Useful Links
There is a lot of advice and information published by a diverse range of organisations. Through the links offered below we focus on useful information from some reliable sources. We try to cast our net widely.
If you are considering going into business you should check out presentations put on for free by the Small Business Development Corporation, you should link up with small businesses through Central Eastern Business Association or the Swan Chamber of Commerce. If you want to work from home you need to know about local regulations that guide the Town of Bassendean and also have a look at some free guides from the Banks which offer easy to read and follow advice.
When opening and building a business, funds are always stretched. The beauty of the net is the access to cheap or even free software. Nothing is really free however, software for setting up a web site for example comes with advertising which you might not want for example, and certainly, developing your own web site or publishing your business on free classified takes time and some skill.
We provide links to a range of sites and organisations to help you on the road to growing and strengthening the business. We recommend that you try them out and make your own decisions on their suitability for your needs. There are also networking web sites you should check out to, like www.linkedin.com.
Developing a business plan and finding some accurate statistics
The Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council (EMRC) offer accurate statistics on Bassendean and on the region as a whole. There is the Community Profile which offers information about age of population, where we work, number of children, type of work we do and much more. There is also the Community Atlas which as the name suggests, provides maps with the Community statistics displayed.
- The Australian Bankers Association have a terrific web site Small Business Banking that offers excellent advice on all things to do with running your business and keeping it profitable
- The Reserve Bank of Australia have developed a prodidgeous amount of statistics. Their web site offers excellent systems to filter down to the precise type of information you are seeking from international trading through to domestic currency flucuations and much much more.
Free Classifieds
- http://perth.gumtree.com.au
- http://www.truelocal.com.au
- http://www.hotfrog.com.au
- http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/DotNet/default.aspx – this one is interesting – businesses can post their web jobs onto this site and programmers from around the world ‘bid’ to do the work. Cheap option for building or upgrading a website.
- www.surveymonkey.com/ – a good free one to help small businesses with market research through surveys.
Marketing Ideas
- Free Web Site development
- PR
- http://www.handleyourownpr.com.au Here’s the ‘do it yourself PR’ website –
- http://www.sourcebottle.com.au this one is good for Media Releases, businesses can post their stories which Journalists may then pick up and write about.
- http://www.socialmention.com and http://www.google.com/alerts are great because businesses can find out what is being said about them online.
- http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com – a good newsletter type site about social media.
- http://mashable.com/guidebook/facebook – an excellent guide for using Facebook for your business.
- http://www.tourism.wa.gov.au/Growing_Your_Business/Pages/Tourism_e-Kit.aspx – The Tourism WA e-Kit is great as a general overview of websites, it is relevant for all industries, not just tourism.
Industry Groups
- http://www.smartcompany.com.au – I’m a big fan of this website, they send you a free e-newsletter that always has great articles.
- www.smallbusiness.wa.gov.au – If you are thinking of starting a new business or expanding your existing one, the Small Business Development Corporation can show you how. This is obviously cram packed with info and well worth a visit.
- www.enterpriseconnect.gov.au – This is a Federal organisation targeting established businesses as opposed to start up businesses. There are 12 centres located across the country and the WA branch is based in Bentley. See Business Support section for more information and a link to their web site.
- www.ipaustralia.gov.au – The core task is to administer rules relating to Intellectual Property (I.P.) like patents, trade marks, designs and plant breeder’s rights. However the site has a wealth of information and is worth a visit when thinking about starting a business and if you’ve got an idea for a product how to go about developing it. It covers enabling firms to build brand value and business reputation encourage the disclosure of inventions and the transfer of knowledge and technology provide a legal framework for trading intellectual assets.
