The Queensland Government is delivering on its Big Plans for Small Business Strategy commitment, with new and improved online resources to support small business owners. The Minister for Employment and Small Business stated that the Business Queensland website had updated several popular topics, including finance, accounting and profit, adapt and change, and digital skills for business, following extensive customer research.
The Minister noted that the Government is progressively releasing updated content on the Business Queensland website, including new guides, videos, checklists and calculators, to provide business owners with fresh information in user-friendly formats.
Business Queensland has already recorded more than seven million visits during the 2021–22 financial year, and providing up-to-date, practical advice in one place is a real benefit to business owners who are juggling so many demands on their time. This information supports new and growing businesses to pursue their next goals and improve their operations.
The Minister added that the digital world is evolving rapidly, particularly with COVID-19 accelerating working from home and online shopping trends. She noted that understanding how to build or improve a website, preparing a digital marketing strategy, sharpening business social media skills and improving cybersecurity are all becoming more important.
Finance, accounting and profit are an integral part of running a business and Business Queensland content now includes videos, calculators and downloads covering cash flow, profit, improving financial performance and establishing systems and processes.
The ‘adapt and change section’ includes a step-by-step process to help business owners pivot, adapt or transform their business when they need to respond to change. The resources also include a Business Health Check tool to help owners understand which areas of their operation they could look to focus on in the future.
These updates have been developed to be easier to find, easier to understand and easier to put into practice, the Minister noted. The updates are part of the Queensland Government’s plan to deliver more new and updated resources for small businesses throughout 2022.
About the Big Plans for Small Business Strategy
The Big Plans for Small Business Strategy 2021–23 aims to help small businesses thrive and grow through a commitment of $140 million over 2 years.
The objectives of the strategy are to:
- support small businesses to recover and increase their ability to thrive and grow
- increase the skills and capability of small business owners and their workforces to take up new business opportunities
- drive jobs growth within small businesses
- support local and regional economies and communities.
Reskilling and upskilling Queensland residents are high on the Government’s agenda. For example, in the Digital Queensland: Digital Professional Workforce Action Plan (2020-2024), the Minister for Communities and Housing (who is also the Minister for Digital Economy and Minister for the Arts) noted that the industry has indicated it will need an additional 10,000 digital professionals in Queensland by 2024, and the Queensland Government is investing $8 million over four years to deliver this Digital Professional Workforce Plan to ensure we can harness the jobs of the future.
This plan will help ensure that the state will have the requisite skills and professionalism to design, build and implement the digital outcomes Queensland needs.
