Small Business Friendly Local Government

Published on Tuesday, 31 August 2021 at 2:30:05 PM

Have you heard? The City of Busselton has been asking for feedback from our Small Businesses and we’ve listened to what you’ve had to say!

Already recognised as a Small Business Friendly Local Government, the City was recently successful in applying to be one of only 20 Local Governments in Western Australia to partake in the Small Business Development Corporation’s Approvals Program, which has been delivered thanks to a $100,000 investment from the State Government per successful applicant. 

The approvals program, which began in May, is being delivered in three stages. The first stage involved determining a baseline, reaching out to a number of small businesses who have recently interacted with the City through an application or permit, and collating feedback regarding their experience.  We also reviewed feedback from the annual Community Satisfaction Survey conducted in June 2020.

The second stage has seen eight officers from customer facing roles in the areas of Heath, Planning, Building, Customer Service, Events, IT, Venue Support and Economic Development join together to map current processes affecting small businesses and work together to identify opportunities for improvement, specifically focused on improving the customer experience. These sessions have been guided by skilled facilitators to ensure potential improvements were developed while thinking in the mind set of our local business owners. This process was then opened up to the entire organisation with staff offered the opportunity to contribute ideas to increase their success as they interact with the City.

As part of the third and current stage we are collating all of the identified opportunities and determining a successful means of implementing changes in our day to day processes.  This might include easier information navigating to more dedicated support services when you’re looking to start or grow your business.

Recognising that small businesses make up 97.6% of the organisations currently in the City of Busselton, we look forward to the positive effects the City’s involvement in this program will have on businesses and the community.

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