Hi guys,
Just wanted to bring your attention to NZTradeNetwork, an online marketing site for small businesses. If you are a small business or someone wanting to find a company to do a job for you, this is the site for you.
Check out the Marlborough Express article today 19th August 2010:
Playing field levelled
Network brings buying power to small businesses
By Michael Berry – The Marlborough Express
“It’s hard out there for the little guy, so it’s time for small businesses to unite and save rather than divide and fall, says a Blenheim entrepreneur.
James Hedley launched NZtradenetwork.co.nz last week to create a network for small businesses to band together for the good of them all.
It was free to join and had about 300 members already, he said.
“It’s growing fast and it’s something that’s been needed in New Zealand for a long time.”
Running a small asphalt driveway company in Blenheim showed him first-hand how difficult it was for small businesses to be competitive and profitable in the face of large nationalised companies, he said.
That struggle sowed the idea in his mind of levelling the playing field.
“There are expenses that most businesses have in common … we negotiate deals with suppliers fortified by our collective strength, then we hand those deals down to the individual businesses giving them huge buying power that no one business could ever achieve.”
A group of small businesses could get the good insurance premiums, the cheaper pricing for materials and other benefits usually the domain of large businesses, he said.
And the larger the network’s membership, the more bargaining power.
click to enlarge for article
“Our main aim is to provide all the advantages to small businesses that big businesses have … buying power, marketing exposure, support, opportunity and networking.”
The network would also be a forum for more business, with members able to support other people in a similar position and post requests for products and services, he said. Members could then bid on doing the job. “As a small guy, you can be the best in your field, but if people don’t know you exist it doesn’t matter.”
Any Kiwi-owned business with a turnover less than $30 million could join the network, he said.
The website would make money from advertising once enough traffic went through it, he said.”
There was also an article in The Sun yesterday
So if you are a small business or a customer, join up! Keep abreast of the latest with NZTradeNetwork Facebook. Of course if you are in Picton or the Marlborough Sounds you should also be on here Picton Marlborough Directory, Picton Juice.
Share