Sharing business wisdom
apparently 22,608 — to be particularly precise — small businesses in the Geelong region and 14,000 of these are sole traders.
And it won’t come as a surprise to many of us that running a small business can be a lonely job.
Even with other people in your team or office, it’s hard sometimes not to be over- whelmed by the constant challenges of keeping the cash flow steady and positive and customers and clients happy and appreciated.
Many of us tend to be Jacks — and Jills — of all trades, taking on all manner of jobs that bigger businesses have the wherewithal to either outsource or employ specialists to manage. To say it’s a juggle is an understatement.
But enough of the workplace woes. The truth is most of us run a small business because we love the challenges and we love the freedom of being our own boss and forging our own paths.
What many of us need to work harder on — and I include myself — is in taking the time to see the fabulous sup- port that is out there and the people who are ready and willing to share some hard-earned business wisdom.
The Geelong Small Business Festival runs throughout August and is part of an annual line-up of hundreds of learning and networking opportunities for businesses in Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Locally, there is a terrific calendar of more than 50 workshops and seminars covering everything from building your business resilience to protecting your online reputation, from creating better digital content to the secret to claiming back an hour in every day with a productivity 101 session.
Many of the events are free or low-cost and are well worth investigating.
If there’s ever a time in the year when you should be making the most of the opportunity to help your businesses grow, connect and improve, then this is it.
Not only is it an opportunity to hear from experts in business development, marketing and leadership, it’s also a great opportunity to meet other small business owners.
Apart from the flurry of activity for small businesses in August, the other option that is also well worth investigating any time of the year is the Small Business Mentoring Service.
The service works with Enterprise Geelong to deliver regular and free small business clinics.
These clinics offer business owners a session with an experienced business mentor who can answer your business questions, help you explore options and opportunities and take some time to focus on marketing, planning or financial issues.
And, if you take part in one of the free sessions, you can then access ongoing mentorship from a range of highly experienced business mentors at a reduced hourly rate.
So there is plenty of advice and support out there and you don’t necessarily need to invest a small fortune to access valuable information and guidance from people with genuine experience and who have walked more than a mile in very similar shoes to you.
The only question now is, what’s stopping you?