Like many businesses, we start each year looking at the changing business environment and thinking about the changes we need to make to grow our business, maximising the value we offer our clients.  Last year we introduced 'coaching' and this year we've got some new ideas that we'll be launching towards the middle of the year.

Research Research Research

All the business advisors tell you that before you introduce new services, you need to research them, establish the size of the market and what demand there may be.  That's easier said than done.  So, how, or rather where, do you start?

Introducing Statistics NZ Table Builder

Those pesky statistics returns that we all have to complete have a point!  You can access the information from www.statistics.govt.nz.  Look for their link to 'tablebuilder'.  It'll drop you into a list of subjects - I tend to go to 'business statistics' and from there, select the relevant tranche of data and drill in.  It's a bit like an Excel Pivot Table.  You can move items between columns and rows, and you can drill in for more detail.  In the screen shots below, we're looking at business size geographic distribution "industry by region".  To narrrow down the areas, we can simply click on it, then dive in and choose the particular locations we are interested in.  The level of detail you can get to is quite extraordinary, although Stats NZ go to some effort to ensure there is never enough detail to identify an individual business. 

Once you have the data that you need, you can extract it out to Excel and manipulate it using familar Office tools (if you need help with Excel, call us for a computer coach to come assist you!)

Talking of help, the Stats help is pretty good, but best of all, you can ring Statistics NZ for help.  For free.  They'll help you understand what you are looking at, and help you drill into it to get the information you need to make your measured business decisions.