Frank Lewis, Castlemaine
Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns (‘Businesses need council’s support!’, Opinions, November 6) and Tony Bell (‘Spare us please!’, Opinions, October 30).
I agree with both correspondents that businesses need more support from Mount Alexander Shire but for different reasons.
About 50 per cent of all businesses fail in the first few years and not because there wasn’t a council seminar available. In most cases, the business model is flawed from the outset. People have little or no experience, just an idea. With apologies to Bob Hudson and The Newcastle Song: ‘United Urinals a case in point – a business which was started by two blokes with an idea and a couple of sheets of galvanised iron and their imagination. It went on to be a huge success in Upper Cumbucta West’.
Seminars often concentrate on meeting regulatory requirements, compliance forms, government regulations and also regulation and reporting imposed by council itself. There is generally little information about how to finance your project, and what is the best structure to adopt.
If the council really wants to assist small business to grow and the shire to be successful, it should begin by spending ratepayers’ money (our money) in the shire, not in Western Australia, Ballarat, Bendigo, Melbourne etc. The shire could hire a permanent business specialist to provide one-on-one advice to individuals on an ongoing basis for existing and potential new businesses, and also reduce red tape which holds back the rate of development in the local economy.
Tony Bell and Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns are right, but don’t waste money with bureaucrats filling their dance cards, yummy sandwiches and hot air – just roll up your sleeves and spend council money in this shire. That should guarantee success.
