Mediaboss Marketing

While most of New Zealand came to a grinding halt during the lockdown, the business banking team at ASB found themselves busier than ever.

For Tim Deane, ASB executive general manager business banking, the global pandemic accelerated the bank's plan for a dedicated online portal for its business customers, particularly those running small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

His team has worked seven days a week for the past several weeks on the new ASB Business Hub, an online resource that aims to provide "everything you need to jumpstart your business" that is free to access for all New Zealand businesses.

"We are a nation of small and medium-sized businesses and when you have something like Covid-19, which has such a big impact on business, it's important that we all do our bit to try and work through what we can do to help," Deane says.

ASB / SUPPLIED

Tim Deane, ASB executive general manager business banking says the new ASB Business Hub is an online resource that aims to provide "everything you need to jumpstart your business".

"Prior to Covid-19, we'd done a whole lot of work looking at the top 20 needs of New Zealand businesses, then we'd worked through which of those top 20 needs a bank could help them with.

"Then during the lockdown, we refreshed the research into five absolute must-get-sorted things. And that's where the Business Hub came from."

Deane says the bank sees the hub as a long-term investment, promising that what you see today is just the beginning. There are more initiatives underway (of varying sizes) to back small businesses, with a really big announcement to come in the next few weeks.

Helping our SMEs get through this unsettling period is crucial to New Zealand's economic recovery, he says, and the hub is "part of what ASB needs to do to respond."

GETTY IMAGES

The Business Hub has a section dedicated to digitising your business and offers digital and social marketing tips and templates.

ASB Business Hub has launched with five sections targeted at small to medium businesses.

FINDING FINANCIAL SUPPORT

A simple navigation wizard that helps you identify what financial support you might be eligible for from both ASB and the Government.

FINDING DISCOUNTED TOOLS AND RESOURCES FOR CASH FLOW MANAGEMENT

It's important to have a good look at your costs and your cash flow, Deane says, and the bank has lined up some excellent partners with free or discounted online tools to help. "We've got Xero, MYOB and a Cash Flow 101 guide. We've also got our own Vonto tool, which gives you a curated daily feed of useful information about your business that you can act on. This section will develop over time and there will be more features added as we go."

READ MORE:*There are other solutions besides debt to Covid-19 business woes*Economic activity at Alert Level 2: What does it mean for Kiwis?*What you can do if your business is impacted by Covid-19

GETTING INSPIRED

The bank has paired up with one of its well-known customers, Eat My Lunch, as an example of a business doing clever things to help inspire others to switch their thinking in the post-Covid world.

REINVENTING MY BUSINESS

The bank has identified some common themes and tips learned during the lockdown that any business should consider, including checking out new tech and tapping into their ecosystems.

"We'll also have information on access to incubators, accelerators, grants, the sorts of things that are available for people to help change their business around," says Deane.

GETTY IMAGES

ASB says helping SMEs get through this unsettling period is crucial to New Zealand's economic recovery.

TAKING MY BUSINESS ONLINE

"Many of our customers are having to think differently about digital," Deane says of the Covid-19 fallout. "The 'digitising your business' part of Business Hub will look at digital and social marketing tips and templates and it will have some how-to guides.

"Over time, the plan is to add some partners that will actually help you build a digital strategy and use their offerings."

IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL

Since Covid-19 began, Deane says, ASB has helped around 10,500 of its business customers with cash flow pressures through various financial support options, which includes providing $180m in new low interest overdrafts, and principal relief and deferred payments on $5bn worth of existing loans. What they're seeing, he explains, is customers wanting to avoid extra debt if they can help it.

"That's why we're focusing on this Hub idea. What else can we do? Debt's one thing. What other solutions can we bring to the table to help you recover and rebuild?

"We talk about wanting to encourage our businesses to think differently. Well, this is part of a bank thinking differently and about ASB backing business. It's saying, it's not just about lending money, it's about what we can do to partner with our business customers to offer guidance and advice that helps them to be successful, because if they're successful, then we're successful."

For more information, visit Businesshub.asb.co.nz.

See more here:
Helping to jumpstart business - Stuff.co.nz