That is the message from the Otago Chamber of Commerce to businesses in the region struggling due to the global disruptions caused by Covid-19.
Chamber chief executive Dougal McGowan said funding had been made available for its regional business partner programme to support businesses across the region.
"At the moment, what we’ve been allocated ... is extra resource to put another adviser on the ground and an admin person to start planning and putting together events to support businesses and the RBP [Regional Business Partners] programme."
The first event would be on Monday at noon, at the Chamber of Commerce offices in Moray Pl in Dunedin, and was expected to address businesses’ concerns about managing their staff during the outbreak.
"The first thing people are asking us is what are the HR [human resources] issues, what are the employment issues and some staff welfare stuff," Mr McGowan said.
That meeting would be repeated in North Otago, South Otago, Queenstown, Wanaka and Central Otago.
More information on these can be found on the chamber’s website.
"We’re the first in the country to deliver these ... and they’re free of charge for businesses to come along," Mr McGowan said.
The chamber sent out a survey to businesses on Thursday night asking how they were affected by Covid-19 and "to find out what their future needs are going to be".
It planned to develop more programmes based on the feedback gathered.
As at 9am yesterday, there had been more than 100 responses to the survey — which so far had only been sent to businesses the chamber knew about.
"If businesses are wanting to talk or need to talk, get in touch with us here at the chamber and we’ll be able to put them in the right direction," Mr McGowan said.
The survey would help the chamber identify where businesses were struggling.
"Then we can target the support they’re going to need and ... inform Government about what that targeted response needs to be next week."
Further funding — to help businesses access more training and courses via a voucher funding scheme provided by NZTE (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise) — is likely to be detailed to the chamber on Monday.
