BIEDO FLASHPOINTS AND NEWS

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BIEDO Regional Business

Over the past 18 months more than 964 hundred businesses have benefited from a special series of workshops & a professional business support programme designed specifically for rural businesses of the Inland Burnett.

The “Building Business” program offered workshops on Business Planning, Succession Planning, Workplace Health and Safety and HR, MYOB and Marketing, as well as business mentoring & one-on-one professional support.

“Because we are a regional organisation we deliver into every community and district in the Inland, no matter how small or remote.  The business training and services were funded by AusIndustry and customised for Inland rural businesses. It was delivered by BIEDO into local communities so it was accessible and reasonably priced.”

Just one of the hundreds of businesses to benefit from the program was First Avenue Machinery Sales in Kingaroy.

Toni Park, First Avenue’s Business Growth Manager says she attended all the workshops and also encouraged other staff and family members to attend.

“My husband Phil and I took over the running of First Avenue Machinery about two and a half years ago and are always looking for ways to improve the way we manage our business and service our customers,” Toni said.

“With the drought we’ve had to adapt to changes in farming and the impact that has had on our farm machinery business. The workshops helped us focus on important elements of our business and understand how to cope with these changes and grow our business at the same time,” she said.

“A component of the program was subsidised financial assistance for professional advice sought as a result of attending a workshop. We were able to use this funding to access a consultant to document our procedures and systems. This practical assistance has really helped us streamline the way our business runs and the quality of service we can give to our customers,” Toni said.

“I would definitely encourage other businesses to give BIEDO a call and find out what programs are available. Their support has been fantastic,” said Toni.

Just one of the businesses BIEDO has assisted over the past few years is the Biggenden Meat Works. Peter Gibbs, owner and manager of the meat works sought assistance from BIEDO when he bought the existing slaughter yards at Biggenden.  

“BIEDO’s help put us five years ahead of where we thought we’d be,” Peter said.

“We knew there was a domestic market for niche meat products and we wanted to turn the business into a multi-species abattoir that could process lambs, beef, pigs, ostriches and venison.”

“BIEDO helped us through the maze of red tape, government agencies and put us in contact with the right people,” Peter said.

“They also worked on funding submissions and were successful in securing a major grant for us that really got our business going. We used to have 3 people working here, now we employ 42!”

“I would definitely encourage other businesses to give BIEDO a call and find out what programs are available. Their support has been fantastic,” said Peter.

The Ausindustry funded programmes are nearing completion.  Stories from this programme will be published in local media and radio over the next few months.

Business Pilots & the 'Flying Start'

 BIEDO Business Pilots are currently trialing a new business programme that entails:

       A Business Health Check

       One-on-one business support

 The Health Check assists businesses to identify areas in which they can:

       improve,

       grow,

       exit.   

 It generates recommendations for action.  The Business Pilots are available to assist the client to implement those actions.  

The client is not obliged to use the Business Pilots in the implementation phase.  The client may opt for alternative business service providers.  Part of the Business Pilot’s role is to refer the clients to alternative service providers 

The cost of the Health Check is subsidized by BIEDO.  Any support & implementation services offered by the Business Pilots are currently provided on a fee-for-service basis. 

To date, we have:

       one Business Pilot in the South: Val Sapin,

       one Business Pilot in the North: Judy Harvey

 We are actively seeking additional Business Pilots in the Nth and South.  Our ultimate aim is to have a network of Business Pilots across the Burnett Inland, so that businesses in any community have ready access to one-to-one business support.

To date, we have 3 additional expressions of interest from the South, 2 males and one female - and are looking for expressions of interest in the Nth.  Ideally, we would like a good mix of male & female business pilots to cover different client preferences.

The Business Pilots are part of a ‘sustainability’ system being trialed by BIEDO in its Community Micro-Business programme. 

Criteria for Business Pilots:

       independent business service providers with experience in business management and one or more specific fields of business expertise,

       have their own professional indemnity, laptop, m-phone, printer,

       be resident in an Inland business catchment – which they service. 

BIEDO contracts each Business Pilot to undertake a specific number of Business Health Checks per annum.  Contracted Business Pilots are obliged to use BIEDO Health Check tools & systems and adhere to BIEDO codes of practice, reporting procedures, etc.  The process is carefully monitored.

Community Micro Businesses

The Business Pilots are one of 5 potential Community Micro Business initiatives that BIEDO is trialing in 2008-09.

