Support networks

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• Posted by breakthrough4business November 14, 2017 at 21:07

  How can small business find trusted advice and expertise?
  
  This is a great question.
  
  What if there was an online Small Business resource that was able to give people the knowledge that they needed through a comprehensive Video Library of over 300+ videos, was able to connect Businesses throughout Australia with a Forum that highlighted specific Small Business categories, held people accountable with an Online Scorecard, and connect the Small Business Owners with specific Experts from specific industries through Live and Recorded webinars.
  
  This resource exists here in Australia at www.b4b.academy
  
  

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• Posted by DigitalEconomyTeam November 16, 2017 at 15:07

  This looks like a terrific resource breakthrough4business. Thank you for sharing. This is definitely an important piece of the puzzle for those people and businesses that are ready and willing to learn for themselves. How do we support those businesses which perhaps need some additional human help and expertise to identify which digital tool is best suited to their particular circumstance?
  
  We'd be interested in finding out more about your service. Could you send an email to digitaleconomy@industry.gov.au so one of the team can get in contact?

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• Posted by REverson November 23, 2017 at 14:23

  Initiatives such as the Digital Economy Strategy are a great way to highlight the issue. At the risk of stating the obvious, Entrepreneurs Programme Business Advisers are ideally placed to offer the objective and informed 'trusted adviser' service you mentioned.
  
  As a Business Adviser, I am aware the Department and our industry partners are working hard to ensure we can access the information and networks we need to be able to offer informed advice to our clients. Of course, we can always do better, so any efforts to keep this information flowing down to the 'coalface', i.e. the adviser and facilitator cohort, would be beneficial.
  
  The next level of Support Networks would be via the various Business Hubs and Incubators. Locally, the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) does a great job sharing the digital story. I recently met Taylor Tran who has published a guide to co-working and collaboration spaces, a handy resource.
  
  www.innovationcoworking.com.au
  
  In the private sector, there are inevitably a few 'digital champions', Liam and Carsten at 2pi Software have organised a number of events that support digital innovation in the Bega Valley, these include Tech Talks, Start Up Camps and Coding for Kids workshops. These trailblazers can provide 'proof of concept' and practical advice.
  

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• Posted by SoniaC January 10, 2018 at 10:32

  I'd flip the question and ask how you can support digital advisers to have more of a presence and to help them be easy to find. It's the kind of space I want to be working more in as an independent virtual CIO, and my first challenge is finding customers.
  
  I'm based in Brisbane, and outside of traditional marketing strategies (blog/twitter/LinkedIn/public speaking) I'm not aware of any government initiatives that I can support or list my name in, so people know that I exist.

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• Posted by smalldigbizteam January 12, 2018 at 10:32

  Good thoughts SoniaC. It sounds like a marketplace of some kind (Freelancer / LinkedIn) for IT help may be good for both businesses and independents such as yourself.

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