LBF QLD: Building Local Capabilities for Growth

Welcome to our latest edition of the Local Buying Foundation (LBF) eNews. I think we can all agree, that the last quarter has been an interesting one for all businesses!

In the last quarter (April - June), the LBF focused on ensuring that Business, Economic and Industry Groups (B.I.G.) and organisations were able to access funding for projects quickly to ensure they were able to continue the much needed services and support to businesses and members. Since inception, the B.I.G. Futures Fund has supported nine projects across NSW and QLD, with a total of $171,635 spent on B.I.G. Futures Fund projects. The LBF understands that whilst restrictions are easing, there are still many challenges ahead for businesses in the post Covid-19 world and we plan on continuing the B.I.G. Futures Fund into the future.

The continued success of the Local Buying Program (LBP), has enabled the LBF to support 131 projects with a total value of $3,410,657 injected back into local business communities in Queensland (since 2012) and 16 projects with a total value of $178,859 injected into local business communities in New South Wales (since 2017).

We are also very excited to announce that the Local Buying Foundation has just launched in Western Australia! The LBF in WA aims to enhance the economic stability in the local government areas of the Town of Port Hedland and the Shire of East Pilbara where BHP WAIO operates.

Please do reach out and contact us on 1800 536 663 or info@localbuyingfoundation.com.au if you would like to discuss our projects or funding available.

This quarter we have seen tremendous uptake of the B.I.G. Futures Fund in Queensland. This fund continues to be open into the future and will be reevaluated in December. The LBF aims to support Business, Economic and Industry Groups (B.I.G.) facing significant challenges from COVID-19 through the establishment of the B.I.G. Futures Fund.

The B.I.G Futures Fund provides financial assistance for business, economic development and industry groups to continue delivering services to their membership/business base during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Congratulations to the following organisations who have been approved for the below projects:

Resource Industry Network | Digital Engagement Project
CHRRUP | Website Podcast Project
Greater Whitsunday Alliance | My Digital Coach
Mackay Tourism | Covid-19 Tourism Recovery Project
Greater Whitsunday Food Network | Regional Farmer & Produce Marketing Campaign
Mackay Tourism | The Road Ahead, Industry Skills Development Program
Mackay Region Chamber of Commerce | #BuyMackay
Resource Industry Network | Digital Engagement Project Phase 2

Learn more by visiting our website or contacting our Project Officers on 1800 536 663.

The Local Buying Foundation is governed by representatives from across the Central Highlands, Isaac and Mackay Local Government regions to ensure that investments made by the Foundation have the greatest possible impact.

The committee is made up of the Local Buying Foundation Chairman, BHP Founding Member, Primary Members representing each of the three councils that the Local Buying Foundation operates across, three industry representatives and three business/economic representatives.

The LBF welcomes two new members to the Advisory Committee who joined for their first LBF Advisory Committee meeting in June. The new members we welcome are:

Cr Alison Jones, Mackay Regional Council
Cr Gai Sypher, Central Highlands Regional Council

The LBF would like to express our appreciation to outgoing committee member, Sandra Hobbs for her commitment, effort and expertise provided to the Foundation during her time on the advisory committee. Sandra has been an integral member of the LBFAC since the inception of the LBF as the Central Highlands Business, Economic and Development Representative.

The Local Buying Foundation supports funding applications from $1,500 sponsorships through to $500,000 projects, which meet the needs of building sustainable business communities for the future. The online funding application has been reworked for 2020 to include improved formatting, new funding categories and streamlined processes for sponsorship requests.

Congratulations to the following organisations who have been approved for the below projects from our first funding round of 2020:

SplitSpaces | ESTEAM HackSpace Activation Program
Resource Industry Network | Online METS Export Ready Program
Mackay Tourism | Isaac Tourism Development Program

Contact the LBF Project Officer if you want to know more about the Foundation and funding eligibility, call 1800 536 663 or email info@localbuyingfoundation.com.au.

What has the CHDC Business Facilitator been up to in FY20?
Here are the numbers!

3,330 Businesses engaged with (FY20)
Providing director support on activities, including business planning, governance, management, tenders, skills development and grants and funding opportunities.

220 Responses to Business Confidence Survey.

130 Business support and resource tools supplied

Approx. 50 Tender lists distributed to an average of 546 subscribers.

6 eNews articles published.
Grants and funding opportunities, assistance and support provided.

