseverance, congratulations! As you can see, all sorts of drama and amusement transpire in response to a seemingly insignificant request. Involving outcomes from law breaking to compliments, it is an essential part of the hospitality security profession, as we must ensure that the Sale of Liquor Act is strictly adhered to.

Liz Miller

Administration Manager

CD Security

Contributed by Money Concepts Manawatu 

 Can an employer receive a positive return on investment (ROI) on KiwiSaver contributions? Absolutely!

KiwiSaver has been defined as a voluntary Work-based savings initiative and as such, and although not confined to employment, it is an employee benefit. Yet, most employers do not treat it as such and very few consider any possible ROI benefits.

Most employers ask new staff if they want to join KiwiSaver and, if so, make the necessary deductions inclusive of the compulsory employer contribution, and that is that!

The fact that the employer's minimum cost (and therefore investment in staff) of KiwiSaver is prescribed by legislation does not preclude KiwiSaver from being treated as an employee benefit.

Employers may have reasons for not getting further involved. Typically the reasons fall under one of the following;

1) The more employees who join, the more it will cost the employer. This may be so in the short term but as more and more people sign up, this argument is getting weaker. Also, if one was to consider the cost of replacing a staff member that could otherwise have been avoided, or if one was to consider the total remuneration approach to employment agreements, there would be no increase in cost at all.

2) Concern about providing financial advice. Employers have no liability when providing general savings or KiwiSaver information, or even selecting a preferred KiwiSaver provider. In fact, they are encouraged to do so and also to improve the general financial literacy of their staff by the Retirement Commissioner. Employers could even take advantage of free services from Money Concepts Manawatu to conduct education programmes.

3) Don't know how to get involved in a cost-effective manner.

4) Simply haven't thought about it.

If an employer was to accept that there is a potential ROI to be gained, then it would certainly be worthwhile to consider how to get more involved.

An employee benefit is not relevant to employees unless the individual employee sees value in it. Health insurance to a bullet-proof young person is normally not valued, as is a gym membership to a person who has already broken their new year's resolution to do something active each day. Media commentators often refer to joining KiwiSaver as a no-brainer, but many do not understand why. So, the first implementation step would be to communicate the value to staff.

The most obvious value is that it is good planning to have adequate funds available at retirement. KiwiSaver can be used to help achieve this goal, but can also be used for more purposes, such as a deposit for a first home (or second chance for those members who have previously owned a home) and an emergency fund.

An employee who has not purchased their first home as yet, and who thinks retirement is so far away that saving towards retirement is not a priority at all, may not be interested in KiwiSaver. The employee may not be aware how beneficial KiwiSaver is in assisting them to attaining their goal of owning their home. They may not understand that by saving for the deposit through KiwiSaver, the employer would also be putting money towards that objective, and the government would be putting money aside for their retirement in the form of a tax return of sorts.

For example, if John earns $50,000 gross pa and contributes 2%, he would have contributed $1,000 in one year towards the deposit of his first home. He could invest that money by way of a direct debit in a special savings account at his bank and hope not to access the money until he has enough saved. Alternatively, he can save it in KiwiSaver. This savings is invisible to him as the employer makes the deduction on his behalf. Further, the employer would match his contribution so there would be $2,000 invested over the year. While this is going on, the government would invest $1.000 in his KiwiSaver account simply for joining, and then match his contribution (max. $1,043 pa) for his use in retirement (something perhaps not that important to John for the time being, but $2,000 paid in his account is a nice extra). If John's employer had explained this benefit to him, he would likely see the value in joining.

Once an employee joins, then what? Most employees are not sure who their KiwiSaver provider is, let alone which investment option they have been allocated to. This is evident by the amount of churn (members moving from one provider to another) between providers as unscrupulous advisers and inadequately-trained bank employees add to the confusion.

Most financial advisers would agree that apart from the decision to join, the most important decision is to select the appropriate investment option. Members and employees often would not have a clue how to select what is appropriate for them or how to go about changing their option. Some statistics indicate that as much as 95% of members have remained on the option that they were defaulted to.

A responsible employer could, as the second step, hold training sessions with their staff to improve their employees' financial literacy. These can be run internally or, better still, through Money Concepts Manawatu.

Early indications are that the economy is recovering and unemployment levels are set to fall again, making it more difficult to attract and retain quality staff. Research has indicated that the employees of those employers who have made efforts in being more involved in KiwiSaver have highly appreciated the efforts their respective employers have made towards explaining the benefits. Many employees saw value in KiwiSaver where before they may not have. These efforts are cost-effective as often the only associated cost is the time taken for the training, but similar to other employee benefits, there is a significant realized ROI associated with staff attraction and retention.

A summary of the advantages leading to a ROI:

• Demonstrate to staff that you care for their personal wellbeing, and the wellbeing of their respective families, thus improving staff retention

• Demonstrate to your local community that you are a caring employer, an employer of choice, thus attracting quality staff for future vacancies

• Ensure that your staff are well looked after and receive appropriate and qualified advice, thus reducing the potential of the impact if they were to suffer future financial hardship

• Delegation of continued training and education to an external source, reducing potential financial liability in being deemed to offer financial advice

• Limit and reduce unproductive work time as staff are not left to their own devices and have support in researching their KiwiSaver issues and queries

• Adequately addressing topical issues and changes in KiwiSaver as they become apparent• Creating a more informed, more financially savvy workplace

• It's the right thing to do, and staff know it

• There is a competitive advantage while other employers are not following suit• No additional cost

Garry Aiken is the Centre Director for Money Concepts Manawatu, an affiliate of Money Concepts International, one of the world's largest independent financial planning advisory networks. Information is this article is for general information purposes only, and is not intended as personal advice.Garry can be contacted at gaiken@moneyconcepts.co.nz or by telephoning Garry on 06 354 1913 or 027 470 8724 

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  

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