It was great to see the retail statistics published last week that showed Waikato once again leading the way in New Zealand over the last eight months.

By far and away we showed the strongest growth out of all the major centres including Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. It goes to show that when you quietly get on with it, you can achieve a lot. It also further reinforces the underlying strength of our local economy, fuelled of course be the blades of grass that grow in such abundance here and get converted to milk every day on the region's farms. Next year's payout to dairy farmers is looking to be really strong with predictions that it could go over the $6 mark the following year. This is great news for our local economy and will have a marked effect on New Zealand's economy.

One of the best things about doing business in this part of the world is that we are underpinned by such a solid and on-going base for the economy in the form of our dairy sector. This is a particularly good thing at the moment because it is one of the things that can be controlled as we constantly get buffeted by other world factors such as the US debt market and stock exchange fluctuations to name just two.

With all this in mind, it seems that we might be in for a bit of a slow down which is most likely going to be worse felt in other parts of New Zealand. From our perspective, we have noticed a couple of things that point to a changing climate. For a start, we are getting a lot of calls from companies who want to be more efficient with their advertising spend. This is a good time to look at this as you can still do a lot without the spending the same amount of money. Which brings me to my next point. The main thing we are finding is that we are working as hard, if not harder, for less budget. There is more pressure for campaigns to work and whatever we do, there is less money than usual to make it happen. A fact of life we have to deal with in business.

No doubt there are many other businesses around the region who are finding the same thing. Some will be nervous, some will be stressed, some will feel a sense of dread. I say bring it on. As a region this is a time when we can use our underlying strength to advantage and prove that we can compete through smart thinking, fleetness of foot and great service. As individual businesses it's about sticking to a few basic rules that should apply whatever the economic weather.

Here are a few rules we aim to stick to:

• Remember AVIS? They made themselves famous by being the number two who said they would try harder. When you're not the biggest and you have other factors against you, remember the "We try harder" motto;

• Don't stop investing in marketing. This is an area of expenditure that is often the first to be cut when economic conditions tighten. Sometimes it's the only option but it can also be risky as you can lose momentum in the market through disappearing from your customers' radar screens. This may save you money but it may also leave a gap for your competitors to move into;

• Look after your best people. Not much needs to be said about this but if you are going to try harder and be smarter you best people will be you number one weapon;

• Keep a close eye on what your customers are doing. The media market has become more and more fragmented which means some of the more traditional options need to be supplemented by new media outlets such as online, email, texting etc. To efficiently target your key customers, you need to know their media habits and with the right information you will be surprised about how much you can save.

If there is a slowdown, the great thing about the Waikato is that we have a far more steady pattern without the booms or busts. Equally, it is also a time when we can show what we are made of and try even harder to be the best in the country at what we do.