Potential Community Micro Businesses in 2008-09 also include:

       Fund Writing and Resource Gathering (sponsorship, fund raising, inkind gathering)

       Administration

       Event Co-ordination

       Sustainability (community building, facilitation, capacity building [eg: governance] connectivity, consultation, engagement, permaculture & eco-projects, etc)

       Web & It services (web page building, basic IT technical support, etc)

To date, activities have been identified for and/or commenced in:

Criteria for C-Mi’s:

       They must be resident in their service catchment,

       They must be experienced, skilled in their C-Mi area, and mature in judgement,

       They must have, or develop, small business mgt skills,

       They must be self-motivated, organized & have excellent people skills

       They must adhere to BIEDO C-Mi processes and codes of practice while contracted to BIEDO.

To date, there are 3 Fund Writers, 1 Administrator, 1 Sustainability Officer and multiple expressions of interest for Event Co-ordination!  We are aiming for a network across the region so that every community group, Council and business has access to these services.

We have had 8 EOI from people resident outside the region. 

BIEDO is:

       subsidizing C-Mi’s during the initial 12 mth trial period; as this is a new concept for the region and building fee pools, and attitudinal change may take some time,

       organizing C-Mi recruitment and promotion,

       assisting C-Mi start-up,

       providing tools such as the Health Check, templates & checklists,

       assisting C-Mi’s and clients to set-up Service Agreements,

       providing coaching/mentoring/supervision on an as-needs basis,

       providing additional training in areas such as fund writing, etc,

       putting in place C-Mi-BIEDO contracts that stipulate quality & ethical standards.

       assisting community groups to create revenue & fee pool structures.  

 

A Phase One Community Micro Business is designed to be a 2^nd income, part time business.

C-Mi’s are suited to a retiree or parent who desires negotiable, flexible hours and control over what they do and when they do it.  They are designed to be very flexible, in terms of time, income, inputs and activities.  C-Mi’s can maintain their desired work/life/family balance and focus on areas in which they are very skilled.

Community Micro Businesses are ‘term makers’ not ‘term takers’. For example: A Fund Writer can do 2 or 20 applications pa.  A community group or business could contract an Administrator to do 3 hours a week every week, or a one-off job.  C-Mi’s can negotiate what they will do, depending on their time & skill.  An Event Co-ordinator may negotiate to manage the sponsorship but not the bookings.  A Sustainability Officer could facilitate community workshops, but delegate the note-taking. 

The client can be confident that they are getting someone who knows what they are doing and will complete a set task according to mutually agreed schedules & arrangements.

C-Mi’s and clients will use simple Service Agreements which record who will do what, by when, for how much, etc – so that expectations are clearly recorded and endorsed by all.

C-Mi’s make skilled support affordable and accessible.  A business may not be able to afford a full time admin officer.  An Administrator, who completes set tasks, such as maintaining the payroll for 4 hrs a week, or does 5 hrs of one-off data entry, may be more affordable. 

C-Mi’s create work/business opportunities for skilled people in our communities who cannot re-enter full time work due to parenting or other priorities. 

We know of 206 women and 5 men in the Inland who have the ability and the interest in flexible working options in an area in which they are skilled / qualified.  They want to keep their skills current, produce some income and maintain social & professional contact outside the home.  There are also an (as yet) unknown number of retirees / semi-retirees.

Community Micro Businesses are specifically designed to address 3 needs/ opportunities in small businesses, primary production units and community service groups: lack of:

1.      time or skill,

2.      personnel or volunteers,

3.      capacity to pay for skilled staff to perform these roles.

These shortfalls affect the financial viability and efficiency of businesses and groups, as well as the quality of their outcomes, and the number of activities they can feasibly undertake.

“There was one business in Perry that didn’t know how to load MYOB on the computer.  So the MYOB package sat on the office desk for 6mths, while the business operator continued to use ‘shoebox’ book-keeping.  The subsequent cost of paying an accountant to straighten out what should have   been fairly straightforward book-keeping record was 15 times what the business would have paid one efficient administrator to finish the loading & data entry job”.

Small businesses and producers can measure the value of a C-Micro Business in cost savings through greater efficiency and through actually getting jobs done because they have a dedicated person with the time and the skill to ‘crack’ the task! 

Community groups can measure the value of a C-Micro Business through access to skills that they may not have, and time that is in short supply as active volunteer numbers fall. 

“As groups discontinue community projects and fund raisers, through lack of time, energy & volunteers, their relevance & financial stability declines.  A C-Mi can help turn that around as they have the time & skill for resource gathering, fund raising, event co-ordination & project management or support and administration such as correspondence, record, minutes, etc”.

C-Micro Businesses are fee-for-service enterprises.  They are paid on completion of a task or on an hourly rate – depending on their negotiation with the client. 

