The hub offers advice, information and tools to help navigate COVID-19
ASB is offering advice and tools to New Zealand’s small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) through a new advice hub, which is free to access for all businesses.
ASB executive general manager business banking Tim Deane says many SMEs are struggling to find the information they need to navigate the economic fallout of COVID-19 - but according to an April survey, 46% of ASB’s small business customers also say they would need to ‘reinvent’ themselves in order to survive.
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Deane says the new resource will help businesses by offering support, advice and access to offers from various partners including Xero and MYOB, as well as ASB’s own tools such as Vonto, which gives customers a personalised daily feed about the status of their business.
“Over the last few months we have been working closely with businesses across the country and listening to what they need and what they are struggling with,” Deane commented.
“A lot of the same themes were coming up in these conversations and we realised this was something we could help with. One of the challenges SMEs tell us they face is having the time to find information and insights they could use to shape their businesses. The ASB Business Hub is designed to curate business knowledge into one place at their fingertips”
Deane says the hub will also offer information on how other SMEs have managed to navigate COVID-19, and identify what financial support the business might be eligible for, both from ASB and from the government. He says that while every business will inevitably face its own struggles, having all the relevant information in one place will be a huge help.
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“While we know there is there is no silver bullet for all businesses, we’ve teamed up with our own experts and banking partners to provide support, information and tools for SMEs in one easy to access place,” he stated.
“SMEs are the backbone of New Zealand’s economy, providing about 600,000 jobs and contributing around 26% of New Zealand’s GDP, but more than that, they are Mums and Dads, families and entrepreneurs.
“Our vision for the ASB Business Hub is for it to become a one-stop shop for New Zealand SMEs wanting to grow, and we’ll be building up the hub over time to reach that goal.”
