Latest / Best of Business / Kerre Woodham: This one's for small business owners

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Kerre Woodham: This one's for small business owners · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from NEWSTALKSTB. Follow this and
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  Speaker 2: The editorial this morning goes out to all the small
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  Speaker 2: and medium business people, those of you who are starting
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  Speaker 2: the work week looking to earn your own keep, employ
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  Speaker 2: some New Zealanders, pay your taxes, and provide a product
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  Speaker 2: or service that people want or need. You don't want
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  Speaker 2: luxury yachts and private jets. You just want to work hard,
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  Speaker 2: be rewarded fairly, have people get out of your way,
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  Speaker 2: not be strangled by red tape. Seems a fairly reasonable
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  Speaker 2: state of being. But as we know, small and medium
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  Speaker 2: enterprises are struggling and have been struggling for a few
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  Speaker 2: years now, and with an election looming, the ema IS
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  Speaker 2: released its election policy directives for twenty twenty six, and
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  Speaker 2: there are five of them. Stability and Certainty, wouldn't that
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  Speaker 2: be lovely? Infrastructure and consenting energy supply, Employment, Legislation and
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  Speaker 2: Investment and Innovation. Among its directives, the MAA highlighted what
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  Speaker 2: it says is a big issue for businesses, the lack
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  Speaker 2: of work readiness among those graduating from educational institutions, the
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  Speaker 2: number of those not in employment, education or training in
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  Speaker 2: the eighteen to twenty four age bracket continues to rise.
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  Speaker 2: So they've come out of school, they've come out of training,
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  Speaker 2: and nobody will take them on. Nobody's willing to take
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  Speaker 2: a risk. There's no doubt one of the drivers behind
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  Speaker 2: these numbers is a reluctance by employers to hire those
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  Speaker 2: new faces. Says the EMA, they're simply not ready for
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  Speaker 2: the workforce, lacking many basic skills and struggling with the
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  Speaker 2: simple disciplines of turning up, listening and engaging in the workplace.
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  Speaker 2: So the finger's being pointed squarely at the young people
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  Speaker 2: and the schools and educational institutions that have trained them.
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  Speaker 2: On early edition this morning, employment lawyer Max Whitehead disagreed.
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  Speaker 2: He said, it's not the young people, it's the business's
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  Speaker 2: lacking confidence to hire right now. Young people have always
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  Speaker 2: been young people. We've always been a bit useless when
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  Speaker 2: we start in our job. Unless you're a rare and
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  Speaker 2: wonderful unicorn, you don't know the job. You might have
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  Speaker 2: been trained, that's not the same thing as doing and
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  Speaker 2: being in the job, so you don't really earn your
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  Speaker 2: keep until a little bit later. So it's no use
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  Speaker 2: pointing the finger at the young people. Max Whitehead said
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  Speaker 2: it's the environment and the conditions at the moment that
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  Speaker 2: mean employers aren't willing to take a chance, and he
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  Speaker 2: also says that the corresponding lack of productivity is due
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  Speaker 2: to us being a nation of one or two men
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  Speaker 2: bands who lack the technological capability to be more productive.
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand's now a nation of contractors. They're just like
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  Speaker 3: one on one man bands or just a couple of
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  Speaker 3: people with employees, and they are the people that are
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  Speaker 3: really the core of our country. And that's where I
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  Speaker 3: think EMA is missing out is focusing on that getting
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  Speaker 3: them on their feet again. Maybe even if many of
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  Speaker 3: our contractors worked as cooperatives and actually purchased collectively some
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  Speaker 3: equipment that would make them actually more productive, that would
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  Speaker 3: be better ideas, but that needs to be incentivized.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So where do you think the issue is? If
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  Speaker 2: you are a one or two man band, you might
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  Speaker 2: have a few little young people working for you, you
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  Speaker 2: might have some people have been with you for forifty
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  Speaker 2: or sixty years, but three four up to ten employee ease.
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  Speaker 2: There's been an ongoing issue with New Zealand's lack of productivity.
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  Speaker 2: It's not that we don't know how to work hard.
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  Speaker 2: People are working hard, but they're not being as productive
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  Speaker 2: as they could be. Max Whitehead says, we lack the
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  Speaker 2: technological capability that a group of like minded SMEEZ could
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  Speaker 2: get together and buy the technology, the technology and the
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  Speaker 2: kind of computer systems that would make your business more
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  Speaker 2: productive if you're an accountant, if you're an architect, with
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  Speaker 2: your operating on your own. The EMA says it's young
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  Speaker 2: people coming out and not having the skills and ability
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  Speaker 2: to be able to convince employers to take them on. Yet,
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  Speaker 2: over the long weekend, I saw so many young people,
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  Speaker 2: school age kids working over the weekend on a weekend off.
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  Speaker 2: They were personable, they were chatty, they were welcoming, they
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  Speaker 2: were hard working. These were not kids who hold themselves
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  Speaker 2: up in bedrooms and never came out till they were
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  Speaker 2: twenty two. You know. They were young, bright, gorgeous kids
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  Speaker 2: who were happy to give up a holiday weekend to
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  Speaker 2: earn a bit of extra dosh, saving towards something they wanted.
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  Speaker 2: And I see that locally as well. In our local
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  Speaker 2: New World. You've got gorgeous young people working there while
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  Speaker 2: also studying, while also doing well at school, while also
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  Speaker 2: training for sports teams. You've got young people working at
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  Speaker 2: farmers in the malls of a weekend. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: it's young people either. I think it's either and I'd
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  Speaker 2: be really interested to hear if you were one of
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  Speaker 2: these who was a small business owner. It's either that
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand boat Batch BMW mentality where you work until
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  Speaker 2: you've got enough to have a nice life. And I've
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  Speaker 2: heard it before from business owners over the years. I
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  Speaker 2: don't want to work harder. I've got exactly what I
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  Speaker 2: need to have a nice life. I could be bigger,
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  Speaker 2: my business could grow, I could take on more staff.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to. I don't want to be more
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  Speaker 2: productive because that's just being measured in economic terms. I
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  Speaker 2: am really productive as a good husband and a good
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  Speaker 2: wife and a good parent, and I get to go
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  Speaker 2: on the school camps and I couldn't do that if
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  Speaker 2: I was running a big business. So this is to
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  Speaker 2: all the small and medium business enterprises out there. Is
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  Speaker 2: it the fact that you're working just as much as
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  Speaker 2: you want to. You have no desire to work any
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  Speaker 2: harder or take on any more employees. Is it the
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  Speaker 2: fact that you need to band together to get the technology,
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  Speaker 2: the computer programs that might be expensive, the capital that
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  Speaker 2: might be expensive that you couldn't do on your own,
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  Speaker 2: but you might be able to do as a team.
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  Speaker 2: I just don't think it's the young people. Everywhere I
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  Speaker 2: lock there are young people keeping shops, stores, businesses going
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  Speaker 2: over the long weekend. Without them, we'd be stuffed. And
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  Speaker 2: I bet there'd be a hell of a lot more
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  Speaker 2: young people in work if they could get it. You
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  Speaker 2: certainly hear of young people going around and knocking on
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  Speaker 2: doors and wanting to work. So, if you're a small
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  Speaker 2: medium business operator, owner, operator, are you exactly where you
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  Speaker 2: want to be? If you're not, what is it going
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  Speaker 2: to take for you to be where you want to be,
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  Speaker 2: to be as productive and earning as much as you
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  Speaker 2: want to be.
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