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Australian Small Business Advisory Services Programme
Teleconference
Session 5
Mr Graham Tanton
General Manager, Business Online Services & Small Business Programs, AusIndustry
Business Services, Department of Industry
Hello, and welcome to the Australian Small Business Advisory Service, or ASBAS Programme
information session. My name is Graham Tanton, I'm the general manager of business online
services & small business programs branch of AusIndustry, which is a division within the
Department of Industry. With me today, I've got Lisa Wilson who is programme manager of
ASBAS within AusIndustry, and I have my Treasury colleagues, Anne Scott and Tania Jefferis
who are the policy owners for the ASBAS Programme and they're based out of Treasury.
So Just a few things before we get started. The session today will run for roughly around an
hour. It'll be made up of three segments, the first will be Anne will provide some context into the
policy of the programme, the context of that policy and some of the key features that they're
looking to get out of the programme of works.
I'll then provide some background into the
application process and frequently asked questions that arise regarding some of the terminology
and the like, and then we'll open up for question and answers for roughly about the last half hour,
20 minutes depending on how we go for time, we'll get through all of those. There is the ability to
post questions through our email address, asbas@industry.gov.au, so you can actually provide
questions directly through that email address.
I should point out that the presentation or the discussion today is actually being recorded. The
transcript will be posted online on BGA, www.business.gov.au/asbas, and it should be noted that
we actually have provided unique identifiers to each of the registered participants. When we
head to that question and answering time, we request that you identify yourself using that unique
number rather than actually naming yourself or your organisation that you work for. As I did
mention, the transcripts will be provided on the website so just for privacy that you don't have
your name and details plastered all over the web, we'll keep your privacy and so if we can just
use those unique identifiers.
I will have you generally on mute so we can't hear you just because, as I said, there are
25 people attending and it does get a bit busy when we've got people talking through or just hear
background information and the like. When we do open it up for questions, I do ask that you
keep your phone on mute so we can hear the question. We'll then answer that question and then
call for other questions once we're satisfied that the question has been answered and the person
asking the question is satisfied with the answer.
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So without further ado, I will pass over to Anne Scott to start the first section which is providing
some context into the programme and the policy context. Anne, over to yourself.
Ms Anne Scott
Principal Advisor of Small Business, Competitiveness and Consumer Policy Division, the
Treasury
Good afternoon, everyone. Anne Scott from the Small Business Policy in Treasury. I'm just
going to cover the Australian Small Business Advisory Services Programme, which some of you
know formerly as the Small Business Advisory Services Programme, and I'm going to talk about
the refocus of that programme under the new title.
So just some history. When this government was elected, one of the election commitments was
to move small business policy from the Department of Industry into Treasury, and so that's why
we're now sat in Treasury. We report to the Minister for Small Business, which is Minister Bruce
Billson who is also a cabinet minister, and Minister Billson is responsible for this programme and
the policy. So AusIndustry deliver it on our behalf but Minister Billson is the delegate who makes
all the decisions for funding under this programme.
Throughout the last year, Treasury has been conducting an independent policy evaluation of the
Small Business Advisory Services Programme, and the evaluation activities included contacting
an independent consultant and surveys of small business owners who participated in the
programme and a control group of small business owners who did not participate in the
programme were surveyed. There was also a broad consultation with a range of stakeholders
including state and territory government small business officials, industry associations, chambers
of commerce, as well as the service providers themselves. We also undertook desktop research
and analysis with international activity and advisory services provided and also using various
reports and information such as the monthly reports from the service providers themselves.
The Minister has also been very busy meeting a range of small business stakeholders and he
has some news about how he considers the programme should be refocused, which is largely
turning it into a national framework for business advisory services.
So why the programme exists from a policy sense is a key barrier that we see to sustainability
and productivity for many small business operators is underdeveloped skills, capability and
education in managing their businesses appropriately. Small business operators are often time
poor or unaware of the potential benefits in growth opportunities for their business by investing in
appropriate training and advisory services, and poorly prepared businesses in the marketplace
are likely to have negative spill over effects into the broader market. Through the programme the
government is helping to develop more efficient and sustainable small businesses and the
development of a more effective marketplace.
