business

Setting up business: we’re prize winners

Written By: Jenny Michie - Date published: 10:31 am, January 18th, 2012 - 35 comments

Yesterday I officially set myself up in business.  As a GST registered independent contractor. It took about half an hour. Both IRD and ACC’s websites were easy to navigate and understand. I do admit I got a little befuddled trying to figure out the correct ACC classification for what I do (enthusiastic nagging, recruitment and communications at […]

Rich attacks unions

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 6:56 pm, December 27th, 2011 - 98 comments

Katherine Rich attacks the waterside union in an opinion piece today.

But that’s not surprising given she’s being paid to speak on behalf of some of the biggest corporations in the world.

Anyone would think there’s some kind of connection between how strong unions are and how big a slice of the pie the rich can take for themselves…

National’s undeserved reputation

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 11:05 am, October 19th, 2011 - 46 comments

National are seen by many as the party of business, and thus the party of the economy, who know what’s best for the country’s wallet. But the statistics don’t add up. Their reputation is undeserved.

Bait and switch

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:25 am, October 5th, 2011 - 27 comments

The national icon suddenly announces that the future of the thing we pride ourselves is at stake. Some big mean foreigners are going to take if off us. Oh no, oh no! Fortunately, there’s a solution. It just requires a few tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. Sound familiar? As with the Hobbit, now with the All Blacks. We got suckered once. Will we again?

Farrar: Ironically being political and shallow

Written By: lprent - Date published: 11:00 am, September 4th, 2011 - 66 comments

Reading the political spin from David Farrar (channeling Bill English) over the weekend, I have to keep reminding myself that he really has very little idea about the practicalities of business. Where he is concerned about political costs, I find from a perspective of an exporter that I’m far more concerned about reliability of services.

Wealth creators or life-blood suckers?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:40 pm, August 8th, 2011 - 38 comments

Study proves that our ‘wealth creators’ are actually bad managers. We have the natural resources. Got the skilled workforce. We’re held back by the capitalist elite. Not interested in capital investment and paying better wages. They’re just rentiers out to extract quick profits: a formula of low wages, tax cuts, and untaxed capital gains. Parasites.

R&D: Our future

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 6:27 am, May 25th, 2011 - 86 comments

National are bleating about Labour’s Research & Development tax credit – largely because as they have no economic plan of their own, so they can only talk about other parties’. But Labour’s R&D tax credit is in fact part of what’s desperately needed to get our economy moving in the right direction.

The Marketers

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 7:01 pm, April 24th, 2011 - 30 comments

I got involved in marketing through my business and was a firm believer. I spent tens of thousands of dollars on marketing, advertising and training as most companies do; but in the end it felt like I was selling my soul and I quit the system. So much effort is expended trying to sell something to people that they either couldn’t afford or didn’t need.

Key SCF excuses fall flat

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 10 comments

Michael Bott takes John Key to task for his claims over the South Canterbury Finance debacle. Key and English have tried to blame Labour for the deposit guarantee that covered SCF. But the truth is that National extended SCF’s coverage under the scheme again and again, despite knowing that SCF was in breach of the rules.

You’re an internet pirate

Written By: r0b - Date published: 9:25 am, April 14th, 2011 - 37 comments

Last night the Nats were ramming their new copyright bill through under urgency.  Like the much reviled Labour bill that preceded it, it contains the assumption of guilt by accusation.  There are already calls for repeats of the 2009 blackout protest…

Of train sets and stuffed companies

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:52 am, April 6th, 2011 - 29 comments

The saga of South Canterbury Finance just keeps getting worse and worse, with news yesterday that the taxpayers’ bill for the bailout rose by a further $300 million due to the costs of “insider loans”. Why are we spending $1.2 Billion (and climbing) on a stuffed company?

Sick April Fool’s Joke

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 7:18 am, April 1st, 2011 - 72 comments

Today National has a terrible April Fools for workers around Aotearoa: 90 day fire-at-will, reduced union access, sick notes after 1 day and minimum wage up a pittance. Workers are doing it tough already, and now National’s turning the screw.

Informed consent

Written By: r0b - Date published: 10:08 am, March 23rd, 2011 - 47 comments

Owners of businesses in the red zone CBD want brief access to their premises to retrieve items and data that are vital to whatever remaining chance they have of keeping their enterprises alive.  The government is refusing access on the grounds of safety.  There’s right on both sides of the issue, but whatever happened to informed consent?

Looting by another name

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:22 am, March 11th, 2011 - 126 comments

Mayor Bob Parker has described landlords hiking rents in Christchurch as “looting by another name”.  I think the majority of us would feel as Parker does — it seems simply wrong to exploit people for profit in a time of tragedy.  But look around.  It’s just unregulated capitalism in action.  There’s an awful lot of it about.