THE Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA has launched a small business advisory network designed to provide companies employing less than 30 people with a platform to be heard on policy matters concerning the sector.
THE Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA has launched a small business advisory network designed to provide companies employing less than 30 people with a platform to be heard on policy matters concerning the sector.
The WA Small Enterprise Network (SEN) will leverage off CCIWA’s resources to provide networking opportunities for the chamber’s estimated 4,300 small business members.
SEN will provide a range of services, including an advisory panel, advocacy programs, networking, and access to CCIWA’s flagship publication Business Pulse, as well as providing financial health checks, health and safety briefings, and industrial relations briefings.
The network’s inaugural chairperson, Kate Lamont, said advocacy and advisory services will be tailored to complement those already provided by the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC), its affiliated Business Enterprise Centres, and the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA).
“CCI broadly offers that practical advice but SEN is a renewed focus on issues that are particularly around small business,” she told WA Business News.
“There’s an argument that business is business, small or large, but at the end of the day it’s the way that advice is delivered that matters and I think SEN will bring a renewed focus to CCI about the way they deliver that advice.”
Ms Lamont said the network will remain independent of CCIWA and have its “own voice” with a separate focus in terms of issues surrounding small business, rather than a broad brush approach.
SEN manager and former small business owner Andrew Canion said with 80 per cent of CCIWA’s members employing less than 20 people, there was an inherent need to provide those members with a louder voice.
“I think we’re complementary to organisations like SBDC; we’re in a position where we can provide advocacy on behalf of small business and leverage off the strength of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has been around for over 100 years,” he said.
“It has a strong track record in the market and I think that brings to SEN a level of credibility and certainty that we’re here for the long-run and that we’re here to help small businesses and advocate on their behalf.”
COSBOA chief executive Jaye Radisich welcomed the new network, saying it will give WA small business owners more representation in the state.
Ms Radisich said she intended on contacting CCIWA “in the coming weeks” to forge a partnership with SEN and outline ways both entities could work together.
SBDC acting managing director, Jacky Finlayson, said SEN would provide additional benefits the state’s small sector, which represents an estimated 97 per cent of all businesses in WA.
“CCIWA’s new service is for its small business members so in that sense it will have little or no impact on what we do here at the SBDC for the broader population of small business operators,” she said.
“Our services are comprehensive and primarily free, and our online networks provide a great opportunity for small business operators in groups such as young business owners, women in business, and home-based business owners, to network both online and face to face.”