The history of the programme in its various forms. It's been successfully running since 2008 and
over this period the programme has provided business advisory services to over 230,000
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businesses.
Research shows that small businesses who have received business advisory
advice from the programme are more likely to anticipate an increase in revenue, 69% compared
to 36% of the broader small business community, and the majority who have received assistance
intend on growing their business over the next two years, 71% which is significantly higher than
the broader business community where it's just 27%. The objective of the programme is to
improve the capacity of established not-for-profit small business advisory services providers, to
deliver low cost small business advisory and information services to small business intenders
and to established small businesses.
Where we see the market failure is small businesses not recognising when they need to go and
access appropriate advice and training and mentoring or are reluctant to pay for it, and we also
see from the professional sector that there isn't really the provision of these sorts of advice at the
really small micro end or for small business intenders. So the role of the programme, the role of
government here is to facilitate small businesses accessing the right information and advice and
then understanding who to contact for professional business advice as their business grows.
Supporting small business, with obviously 97% of them in the Australian economy, is an essential
part of the government's economic action strategy to build a strong and prosperous economy. In
the budget in 2012, the government announced ongoing funding of approximately $6 million per
annum for the continuation of the programme. On the 15th of October, Minister Bruce Billson
announced that applications were open for the new Australian Small Business Advisory Services
round, known as Business Solutions 2014, with $18 million funding for this round over the next
three years. Grants of up to $200,000 per year, per provider for three years are now available
through this business solutions round.
Those familiar with the old Small Business Advisory Services Programme in 2012 will note that
the round at that time focused on specific projects rather than broad based business advisory
services. While those projects has delivered really good outcomes, the Minister is concerned
that there's not a national framework for business advice because those projects were largely
ad hoc in nature. So the new Australian Small Business Advisory Services Programme will now
focus on five key streams of business advice, which will include funding avenues and financial
analysis, building your business, making the most of your talent and team, management
capabilities and digital engagement implementation, and the details around those five streams
are in the guidelines. In our research, it was clear that these were the top five issues that are
keeping small business operators up at night and the ones that they most often are requesting
information and access to the right sorts of services.
We are now asking experienced, eligible registered business advisory service providers to have
the capacity to provide services across all five streams. That does not mean that you have to
provide all five streams to each small business that contacts you for assistance, but you must
have the capability to provide all five streams under the national framework. It is noted that
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service provision is not limited to those five streams, and if a provider has additional capabilities
then that's also welcome.
So what is a registered business organisation? A registered business organisation is a definition
that relates to this programme, that's on page 19 of the guideline, "Grantees will be registered
business organisations who are incorporated, not-for-profit organisations, that provide low cost
business advisory services to small business.
They include organisations such as, but not
limited to, business enterprise centres, chambers of commerce, industry associations and some
councils."
We've also looked at the characteristics of what make a good registered business organisation
and we're looking for people that can demonstrate that they have an awareness of emerging
small business issues both in their own locality and nationally, that they understand emerging
technologies and how that can boost productivity for small businesses, that they are across the
regulator imposts and demands on small businesses, that they are very well connected with
other business service providers in their local region and they have collaborative connections to
help facilitate small businesses getting in touch with appropriate expert advisers, whether they be
public or private sector providers.
We expect this round is going to be very competitive as the total number of grants will be lower
than those granted in some recent years. This is largely due to an increase in grant size up to
$200,000 per annum. As part of our consultations, it revealed that in order for some service
providers to provide quality business advisory services to cover a geographic region and to
recognise the true cost of providing these services, grant values needed to be increased for
some. So that doesn't mean if you would like to come in with an application with a smaller grant
size, of course you can, but it enables a higher grant size for those slightly bigger proposals.
