Small Business Capacity Building Program revamped

The City of Fremantle is relaunching its successful Small Business Capacity Building Program to provide free advice and support to local small businesses facing challenges in the wake of COVID-19.

Delivered in partnership with local business support organisations Business Foundations, Fullsky, the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Council WA, the program provides small businesses in Fremantle access to free training, support and one-on-one mentoring, and has been adapted to focus on assisting businesses develop a post COVID-19 recovery road map.

The program will be delivered across a number of streams including Retail and Hospitality, Creative Industries and Tourism.

Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said the Business Capacity Building Program was another example of how the City was helping local businesses bounce back from COVID-19.

“Because a lot of businesses in Fremantle are based around hospitality and tourism the COVID-19 pandemic has hit pretty hard,” Mayor Pettitt said.

“When the state first went into lockdown with the all the COVID-19 restrictions the City joined up with Business Foundations to deliver free one-on-one advisory sessions to provide information to local businesses about the federal and state stimulus packages that were on offer.

“Now that we’re in the fortunate position in WA where those restrictions have eased it’s great that we can once again offer Business Capacity Building Program to really help those businesses get back on their feet.

“We will continue to offer the one-on-one advisory service to the retail and hospitality industry and this time we’ll also have the advisory service open to the creative industries, with a specialist in the field offering support and mentorship.

“And whereas previously there was a small fee for businesses to access the subsidised training available through the program, this year it will all be completely free.”

In addition to mentoring and training, the Business Capacity Building Program also provides the Fremantle business community with access to the online grant portal, the Fremantle Funding Finder.

Powered by GrantGuru, the portal lists the grants and funding opportunities being offered by a range of agencies throughout Australia. 

Fremantle Chamber of Commerce will continue to deliver a series of ‘Set the Month in Motion’ workshops and podcasts throughout the year.

The workshops and podcasts will focus on issues, challenges and areas of interest for small business and feature guest speakers and experts in a variety of business-related fields.

In recognition of the time pressures that come with running a small business, the podcasts are available for businesses that are unable to attend the workshops, giving further opportunity for busy small business leaders to learn in a format that suits them. The forums are also made available online via a Facebook Live stream.

The City has also partnered with the Small Business Development Corporation to support the local small business community.

SBDC’s services are free of charge for all WA small businesses and there is no limit to how often people can access their services. 

To apply for support through the Business Capacity Building Program or for information regarding upcoming workshops visit the Business Capacity Building page on the City of Fremantle website.

Image: Mayor Brad Pettitt with local small businesspeople Emma Daly from MOTHER, Ada Guglielmino from Parlapa and Michael Deller from Fremantle Tours and The Dellers Café.