Statistics for challenging times

Auckland businesses are being encouraged to use freely-available statistics to help them makegood decisions in challenging economic times.Statistics New Zealand is hosting four free ‘Go Stats’ seminars in Auckland for small to mediumsized businesses, to show them how to improve their bottom line.

Deputy Government Statistician Patrick Ng says that “in these tough economic times, businesseshave fewer margins to work with, and the impact of good or bad decisions is therefore morestriking”.

Statistics New Zealand has joined with the Chamber of Commerce to run the Auckland seminars,which are part of a national series.

"Businesses are often run with little consideration given to assessing income flows, cost pricingstrategies, customer demographics, or competitor information. Statistics provide data that canhelp assess this information, as well as assessing other opportunities to maximise income orminimise costs,” Mr Ng says.

“Businesses are continually surprised at how much helpful information we provide.Theseseminars are also a way we can give back to businesses, as we appreciate the time they spendgiving us data which we turn into relevant information.”

Seminar topics include evaluating business potential, targeting promotions, estimating marketshare, assessing new site locations, applying for finance, and analysing import/export trends.Running concurrently is a free ‘Web Stats!’ seminar, targeted at the general public, which willshow people how to navigate Statistics New Zealand's new website.

Examples used will focus oncensus and social information.

For more information visit www.stats.govt.nz/gostats or www.stats.govt.nz/webstats for seminardetails