We are looking for registered business organisations who are able to provide high quality
business advisory services incorporating the five streams of business advice into their
geographic region, which will present a consistent national framework for business advice. We
are also looking to encourage collaboration amongst the service providers who are successful
with grants so that you facilitate information and resource sharing, as well as providing real time
intelligence on small business issues to inform government policy, and it will be things like red
tape reduction, that's an example of where real time information can be provided.
Our research has revealed that business advisory services of some sort are supported by most
state and territory governments, however, there is a large degree in variation of the type and
coverage of available services across Australia. So all state and territory governments have
confirmed that they think there is significant unmet demand that's not currently covered by the
services provided and they also agree that those are the top five issues that would be broad
based business advisory services.
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Consequently, we have designed a programme policy so that it can be flexible enough to
address existing state and territory business advisory services. So it can meet unmet demands
as well as dovetailing with existing state and territory business advisory services. Consequently,
we'll be looking for applicants to justify the need for low cost advisory services in their locality. So
as part of the application, we need you to demonstrate why you feel there is a geographic need
in your particular area. Applicants will also need to demonstrate how their service will build on
and complement either your existing services you're doing now and existing state and territory
business advisory services for which you may receive funding. So the money for this programme
must be seen to be serving additional unmet demand. The minister for small business is also
keen on seeking applications that can leverage both public and private partnerships and is very
interested in collaborative applications, including those that use the private sector.
I've got a number of case studies here on possible application scenarios to try and explain the
flexibility of it a bit more. So a more traditional one would be where you've got one provider
covering one region, offering two channels which would be face to face and online. So the
example would be something like a local registered business organisation service provider who
proposes to run a face to face business assessment service to businesses in their geographic
region. The RBO has specialist business advisers and general business advisory that provides
the five streams of business advice, and they offer one-on-one tailored mentoring, virtual online
meetings and networking sessions with local businesses.
Another example could be where you've got one provider covering a large geographic area and
the example could be a national registered business organisation who proposes to offer services
to assist businesses assess their skills requirements and capabilities. Businesses are invited to
use an online assessment tool and follow up with a facilitator in a regional office to discuss the
outcomes from the tools assessment and facilitate connections with additional providers in the
region.
An example of possible partnership could be an RBO who partners with one or more either
not-for-profit or for profit organisations.
So an example could be a registered business
organisation leads a proposal in partnership with a private sector digital engagement specialist
and a local council. The new service proposes to provide business advisory services across the
five streams but with the technical expert plans and providing additional technical expertise in
digital skills and digital engagement. The local council has a dynamic economic development
strategy for their geographic region and is engaged to provide assistance in marketing this
service and also providing free office space and meeting space for drop-ins and workshops.
Another example is where there's a group of RBOs that partner together to collectively deliver the
five streams where individually they don't meet the five stream requirements. An example could
be a registered business organisation specialises in skills in human resources and digital
engagement but does not have specialist knowledge in business building or financial
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management, or the registered business organisation leads the proposal to work in partnership
with a local business chamber who specialises in business building and a local BC who
specialises in financial management. Collectively, the three providers can propose the service
with the five streams along their selected region. The chamber has active membership and uses
dynamic networking opportunities to bring together small businesses within their region and also
through the national chamber network.
A final scenario is where a registered business organisation removes from the geographic region
partners with on-the-ground organisations to deliver online and face-to-face services.
So a
registered business organisation leads a consortia of state and territory chambers of commerce
to offer a programme to improve financial awareness and literacy, as well as the other four
business advisory streams. They partner with a financial institutions such as a bank and provide
accounting service providers such as local accountants.
The programme will offer detailed
advice on funding avenues and financial management and accounting advice as well as the other
four business advisory streams. They provide face-to-face advice and workshops offered locally
through the chambers of commerce and bank and accountant representatives in the area. They
offer online communication tools such as web chat and video conferencing.
So that's my bit finished. I'll now hand over to Graham Tanton who will talk about the application
process and then we'll be open to questions at the end of Graham's part.