Where community groups are concerned, we appreciate that capacity to pay may be an issue.  We are encouraging two options:

       a percentage of all revenue is set aside to gradually build a fee-pool to pay for C-Mis,

       a percentage of revenue generated by C-Mi activity – such as an event or a funding application be allocated to the C-Mi.  

Ideally, the more successful the Fund Writer or Event Co-ordinator is, the more financial the group  will become.  The more financial the group becomes, the more income can be generated to pay for       C-Mis’.

MICRO-BUSINESS: Viable Futures

Viable Futures offers:

1.      small business support,

2.      business start-up support,

3.      accredited training in a skills/qualification area necessary to business success.  Training can be in a technical area such as aged care or trades, or a business management area such as marketing, MYOB, etc.

4.      business & leadership training (non-accredited) in areas such as client service, e-commerce, etc.

The accredited training aspect of Viable Futures is funded by the Dept of Employment & Industrial Relations.  

Target number: 55 in 2008.

Current number: 25

Belinda Morrison, Regional Training Coordinator

REGIONAL DROUGHT MITIGATION AND SUICIDE/DEPRESSION MANAGEMENT:

"Beating the Blues"

Activities undertaken or underway:

1* refers to number of workshops.   

Services at these events can include:

o        Blood sugar and blood pressure testing made available by local ambulance,

o        Physical and Mental stress management talks

o        Various health issues talks & information

o        Tai Chi, stretching & exercise demonstrations

o        Massage and beauty therapy

o        Info packs of Beyond Blue and associated material distributed

o        Access to Centrelink, QRAA and Centacare and Community Health

o        Information packs on mental, physical and emotional health materials

o        Workshops on early intervention for stress, depression and suicide,

o        Advanced workshops on suicide & depression management

o        Stress management, nutrition, laughter therapy, anger mgt, etc,

o        A chance to socialize and relax – with a nice meal,

o        Inspirational speakers.

 At these days we experienced: 

o        An average of 5 referrals to Centrelinks Rural Services Officer.

o        An average of 3 referrals to either, counseling, QRAA, Emergency Relief payments, or other financial services and help.

o        An average of 2 directed to access CWA funding.

Karen Seiler (South Burnett DBO) and Kathy Rosenberger (Nth Burnett DBO)

COMMUNITY RENEWAL

The Renewal programme funded through Our Communities was completed in March 08.

Ongoing projects such as the comfort packs & the Bundaberg Hospital accommodation, community transport and new activities such as community capacity building will be delivered through the 2008 BIEDO Community Assist and Care Assist programmes. 

Brief Description:

Bundaberg-Inland Health Accommodation:

to provide accommodation for Inlanders and their families, who have to stay close to coastal hospitals, eg: maternity cases, post-operative care, etc.

Bundaberg-Inland Service Directory Map:

to ensure Inlanders know where to go to get food, petrol, accommodation, laundry & banking services, health care, etc when in Bundaberg.  These services maps are aimed particularly at families who are supporting a family member in hospital. Comfort Packs:

for Inlanders taken to hospital at short notice.  They contain toiletries, phone cards, etc.

Specialist Booking Days:

trying to organize a system of booking coastal specialists and Inland clients on days, and at times, compatible with the community buses.

Community Bus:

trying to organize funding to purchase 2 new buses with larger carrying capacity and disability options.  New buses will enable more trips per week, as well as better carrying capacity.

Community Car/s:

trying to organize 2 community cars for greater transport flexibility.

Public Forums:

were organized in 2007 to gather ideas from communities about where they saw opportunities and issues and positive actions for future community renewal. The Forum Report was tabled, and distributed, in November 2007.  

BIEDO also assisted the Nth Burnett Interim Council to make a submission to the remuneration tribunal and lobbied for the Nth Burnett to maintain a decentralised council structure. 

“…. the North Burnett is now ranked as a category 3 council which will almost make our elected representatives full time members.

I feel this is a good result and the best we could have hoped for, I believe this is also a direct result of the submission you made on behalf of our area.

Thank you and well done.” [then Councillor, Trevor Harvey]

PERMACULTURE PROJECT

This project is part of BIEDO’s strategic initiative to position the Inland as a world leader in green technology, industry, tourism, construction, energy management & daily living. We aim to create & publish models for other rural communities & industry networks to adopt.

Each initiative in the Sustainability Programme helps to explore practical solutions to wider environmental issues of resource depletion and/or pollution, waste management, global warming, peak oil and other environmental and socio-economic pressures at a local level.

The Wondai State School pilot focuses on a community garden as a site for social connectivity between community sectors. Interest to date includes:

·       Families within the school

·       Families from other areas

·       Local QRWN branch