Yvette Adams is among a group of young Sunshine Coast entrepreneurs keen to take their business to the next level.
For the past 18 months she has been running her multi-media company called thecreativecollective.com.au.
And last week she was among a group of ambitious young business owners who took part in the first of six workshops to be held under the Young Entrepreneurs Program (YEP), funded by the Federal Government and run by the Sunshine Coast Business Academy (SCBA).
Ms Adams said the workshop, which had the theme of business planning, had been “excellent”.
“I got heaps of ideas … doing the program makes you allocate time to do things like planning which you normally don’t do,” she said.
“It helps you define a strategy”
One of the presenters at the workshop was Wayne Graham, associate lecturer in management in the Faculty of Business at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Mr Graham said research showed small businesses were often started by people with “great ideas, great skills and great enthusiasm”, but too often there was no strategy for growth or to navigate their business operating environment.
With that in mind, Mr Graham has developed a “strategy process diagnostic” which he described as “a tool to initiate dynamic business planning”, adding it had received “an overwhelming response”.
He said the process helped businesses identify actions they had already taken to encourage growth, and to give them some direction for the future.
All participants at the YEP workshop completed the diagnostic, which is a free, publicly available research tool, and is being used by more than 50 businesses and government organizations across Australia.
SCAB business development and mentoring officer Rod Richards said the YEP program was “designed to fill in identified gaps in the skills and knowledge of small business owners”.
Mr Richards said future workshops would cover topics including marketing, financial management and HR.
“I’ll also be doing one-on-one mentoring with all the participants,” he said.
“Through the program, we want to develop their businesses and their business skills.
“The bottom line is, we want to reduce the incidence of business failure.”