Graham Tanton
Thank you, Anne. So just starting off on a bit about AusIndustry for those who aren't aware of
our role in this process. AusIndustry is the delivery arm under the Department of Industry that
provides programme management and delivery services on behalf of programmes within the
department but also across Commonwealth, and we provide the delivery of the ASBAS
programme on behalf of Treasury.
So moving through, and I will touch base on some of the things that Anne has already
mentioned, and then that will probably lead into some further questions as we go down the
presentation.
So who can apply for the Australian Small Business Advisory Services Programme?
The
programme is open to established not-for-profit, small business and advisory service providers
such as registered business organisations. What is meant by established? RBOs are expected
to have a demonstrated history of providing small business advisory services to small business
for some years, be well connected with the business community in the region proposed to be
serviced by the project, be well connected to other relevant organisations, information sources
and government agencies, be organisationally stable and financially viable, employ sufficient
experienced staff to provide services across all five of the business solution streams across the
entire region to be serviced.
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Eligibility criteria, and this is an important part of the criteria. You must be a constitutional
corporation, that is a business conducted by a corporation within the meaning of s51XX of the
Australian Constitution or a business whose operations are entirely carried out in a territory. In
addition to those two, at the time of submitting an application for funding, you must also meet all
of the following eligibility requirements: be incorporated under Commonwealth state and territory
law; be a not-for-profit organisations; have an Australian number; and be a registered business
organisation.
What is meant by a trading corporation? A trading corporation is a corporation that has already
been incorporated in Australia whose trading activities make up a substantial or significant
portion of their overall activities. Trading activities include the buying and selling of goods and
services. Just to note, a not-for-profit organisation can be a trading corporation.
What does the term enterprising person mean?
In the context of the ASBAS Programme,
enterprising people are defined as a person or persons who has or have a business idea and has
the intention to develop the idea and start a small business or has purchased an existing small
business or operates a small business.
What is meant by the term region? In the context of ASBAS, region means a geographic area
that an applicant applies to deliver ASBAS services in. Applicants are to define their region by
local government areas. Successful applicants will be required to provide services in the entire
LGA they apply to deliver services, ie you cannot exclude towns or areas within those LGAs. So
if you're applying for a local government area, you're required to provide services for that entire
area.
When it comes down to applications, what are we looking for? Applications must be focused,
relevant, practical, flexible and address each of the merit criteria. The current merit criteria for
this process? There's three of them: the demonstrated ability to meet the unmet demand or
demand in the region selected; extent to which proposed service will meet the stated objective;
the level of risk to that success and how this will be addressed and mitigated; and the third merit
criteria is obviously value for money. These are the criteria that need to be addressed in the
application.
The process for this round is a competitive merit based application process. Applications must
address the merit criteria.
Applications need to be competitive against other applications
submitted, projects need to be competitive and offer good value for money. It is unlikely that we
will fund overlapping projects. So if you're competing with another provider in the area who is
proposing to do the same thing, it's unlikely that we would fund two organisations to deliver the
same projects or the same functions.
If there are multiple providers of small business advice in your region, you might consider lodging
a partnership application rather than risk lodging overlapping projects. Likewise, if you don't think
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you've got the skills and expertise to deliver against the five streams, you may want to look
around to see what other providers are doing to assist in that process. So with partnership
applications, as Anne mentioned before, applications from groups of organisations or partnership
are encouraged. Partnership enable expert collaboration that can address specific areas of need
which meet the five business solution streams.
If you are looking at having a partnership
arrangement, one organisation must identify as the lead organisation and must meet all the
eligibility criteria. All other members of the partnership must be constitutional corporations, that's
a mandatory requirement.
So moving to the actual application. We are using smart forms this year which is an enhanced
service. Your application must be submitted using the smart form application which is provided
on the www.business.gov.au/ASBAS. So under the programme information that can be found on
www.business.gov.au, you will find the smart forms application. We do encourage for people set
up an Australian Business account. It will enable you to prefill some of the core information from
your ABA into the ASBAS application form. Likewise, as more government departments start
using smart forms as part of a digital solution, you'll be able to get more benefit from having an
Australian Business account going forward. So whilst it's not mandatory, we do suggest that you
do take the time to complete an Australian Business account but it's not a mandatory requirement
or a requirement to do so.
