Support For Small Businesses

Last week, the Queensland Small Business Commissioner Dominique Lamb was in Ingham and addressed several small businesses.

She indicated that she’d been out to visit a number of small local businesses that were reporting mounting pressures as a result of the floods, including lost income and damage to property. She was able to provide information about some of the resources and services offered by the department, including small business financial counsellors, wellness coaches, and disaster funding, including QRIDA loans.

Chair of Recovery Mary Brown was happy Queensland Small Business Commissioner Dominique Lamb was present, and said it’s important people in this community understand that they are not alone.

“We do have support agencies at other levels of government who have reached out and are working with us to try and find solutions to some of the challenges we're having now,” she said.

“There are no guarantees. We know that, but bringing in those support services into the community is a stepping stone to try and help.

“Each and every business will have different challenges and different impacts, whether they were insured, whether they weren't insured, whether they have a lot of financial commitments prior to this event, whether they're well-placed cash flow wise, every single business is so different.

“So, we're not going to be a solution for everyone, but I think we have a common interest to our community, in that we all have had some impact.”

For many business owners flood recovery will be a very challenging time mentally, and for those businesses it’s important that they know help is available in region.

Wellness Coach Charlotte Johansson from Rural Financial Counselling Service North Queensland is in the region at the Recovery Centre, and is about to start one-on-one appointments with clients.

“I help business owners look after their mental and emotional wellness and that can be from a personal perspective, but it can also be from a business perspective. So, we can talk business strategies, so we can look at basic foundations of your business that might work or might not work, or that might be stressful,” explained Charlotte.

“One of the things that we do in terms of assisting people with business, is ownership challenges that they might have. It could be things such as staffing issues, we can work with managing material, how to manage, and how to work with the dynamic in your business.

“We can also work with things such as your personal wellness, you might have family members working in your business, and it can be challenging. So we can work on that dynamic, and we can work on things that people are struggling with at the moment.”