Attend a FREE Business Victoria workshop to improve your skills, network with others and get advice on your business from an expert or mentor.

Virtual Advice Session

Business Victoria offers free online business advice sessions to help you start or grow your small business.

Available Monday to Friday, the one-on-one sessions with a business expert will provide information on your business idea or how to grow your existing business.

Whether you're planning, starting or growing your business, Business Victoria can help you to develop your business ideas and capabilities.

A business expert will help to identify a clear direction for your business, discuss key issues and priorities, and develop a business action plan to achieve your goals, all for free. Available Monday to Friday the sessions last 45-minutes and bookings are essential.

Please note that only one session is available for each business per 12-month period.

Starting your small business

(workshop completed)

Date: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Time: 10am - 1pm

Location: Cardinia Cultural Centre 40 Lakeside Boulevard, Pakenham VIC 3810

This workshop is designed to help potential small business owners learn about the essentials of starting a small business.

The topics covered include:

• Understand the key success factors involved in starting your business
• Understand the key components of a good business plan
• Create business and action plans that will give you the steps you need to work towards starting your business
• Understand where to go for additional resources

Strengthening business practices

(Workshop completed)

Date: Monday 24 October 2022

Time: 9.30am - 12.30pm

Location: Cardinia Cultural Centre, 40 Lakeside Boulevard, Pakenham VIC 3810

The aim of this workshop is to help small business owners who want short-term, constructive advice to support business recovery as well as tools for longer-term future crisis planning.

The topics covered include:

• Learn why personal resilience is important for business owners or managers
• How business resilience is different to personal resilience
• Explore some personal resilience tools
• Business risk awareness and prevention
• How best to respond to emergency and crisis

Maximising your marketing

(workshop completed)

Date: Tuesday 8 November 2022

Time: 10am - 12noon

Location: Cardinia Cultural Centre, 40 Lakeside Boulevard, Pakenham VIC 3810

This workshop is designed to provide small business owners with a broad understanding of what marketing is, as well as provide insight into key actions required to be successful in marketing.

The topics covered include:

• What is marketing and why it’s critical in business
• Key elements of successful marketing
• Maximising insightful market research
• How to effectively attract and engage your target market
• How maximise customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy
• The role of social media and other key promotional tools

Generating cashflow

(Workshop completed)

Date: Monday 21 November 2022

Time: 9 am - 11 am

Location: Cardinia Cultural Centre, 40 Lakeside Boulevard, Pakenham VIC 3810

This workshop is designed to help identify the key cash flow drivers in business and provide ways of improving operational activities that will immediately improve cash flow.

The topics covered include:

• Profit versus cash
• Cash conversion cycle
• Suppliers and cash flow
• Improving your customer collections
• Marketing and cash flow
• How to prepare a cash flow forecast