We are in unprecedented times, first the longest drought in living history, then the bushfires and now COVID-19.
Almost all businesses in our Local Government Area (LGA) are small businesses with almost two-thirds of businesses being owner/operator and one-third employing less than 20 staff. Employment growth has been particularly strong over the past year, up 16.3%. However, despite the region's labour force market strengthening in recent years, our unemployment rate could be more aligned to the RDA Northern Inland averages for the region.
The challenge is set to grow our local economy and that means supporting our small businesses, providing services and initiatives to facilitate business growth and attracting new businesses to join our vibrant community.
Contact details:
Diane Gray
Strengthening Business Facilitator
Entrepreneurs’ Programme
M 0490 856 469 | E [email protected]
Diane is dedicated to Glen Innes and Tenterfield for the next 2-years to help local business rebuild after the Bushfires and get through the COVID-19 pandemic through the fully-funded Entrepreneurs' Programme.
When you join the Entrepreneurs’ Programme, you get advice from someone who really understands your region and what it takes to build and run a successful business.
This unique service gives you access to experts who work with you to rebuild your business and your community, for free.
We encourage local businesses to get in touch with Diane and take advantage of this program to help your business survive and thrive.
This is a critical time. The number of businesses closing their doors is escalating rapidly and the economic impact overall could be catastrophic.
This course educates business owners on strategy and technology that they can access and implement quickly at little to no cost. The focus is on specific action plans and technology that will provide the most effective outcomes for businesses in this rapidly deteriorating environment. The course covers strategy and technology that will assist businesses with marketing and communications as well as product and service fulfilment. The course includes the following modules:
1. Mindset, Focus & Opportunity
2. Get more from Google
3. Communication Strategy
4. Content Creation
5. Targeted/Paid Campaigns
6. Online Tools, Apps & Integration
Plus, up to 6 live events based on user questions and comments with up to another 6 additional modules added based on user questions and comments.
Did you know that we lose $200,000,000 out of our local economy every year? If 20% of that was retained locally an additional $56 million would be circulating in our local economy each year.
That means more business growth, more profits and more jobs. We've funded a digital platform through the Bushfire Recovery Agency to provide our community with a game-changing tool to assist local business to connect and increase their revenue from within the community.
Highlands Hub - Business builds digital communities for local businesses to promote their products, their people and services. A modern business discovery tool with social network features. Supporting how businesses connect and generate more local revenue.
On every economic metric the Glen Innes Severn LGA Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing Industry over-indexes against the Regional Development Australia Northern Inland (RDANI), which presents a major risk to the sustainability of our local economy especially in times of drought.
It is essential that a project is undertaken to promote, inform, guide and nurture landholders and primary producers to diversify their on-farm products and add further value to their on-farm assets. We will deliver a business development program of events to accelerate the diversication of our region from primary production to broader agri-food and agri-tourism value-added economy.
This project is being delivered in partnership with Regionality and is supported by GLENRAC.
For more information please contact [email protected]
Thanks to the Bushfire Recovery Agency, Council are funding $150,000 (less production costs) to stimulate the local business economy through 'Why Leave Town' gift cards.
Each household in the Local Government Area (LGA) has received a local Glen Innes Highlands Giftcard to spend at the local shops. The program is to be delivered in June ready for locals to kick-start local business post COVID-19.
There are more gift cards yet to be spent, so if you're businesses isn't registered make sure you register via the following link.
We've appointed Jenny Rand & Associates whom are a Tourism Management Consultants whom will delivery our next Destination Management Plan (DMP) for Glen Innes Highlands.
The funding application has been lodged for the Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF) This project , should the grant application be approved will be delivered in partnership with Regional Institute Australia .
This research project can deliver a critical assessment of the LGA’s economic performance that reports the main future growth factors which will impact our LGA’s workforce metrics.
At the same time a research project will focus on understanding the workforce requirements based on immediate projections of new jobs and the requirements associated with retraining workers already in the community. This project helps the now and prepares us for the future. Regional Australia Institute will deliver two research projects to provide this much-needed insight:
1. “Future Factors” Strategic Planning module which will lead to the identification of a small set of what we call “Future Factors,” which if acted upon can unlock a new growth pathway; and
2. Population Drivers module which will focus on understanding the workforce requirements based on immediate projections of new jobs and the requirements associated with retraining workers already in the community.
Council have appointed experts Lucid Economics to assist with the EDS and AP.
This research project will assist in the development of the Economic Development Strategy & Action Plan but will also enable our community to start to address some of the challenging local metrics that affect our town becoming the place to live.
Glen Innes Highlands have been successful in securing a place to become a Neighbourlytics Launch City. Launch Cities is a purpose built program giving innovative local governments the opportunity to establish a wellbeing analytics baseline for their municipality, and empower decision-making through developments in data.
Why measure wellbeing?
To truly optimise our places, we need to launch a revolution in how we understand quality of life. We need to change the way we measure performance, by combining traditional measures of success with direct measurement of population wellbeing.
Our places are complex, diverse, dynamic and rapidly evolving. We believe wellbeing is the missing piece of the puzzle that can help places to assess their community’s needs and measure their progress. By putting citizen wellbeing at the centre of city governance, we can change the way we measure and understand city performance.
With human-centred analytics, we can use wellbeing as a framework to guide investment in technology and infrastructure for our places. Through quantitative measurement of Social, Economic, Physical, and Community Prosperity, we create a baseline and establish benchmarks to guide budgetary planning and resource allocation, as well as monitor and evaluate program impact over time.
2021 © All Rights Reserved. Website designed by gocrossmedia and built by Cloud Concepts