As Anne pointed out, decision-making, the Minister for Small Business is the delegate for the
programme. The Minister will determine the amount of the funding offered and make the final
decisions on who is being provided funding, and there is no appeal process available to
applicants. The key timeframes. On the 12th of next month, the applications will close. It is
anticipated that successful applicants will be announced in January 2015 with services
anticipated to commence in February 2015. So if you're planning your application, I'll just give
you some guidance in and around it, and I'm hoping I'm not telling you how to suck eggs on this
one but I'll run through it.
Know your proposal.
Plan ahead.
Review the programme
documentation. If you have questions seek clarification. Gather relevant evidence.
As I go through the next few slides and information, you will notice there's a recurrent theme
about providing evidence to support your application. Again, engage assistance if required or if
you're unsure how these processes work or what you need to do, and review your application
and what you're submitting prior to submitting it.
When you are starting your process, it's
obviously a good idea to read the Customer Information Guide, ensure that you're aware of
what's contained in that document. We have a list of frequently asked questions, which I think
numbers around 70 questions, which are on the website, on that www.business.gov.au website,
and also be aware and be comfortable with the sample funding agreement – that funding
agreement is the basis of which we will be contracting providers going forward. Again if you're
unsure, seek clarification.
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Follow the instructions on the application form and read the questions. Keep your application
simple. Use active words. Develop a convincing argument why the project should be funded,
and as part of that argument ensure that your claims can be supported by relevant evidence as
will be required to review on that basis. Again check your application before you submit it.
A commonly asked question is what to write. As a broad base, the main thing to do is to
understand what the question is asking. Again, if you're not sure of what we're implying or what
is being asked, seek clarification from us before you enter down a path of writing your response.
Clearly outline your experience. Don't assume we'll know your experience, what you've done in
the past or what you're planning to do in the future. Clearly outline it and make it clear and again
provide evidence to support.
Don't pad your responses. Focus on the important and the evidence basis but again don't be too
brief. We will be looking for you to be able to substantiate the position that you're putting forward.
Do avoid jargon or market segment terminology that's relevant to a sector or a marketplace.
Again, some of that terminology that they use may not be more widely spread outside of that
market segment so please keep the terminology fairly tight and general. Common question
through the theme of these sessions is, "Can we submit more than one application?" The answer
to that is yes, however applications must be clearly differentiated. By that, I mean for each
different region we have predicted there would be different requirements or different needs or
different demands, and that your application should reflect those change in the difference in
demand for what services are in those areas. Avoid writing one application and copying and
retitling for other regions because it will become very clear and very apparent if you have just
really copied and paste without actually understanding the underlying demands for a particular
region. Again, the need and demand for each application is to be clearly individually articulated
and evidenced.
So we will be asking for evidence to support that area's need and unmet
demand.
We will be, as part of the process and I've touched on it there, really trying to get an
understanding from you about what the unmet need and demand in that selected region is. We
will be expecting that to be supported by relevant evidence and we will be expecting you to
provide that evidence as part of your application.
We'll also be looking for you to identify
competitors or other providers in the region and as such, it may be worth considering partnership
applications with other providers, if you think they can assist in your application around those five
areas of themes that we're putting up. Also looking to provide letters of support and referees for
your services that you provide.
As part of that process, and as I mentioned before also, we expect you to identify the internal and
external risk to your project. So some of those external risks may be environmental, things that
are happening in the area, but also potential risk within your organisation and the like, to deliver
your objectives, and also detail how you're going to mitigate those risks so that we can get the
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outcome that we're all looking for. This is an important part of the application so please don't
neglect to put in your risk assessment and how you're going to mitigate and manage those risks.
I've touched on there a number of times regarding evidence. It is important that you can support
all your claims with relevant evidence. If you provide or make a claim within your application we
will seek for you to expand and provide evidence to it, and if we come to you and you don't have
that ability, obviously you need to be able to provide that to us. Identify sources of evidence.
