Back to business for him

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 19

Back to business for him

Gary Sturgess, until recently a Christchurch City Council small business co-ordinator, is about to start seeing business life from the other side of the counter again. Mr Sturgess, who helped set up the new Canterbury Development Corporation during his 11 months with the council’s Department of Labour-funded employment promotion office, has been appointed general manager of Lane Latimer, Ltd, a food processing and manufacturing company in Dunedin. He was general manager of a Christchurch footwear manufacturing firm, M. O’Brien and Company, Ltd, for six years until after it became a subsidiary of Lane Walker Rudkin Now he will be able to start practising again what he has been talking about, such as product marketing, to prospective businessmen.

“What happened is the adrenalin started pumping,” he says when talking about the prospects of a new job. “It will be an extension of what I’ve been doing here. “I want to prove that Dunedin — I guess the South Island, not really Dunedin so much — is not dead.” The employment promotion office has been seeqpg more people who need acquainting with the

realities of being on the selling side of a business.

“They visualise what the small businessmen are — their own bosses, with $30,000 worth of stock around them, selling goods, cash in hand,” he says. “They don’t realise that it’s hard work. They don’t think about problems of cash flow, turnover, stock control, inflation, having to buy next season’s stock at an inflated price, the Government interference that makes it even more difficult to borrow money.”

The office has taken on more volunteer retailing counsellors to help cope with the number of questions coming in. “Our most common' retailing counselling has been telling of the hard realities,” says Mr Sturgess. “We try to analyse their motives. “Are they prepared to take a drop in income, put themselves at risk? Do they realise it is hard to find employment after a period of self-employment? “We needed counsellors experienced in retailing who could go into homes, talk to families when it reached that stage and assess their commitment. The ‘business for sale’ columns are getting,.bigger every day. That should be afcgn of what problems there are.” 1

Most people new to retailing have to be “put on the other side of the counter,” he says. “Especially with dairies.”

The Dunedin job will be an opportunity to put a team together, says Mr Sturgess. “I guess what I’ve done is plucked myself from one side of the counter to the other.” He leaves an office that has increased the community’s awareness of the need for its service, and an office that is receiving more enquiries about business ideas that have a chance of making it. At the same time, the office is getting more feelers from people it can’t help because they have no chance of getting start-up finance. An unemployed person who wants to start a lawn-mowing service but lacks a vehicle or any equipment is one example. Or the man who wanted to buy an expensive truck on hire purchase so that he could try to get City Council contracts. “I have no objection to talking to these people at all,” says Mr Sturgess. “I give them the hard facts with both barrels. What concerns me most is that they leave here quite despondent.” . The office can help those with an* idea or a skill, but even with an

idea, it has to be something unusual, he says. One of the biggest problems facing those with good ideas is the lack of finance from anywhere but traditional lending sources, which by and large are not lending. The City Council’s scheme would face major problems without the help of a long list of volunteer business counsellors. There was concern now that some new businesses would rely too long on the free counselling. “There is a big, wide world out there,” he says, “and they have to face it in the end.” Some small businesses could consider appointing an outsider as a non-shareholding director who could offer expertise not available within the company. That director could get regular reports and attend board meetings, and could receive a small reimbursing fee. Large businesses, which often rely on small businesses for a large part of their sales, could also offer more support, such as funds for the new development corporation. Small businesses are responsible for much of the commercial innovation seen in this country, says Mr Sturgess.