As part of CHDC’s Covid-19 Response & Support action plan, together with the CHDC support team, delivered more than 6,000 emails and approx. 500 telephone calls to local SMEs.

Attended 34 Covid-19 webinars
Investigated future webinars for SMEs in our region.

Visit the CHDC website, or contact Mary on 0447 985 241 or mryan@chdc.com.au if you would like to know more. The Business Facilitator role is proudly funded by the Local Buying Foundation.

When Covid-19 hit, we had to think of new ways to provide our building blocks to businesses which we would previously do face to face. Thankfully we were able to transform majority of our courses from face to face to webinars.

Through webinars we were able to deliver the following courses:

Xero Critical Basics
MYOB Basics
MYOB Intermediate
Google My Business
MailChimp
eCommerce

We have also developed an online platform to roll out the Business Strategy course which provides businesses the opportunity to access the digital classroom and participate in self paced learning!

Thanks to the B.I.G. Futures Fund, GW3 launched the My Digital Coach program which enabled businesses to access direct mentoring and training to build their digital platform. With 60+ businesses in the Isaac, Mackay and Whitsunday regions registering, the program has assisted many businesses to transform their business in the current times.

GW3 also launched the MIW Business Wellbeing Service to support small businesses. This program provides mental health support to small business owners in the Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday regions.

Contact Leann on 0438 731 633 or leann@gw3.com.au to find out more about the business support program in Isaac, which is proudly funded by the Local Buying Foundation or any of the above mentioned programs.

Research has been funded by the Local Buying Foundation to evaluate what is needed in the Mackay region for business support services. Recognising that the Bridging the Boundaries initiative is not a one size fits all for our regions, it is important that prior to funding the project the LBF understands how the funding will be best spent.

The results from consulting with businesses, business and industry groups as well as other community stakeholders in the Mackay region have been collected and evaluated and will be presented via webinar.

Register here to hear what was found and have your say!

The wheels really started to turn for this project from January 2020 onwards. Even though we have not been able to complete some of the projects that were slated due to the on set of COVID-19, we are still proud of what we have been able to achieve through these trying times.

The main project for this financial year has been the completion of the Capability Study and Supply Chain Analysis Report. Lytton Advisory were commissioned to start the report in February which included a desktop analysis, survey of the regions METS industry (122 participants completed this), international outlook, identifying the regions strengths and weaknesses, barriers to trade and export capability.

Other projects undertaken the 2nd half of the financial year included:

Building a 3-year project plan for the Export Hub.
Expomin Project – this included an Export Ready Course (supported by MRC and TIQ), a 4-part webinar series outlining business customs and opportunities in Chile and Peru, and a TIQ sponsored trade mission to attend Expomin in Chile in late April. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 the webinar series and trade mission did not go ahead but we had great feedback about the export ready course and the content of the overall program.
Developing network connections/contacts around the world to source opportunities for MIW METS exporters.
Designing programs and organising funding for the programs to be delivered in the 20/21 Financial Year.
Developed the Online METS Export Ready Course which is open now for registrations.

Contact Dean on 0447 399 402 or email dean@resourceindustrynetwork.com.au to find out more about the MIW METS Export Hub.

Building the relationship between GWFN and LBF permitted us to change course mid-stream, as we complied with impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As we redesigned our project, taking care to maintain our focus on developing agritourism in our MIW regions, with the support of LBF we have been able to deliver some fantastic outcomes. The most striking deliverable was identified during project rewriting and allowed us to deliver a social media marketing campaign of member stories. These are being delivered progressively, through our pages and on YouTube.

With increased traffic through our Farmers’ Market and improved communication across our social media channels, buoyed by our member stories, we are seeing a wonderful surge of passion for our regional produce and foods!

To speak of our regional food, to identify it’s provenance, necessitates sharing the stories of those who grow and produce local value-added goods. An increasing number of consumers, not just ‘foodies’, are looking for an ‘authentic’ food experience and it is by learning the stories behind our food that makes it inviting and memorable. We now continue plans to develop networking activities needed to create our self-drive tour guide and collaborative spaces for our members and local hospitality businesses, bringing our regional food to the table for locals and visitors alike. The Local Buying Foundation is pivotal in developing these activities through their financial support of the Network.

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Our mailing address is:
Local Buying Foundation
PO Box 1721
Mackay QLD 4740

Australia