Te Manu Atatū's plan to help Whanganui businesses deal with 'overwhelming' Covid information

Te Manu Atatū's Māori business development manager Karli Kaea-Norman and network development manager Kat Wade will be helping businesses navigate Covid-19. Photo / Bevan Conley

Managing a deluge of information around Covid-19 will remain the biggest challenge for businesses this year, Kat Wade says.

That will be the main focus for Te Manu Atatū Whanganui Māori Business Network over the next six weeks as it helps its members understand how to deal with the pandemic.

Wade, the network development manager for Te Manu Atatū, said help was urgent.

"A lot of the information is quite overwhelming for some of the businesses and there are so many different places that you have to look to piece something together," Wade said.

"It's actually about understanding a lot of the information and keeping up with it."

Wade works with government agencies to get information out to Te Manu Atatū members and connects them with funding or support.

"We work with multiple iwi to … understand the needs of Māori across Whanganui," Wade said

To help do that Te Manu Atatū has expanded.

Karli Kaea-Norman is Te Manu Atatū's new fulltime Māori business development manager and the network is also recruiting an administration assistant.

"So because we have increased capacity we are now able to offer more in the network and more support for the members," Wade said.

"Whereas when it was just me it was pretty limited as to what I was able to do in terms of that one-on-one contact."

One of the new features for members is a one-on-one session tailored to their business.

"Anyone who re-signs - current member or new member - gets a 30-minute consultation. In the 30 minutes, we've created a kit of information that's either employment-related or health-related, etcetera," Wade said.

"Our whole focus for the next six weeks is just going to be these support sessions."

Wade said each workplace had different needs.

"The ultimate aim with the support session will be to figure out if there's anything that the businesses don't understand or don't have the answers to, and we'll find it for them."

Te Manu Atatū wanted to be more flexible with membership options too.

"There's no obligation for anyone to continue, they can just opt out when they want to. Previously there was only the annual option."

On top of Covid, other changes for business pose challenges as well.

"We're shortly coming up to another minimum wage pay rise, and now employees have 10 sick days instead of five so there's actually a significant amount of challenges for small businesses at the moment, financially as well," Wade said.

"It's a tough time to be in business without any external support. So that's where we really want to push that for our network in the next couple of months is that they're not alone, and to reach out for support.

"Don't try and fight through it if you just feel like you're getting lost and drowning in all of these changes and all of this information."