RUSSELL BELL: Spending money locally

2011 Wanganui Chronicle Photograph by Tracey Grant Russell Bell Business Zen Zenith Solutions WGP 12Dec14 - SETBACK: Reviews of the wastewater plant suggest it may be too exp

MARKETS, when viewed over time, are essentially a story of expansion and contraction.

"Growth" is a common prerequisite to be classed a "strong" economy, while economists call poor performance by many names. In extreme circumstances words like "realignment" or "market adjustment" are used - but the reality is that the intangible economy swings back and forth like a pendulum.

However, these remain challenging times in some markets, with unprecedented volatility in the housing market in our largest city being case in point. There is also political and economic power-brokering altering world economic foundations - all eyes being currently on Greece and the euro.

Adding to this the theorists and politicians espousing "solutions" - only a few of which inspire confidence.

While bailing out indebted nations was a move for the particular time, the big stick of austerity is not the long-term solution to bring them back to growth. This is the same for businesses because if you continue to cut investment and costs, eventually you are going to cause the quality of your service to diminish with a resulting decline in value.

Here we have the Wanganui economy, each day going out to better its competition through guts and determination in an often inhospitable environment. I have often advocated that small businesses and small economies are where the real recovery will come from and am more convinced now than ever.

However, economies like ours are often populated by small to medium-sized businesses and these, effectively, take a higher level of risk. If Harvey Norman, for example, has a bad week shoulders are shrugged and another national advertising campaign is launched to move product. But if a small local operator experiences difficulty that might mean his or her livelihood.

Which is why our local businesses need to be supported because money spent outside of our economy seldom comes back. In many cases, the goods, services and/or expertise that you need is right here.

Retail is easy to highlight but it's great to see brave, local entrepreneurs stepping up to the plate and managing unique and vital businesses. Our policy is to search for locals with skillsets to assist our projects and only where we are unable to locate the right skills in Wanganui do we seek assistance from outside.

We have entered our sixth year and have embarked on the next phase of Zenith's development and are investing in infrastructure required to support that (with local providers). This mean investment, which is what this economy needs right now, and it also means innovation and new approaches, something we in Wanganui don't get enough credit for.

Russell Bell's Zenith Strategic Solutions is a specialist Wanganui business advice and consultancy practice - 021 2442421.