August update from the Commissioner

With NSW Small Business Month only a month away, event preparation is well underway, and it is shaping up as a fantastic month-long festival celebrating and supporting small businesses.

Successful local business chambers, industry associations, councils and other not-for-profits have been advised of their grant success and organisations can still sign up as an official NSW Small Business Month Collaboration Partner.

Events will soon begin to be published on the NSW Small Business Month website. I encourage you to browse the events and register as soon as they are available. A reminder that this year’s events will focus on seven key topics: Brand, Cyber Security, Health, Online, Resilience, Team and Trade.

With a high level of construction activity across NSW, it’s important small businesses that may be affected take steps to minimise potential impacts on them. We have recently published a new guide for small business on how to prepare for construction works land what to do when issues arise. Even if you do not expect any construction in your area, it is a great read on how to prepare a business for possible disruption.

We have also published a new guide for local councils on how they can assist and energise their small business community. The role of councils is central to how well local businesses thrive and the guide shows councils how to implement small-business-friendly practices and processes, as well as offering ideas for marketing and activation campaigns. It is a valuable resource for economic development officers.

Chris Lamont