SME Highlights

1 - Mental health focus at the latest SME Open Forum

In October, our SME Open Forum focused on 2 3 mental health. Mental Health Ambassadors Gerry Doyle and Mark Fairweather with Paul Broad, member of the Mental Health Working Group, shared insights into how they support the mental health of their employees and their wider community. Key topics discussed included supporting colleagues in remote working environments, top tips for a mentally healthier work environment, and celebrating the progress as you go. It is evident that remote working, pipeline pressures, and resource constraints have had a significant impact on the mental health of our members and particularly our SME members. We thank all in attendance for their courage to be vulnerable and encourage you to access our mental health resources available on our Mental Health Knowledge Hub for guidance to support your businesses.

2 - Second SME Summit a success!

Our second ever SME Summit was held in September with strong attendance and great discussions. We covered so many topics from staff retention, professional indemnity insurance and working with Indigenous businesses and communities. The team were pleased to help lead the four breakout rooms focussed on our 4 P’s of People (how to keep the good ones), Procurement (risk, risk, risk), Practice (working digitally) and Pipeline (how small business can get in on the pipeline of projects). Many thanks to our MC for the Summit, Frank Carlow as well as other small business members that helped drive the agenda for the day including Holly Carson, Barbara Crossley and Martin Gamble.

3 - NSW resources on government tendering

The NSW Small Business Commissioner and TAFE NSW have partnered to deliver free online training and a guide for small businesses navigating the NSW government tender process. The online training consists of four modules; Getting Business Ready, Finding Opportunities, Selling to Government, and Successful Supplying. The guide, Selling to the NSW Government: A Guide for Small Business includes referee report and business capability statement templates. Visit the NSW Small Business Commissioner webpage to access the small business support.

Be engaged, get value!

The best way to get value from your membership is to engage with Consult Australia, be it through events and education, by responding to calls for input or just contacting your State/ Territory Manager to vent about current business frustrations. n

In 2021 we’ve had some great input and support from our small business members, our most active players include:

- Carlow and Carlow

-Florian Fire Consulting

- Gamcorp

- Mark G Jackson

- Webb Australia Group

- RED Fire Engineers

- MLEI Consulting Engineers