Small Business Friendly Councils Case Study Library

Small Business Friendly Councils case study library

Get inspired by these success stories and share ideas with other NSW Councils. Let us know if your Council has something you’d like to contribute!

All Case Studies

Gilgandra Shire Council

The GIL 12 Days of Christmas

The 12 days of Christmas involved more than 50 businesses, makers and artists co-locating in a large space which was left vacant by the previous retail tenant. With prolonged drought conditions impacting the region, the pop-up shop offered a centralised shopping experience, showcasing existing businesses and Gilgandra region’s local products and services. It helped reinforce an existing ‘Shop Local’ campaign and keep the main street active.

Local Business Welcome Events

The Hills Shire Council hosts a quarterly Welcome Event which provides information about active local networking groups and support opportunities available to new businesses in the area. The initiative is not only designed to help those who have recently started a new local business, but those who have moved their business to The Hills district or those with an existing business who are looking to connect with The Hills business community.

Doing Business with Council

Northern Beaches Council held a series of four information sessions for local businesses on local procurement during October 2018. The information sessions gave local businesses tips for responding to Council’s Request for Tenders and Quotations and clarified local government procurement requirements. They were also encouraged to register on the Vendor Panel Marketplace tool.

Shop Shapers

The Shop Shapers project was designed to encourage ground-level, street facing businesses to enhance their street appeal, foster social interaction and stimulate economic activity. The initiative, developed in collaboration with the local business chamber and the NSW Government Business Connect network, provided a holistic approach to address a range of challenges impacting local small retail businesses in West Ryde.

Make Council Your Business

Fairfield City Council has been conducting procurement workshops for local businesses since 2013. The workshops were developed to increase small business awareness of council processes and legislative requirements for procurement. They were also set up to equip local business to take advantage of council tender opportunities. Council worked in collaboration with local business chambers to promote and develop the initiative.

Yetman Long Weekend Music Festival

Inverell Shire Council, partnering with Yetman Hall and Progress Association, successfully accessed funding from the Australian Government’s Drought Communities Program to deliver the inaugural Yetman Music Festival. Held over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in 2019, the Festival provided drought affected residents with an uplifting experience and attracted more than 400 visitors. The two-day music festival offered family friendly activities and a market for local home-based businesses to showcase and sell their products.

Trading Places

Coffs Harbour City Council’s Trading Places Footpath Activation Initiative aims to create vibrant spaces on the footpaths outside local shops to encourage people to stop, look, stay, linger for longer and hopefully buy from local retailers. The Initiative waives footpath fees and simplifies processes for footpath use for A-frame signage, outdoor dining, merchandise displays, temporary street stalls and other footpath activations.

Pop Up Program

The Liverpool Pop-Up program offered six start-ups, social enterprises, community groups or artists an opportunity to trial their concept and activation ideas in a low risk environment for up to 6 months at very low discounted rent costs.

Wednesdays at the MBA

The Marrickville Business Association has been running a business skills workshop program every month for the past eight years. It’s available to businesses, covering skills and knowledge gaps identified through Council’s direct engagement with the local business sector.

Retail Innovation Program

The City of Sydney’s Retail Innovation Program aims to help local small retailers explore innovative ways to become more competitive in a digital economy, to grow into the future and cement the future of retail for Sydney as part of a vibrant, liveable city.

NightQuip

NightQuip was a night market held on the main streets of Gunnedah to coincide with the first evening of Australia’s largest primary industry field day, AgQuip. AgQuip attracts around 100,000 visitors to Gunnedah each year and is a huge opportunity for local small businesses.

The Workary – Business Incubator

The ‘Workary’ is a business networking hub initiated by Fairfield City Council which supports businesses of all sizes, in all sectors, and at every stage of development, including aspiring entrepreneurs, start-up enterprises, home-based business, or an established small-to-medium enterprise.

Date

29 Jun 2020