Sutherland Shire Business Chamber and Cronulla Chamber of Commerce

With help from the local community, Sutherland Shire Business Chamber and Cronulla Chamber of Commerce worked together to deliver ‘Shire Thrive: My Small Business Month Breakfast’. 200 people were in attendance, including the local mayor, councillors, CEOs, GMs and the diverse small business community, it was a lively and engaging event.

The keynote speaker, Carlii Lyon, delivered a presentation on Personal Branding and how that can help attract new customers. A panel discussion followed on resilience where attendees heard from Jim Winchester of Quest Woolooware, Kathryn MacMillan of Circle Recruitment & HR, and Kirsten Taylor-Martin of Grant Thornton. Local charities and government organisations also held stalls at the event to provide information on their services.

Dubbo Regional Council

Dubbo Regional Council partnered with Dubbo Business Chamber to host a four-stage event focused on connecting existing and new businesses with experts and services. The four stages covered: individual focus and clarity including work life balance, panelist discussion on growth and opportunities in the region, expert insights on connectivity and services available, and networking. The holistic approach to the event aimed to connect participants to ideas, tools and experts, and offer them focus for themselves and their business.

With over 50 attendees, feedback of the event was positive with one participant stating ‘Really enjoyed this. Great concept and way to get around and learn from varied experts’. The event was also featured in the local Daily Liberal newspaper.

Zero Point Development

For NSW Small Business Month, Zero Point Development held four webinars on video production, search engine optimisation (SEO), and digital marketing. The webinars were attended by 370 people and were well received, especially the webinars on SEO.

Zero Point Development held two webinars on SEO. The first webinar introduced attendees to the three core pillars of SEO: technical SEO, Content and Links. Zero Point Development’s second webinar guided attendees through how to install and use an SEO plugin on WordPress for pages and posts.

Attendees provided Zero Point Development with positive feedback. One attendee said “…learnt lots and gave me the big picture on how to optimize my SEO.” Another attendee said “…organised, clear and clearly enthusiastic about sharing your knowledge, I really appreciated all of those things.”

Maitland Business Chamber

The annual Small Business Summit was held by the Maitland Business Chamber with support from Maitland City Council on 26th October. The summit brought together an expo of resources and services available to support the local small business community. Stalls were held by Service NSW for government support, the NSW Small Business Commission for advocacy and mediation services, various marketing agencies for branding and events, Lifeline for mental health and BNI for business referrals and networking.

Workshops throughout the day included AI in small business delivered by Nimbler Digital and accessing and writing successful grant submissions by The Grants Guy. The summit was oversubscribed with an impressive 200 attendees.

University of Technology Sydney

The University of Technology Sydney held an online masterclass for small businesses on how environmental and social strategies can add value to their business. The masterclass was a part of the SME@UTS program designed for small business growth. Attendees were guided through frameworks, models, tools, and platforms that they can use to develop a sustainable plan for success.

49 people attended the online masterclass. 80% of attendees who completed the post-masterclass survey said that they would use the learnings from the masterclass to develop their sustainability roadmaps.

Burwood Council and Burwood Chamber of Commerce

Burwood Council and the Burwood Chamber of Commerce joined forces to deliver ‘Branding Breakthrough: Unleashing the Power of Your Story’, a face-to-face workshop. Speakers delivered presentations on building an organic brand to reach new customers and developing consistent engagement across social channels. The workshop had a great turnout, with 110 participants showing up on the day to be inspired and gain new skills in brand building.

In addition to the workshop, local businesses were invited to hold stalls which enabled connections to be made among the local small business community.  Overall, it was an engaging event with opportunities for questions for the presenters and networking among local business stalls.

China and Beyond

China and Beyond held two webinars as a part of NSW Small Business Month 2023. The first webinar, How to Protect Intellectual Property in Global Trading, provided attendees with insights on commercial and legal strategies to protect patents, trademarks, technology knowhow and copyrights when engaging in international product sourcing or expanding into global markets.

The second webinar, Minimizing Risks When Sourcing and Outsourcing Overseas, provided attendees with insights into the risks and pitfalls associated with sourcing products and services from overseas suppliers, along with practical measures to minimize these risks.

200 people attended the webinars. China and Beyond received positive feedback from attendees who appreciated the practical, comprehensive knowledge and tactics they gained.

Wollondilly Shire Council

Wollondilly Shire Council delivered three workshops across Small Business Month. Each session was booked to capacity with wait lists activated. Council launched with a lunch and learn ‘Business Health Check’ workshop, hosted by State Government support services, Business Connect, together with Service NSW Business Concierge who were available to answer questions about the support they can provide small businesses.

The following two workshops: Brand Strategy and Social Media Marketing were delivered by a local small business, The Unleashed Creative. This was a fantastic collaborative effort between council and a local small business. Attendees provided very positive feedback on the event including high facilitator ratings saying it was a ‘great initiative and very well organised’, ‘great workshop and food’ and ‘has given me confidence’.

Lamp Creative Pty Ltd

Leanne Farnworth from LAMP provided small businesses with an online workshop on unlocking business growth. The workshop explored how businesses can create compelling value propositions that resonate with their customers.

During the workshop, the attendees shared with Leanne the challenges they have encountered when trying to deliver value to their customers. These challenges included market entry barriers, communicating with impact, handling resource constraints, innovation setbacks, and risk appetite. Attendees were able to discuss these challenges and were also provided with fresh perspectives and practical tools.

Maitland City Council

Maitland City Council’s small business luncheon on the 9th October, themed My Small Business Brand, attracted 105 attendees. Keynote speaker Garth Russell shared valuable insights and practical strategies on enhancing business identity. His mission was to make the process of storytelling enjoyable and effective, building up attendee confidence and skill to deliver their own business story with ease and authenticity.

Following the presentation, Garth was joined by five local business owners for a panel discussion on branding. Each panel member showcased their storytelling prowess in a business highlights video created in the lead up to the event. As a bonus, all attendees were invited to pose for a professional headshot to promote themselves and enhance their business narrative.