Attach evidence to the form when you submit it. Don't just include web address, include the
actual piece of the document, highlight the relevant part of the evidence that you're wanting us to
look at and to take into account. It's always worth noting not to pad with non-relevant documents.
Put those documents in that support your argument so at least it's a nice coherent package of
documentation that supports your application.
It is worth also noting that if you are looking to provide documentation or evidence on different
forms of digital data, it's always worth to confirm that it is accepted under the smart form. If
you're in doubt, do convert them to a PDF and submit them as a PDF document, rather than
trying to upload or try and provide links to a digital platform or something that is not supported by
the smart form. You're allowed to have 20 attachments to the smart form, each attachment can
be up to a maximum size of 2MB. So you can actually batch up some of those forms, such as
referees' reports and letters into one of the attachments, as needs be.
Before you submit your application, re-read the Customer Information Guide, the Frequently
Asked Questions, just to ensure that you're comfortable that you have answered everything to
your best of ability, ensure that you have adequately addressed the merit criteria, and you've
actually met and answered all of those questions. Often you'll see applications coming in where
they actually haven't been met. Check the application form to ensure you have answered all the
questions. Check spelling, grammar, your budget figures, any numbers and make sure that they
align and they add up. Give yourself time to correct any errors before the deadline. The smart
form will not allow you to submit your form if there are mandatory fields that haven't been
completed, and you don't want to be doing that one minute before the deadline, going back and
trying to fix up those issues prior to lodging.
The smart form will prompt and will not proceed through different sections of the smart form if
some of the mandatory information is not provided or is missing. It will not let you move through
the application form unless that mandatory information is there. So please take the time to
undertake the process knowing that there will be the checks and balances but again, when you
go through to submit, if there are still things that have got errors in it, or some of the
non-mandatory side of things which don't – it will not let you send it through.
Follow the
instructions. There are prompts on the smart form, it is self-prompting so please follow the
instructions. Again, if you have any questions again, the smart form and the like – as I said it's a
fairly new technology, as I said, please do not hesitate to contact the call centre and we'll assist
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you through that process if you do have any questions, but just become familiar with that
process, the smart form early. Again, don't leave it to the last moment to start that process.
The deadline for lodgement is 11:59pm Australian eastern daylight standard time on the 12th of
November 2014. Once you have submitted, you cannot add or amend the documentation once
it's been lodged.
The application, as I mentioned, must be submitted online.
We will not
consider applications that come in any other form apart from that online application process.
Late applications will not be accepted. All information required for assessment must be provided
at the time of lodgement, further information cannot be provided at a later date.
Once you hit submit on your form, you will receive a receipt number and also a link to a page
when you do submit will be provided that you can enter your email address to receive an
acknowledgment email including a PDF copy of your submitted application. It's a good process
to do that just so that you've got a copy of what you have submitted in PDF for your records.
There will be a webinar presented of this forum again on the 28th, on Tuesday, so if you'd like to
get further information or see us up live in HD and in colour, we will be doing the webinar on
Tuesday. You can register for that through the website, www.business.gov.au. Transcript of this
discussion and this session will be posted online in the next few days, and if you have any other
questions, you can either email us at asbas@industry.gov.au, or via the contact centre
on 132 846 if you need any further clarification.
Before I open for questions, I will just again reiterate that when we do open up to use your unique
identifier as who you are, rather than actually naming who you are as a person or the like, the
information will be posted on your web so rather for your personal details being across the web,
and the organisation that you work for, if you can just identify your unique identifier, we'll open the
lines up. We'll call for a question. If you have a question, one at a time, you can nominate who
you are using your unique identifier, ask your question, we'll answer that and once that question
has been answered, we'll ask for the next one and the like.
Prior to opening up the channels, we did get three questions earlier on via the web that we
thought we'd cover off prior to opening up the lines up. So I'll run through these three questions,
they have been asked a number of times so they are a frequently asked one so we'll cover these
things off.
[End of Transcript]
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