Business Victoria's online library to Guide Small Businesses

[Business Vic]

Business Victoria is an online resource to help you decide if you have the right skills to run a business, whether you’ve done enough preparation to start your business.

Business Victoria's online library brings together a wide range of business tools from a variety of sources. It provides free information on business planning.

This online library has the best tools available including business plans, marketing strategies, financial guides, online marketing and tips from other businesses.

See link:

http://toolsandtemplates.business.vic.gov.au/

[LeelaCosgrove]

Blatant self promotion .. but actually one of my favourite sites to direct people to when they are just starting out ... so yay!

[Robert Gerrish]

Agreed, blatant self promo. We can only hope that someone from Business Victoria attempts to engage more meaningfully with us over time!

[LeelaCosgrove]

Unfortunately Robert, that's the price of having such a well known and successful brand ... people are going to want to take advantage of it without giving much in return ...

Take it as a compliment!

[Robert Gerrish]

You're quite right Leela and thank you for saying this. Our fingers have been hitting the delete button a fair bit of late. We've opted to leave the Vic post though as the resources - like those of other States it must be said - are very good.

In fact, to even things up:

The Federal Government has a mass of info on Flying Solo.

Queenslanders are well served with this resource.

New South Wales are fortunate to have all this.

The Northern Territory do some fine work though their BEC Network. Hi Jack!

Tasmania has a budding mentoring service for small business (among other support).

WA has a fine network of Small Business Centres (that I'm hoping to pop over and visit later in the year)

And of course South Australia has their wonderful innovation centre and a heap of great courses.

Now, did I miss anyone?

[Business Vic]

Thankyou for leaving us in Robert! While it could be seen as blatant self promotion we'd prefer to think of it as taking the opportunity to raise awareness of valuable (and free) tools to help business start-ups and operators.

And yes, we do aim to contribute to discussion threads in the future so people with specific questions or problems can be aware of what's available to help them.

[Burgo]

Goodonya Business Vic. That was a very nice way of putting it.
Now what about the other states, or dont they surf the net.
I know NSW are pretty slack.
Are the laws etc so different in each state that we cant all do our business through Business Vic.....or would that be blatant ignorance on my part

[Business Vic]

Originally Posted by Burgo

Goodonya Business Vic. That was a very nice way of putting it.
Now what about the other states, or dont they surf the net.
I know NSW are pretty slack.
Are the laws etc so different in each state that we cant all do our business through Business Vic.....or would that be blatant ignorance on my part

Thanks for your support Patrick.

The simple answer is if it's a federal law (e.g. employment or companies), then what Business Victoria or any other state offers can be used by all businesses.

There's also a project in place to create a seamless single national online registration of ABNs and business names, including trademark searching. As the only state to have online registration of business names, Business Victoria has been contributing to this. So while there are many state and local regulations in areas such as planning, building and food safety which do mean every state is different, we're trying to share our systems as much as possible across Australia so everyone's online experience is as easy as possible.

[ActiveCounselling]

Hi all,

my 2 cents worth says that if the blatant self promotion is for something genuinely free (and relevant) then go for it. Just don't want those pretend free promotions in a forum such as this.

The forums are a brilliant way of us all sharing and our signatures give us the ability to reveal ourselves to those who like what we say.

I personally would like to see Business Victoria, and others, contributing to the forums with info such as survey results, relevant training and events that maybe coming up etc.. There are so many resources out there it is often hard to keep track of them all.

Being in SA I would obviously like the SA Govt to jump on board as well.

So far Flying Solo is the best resource I have found to help keep me going in my Solo business.

In closing I would like to say to all, keep up the good work with your contributions and importantly keep these mini-debates happening.

Regards,

David

[Business Vic]

Originally Posted by ActiveCounselling

Hi all,

my 2 cents worth says that if the blatant self promotion is for something genuinely free (and relevant) then go for it. Just don't want those pretend free promotions in a forum such as this.

The forums are a brilliant way of us all sharing and our signatures give us the ability to reveal ourselves to those who like what we say.

I personally would like to see Business Victoria, and others, contributing to the forums with info such as survey results, relevant training and events that maybe coming up etc.. There are so many resources out there it is often hard to keep track of them all.

Being in SA I would obviously like the SA Govt to jump on board as well.

So far Flying Solo is the best resource I have found to help keep me going in my Solo business.

In closing I would like to say to all, keep up the good work with your contributions and importantly keep these mini-debates happening.

Regards,

David

Hi David,

We agree, forums are a great way to share with each other and find out what people are looking for. However, where possible it's better for us to communicate with as many people as possible rather than individually (to save time and taxpayer's money).

We actually already run surveys (and distribute results), send out details of upcoming training and events, and provide details of new online business resources through our fortnightly small business email newsletter. To receive this all you need to do is sign up for a Business Victoria account and tick the box that says I wish to receive updates on business trends, tips and new services

https://services.business.vic.gov.au/vbmk/createuser.do

Being in SA, the events may be a little far away for you but you should still get lots of useful info.