advice is free and can often be just what the doctor ordered. Here’s a summary of what advice is available and where to find it:
The Wild West: The Small Business Development Corporation is a government agency focused on developing the small business sector. They offer advice on finance, marketing, business planning and regulations. Visit www.smallbusiness.wa.gov.au.
Tassie tigers: Business Tasmania has a good portal for small businesses at www.business.tas.gov.au.
The Top End: Head to www.nt.gov.au/industry for territory-specific planning advice, business licence information, and business support. This website also links to business advisory centres across the territory, known as Small Business Champions.
Brash and brazen: www.business.nsw.gov.au is a good resource, and I can recommend the Business Connect program. This heavily subsidised (and indeed, often free) service provides face-to-face support and expert advice to help develop your business.
Eureka and Ned: Business Victoria is a central organisation based in Melbourne offering information and referral services for small businesses. An excellent website at www.business.vic.gov.au offers links to a whole load of business services, including business mentoring and workshops.
Don’t you worry about that! The best source of info in Queensland is www.business.qld.gov.au. Here you can find a whole range of resources, plus access to training seminars and workshops.
The lost city: ACT Innovation, Industry and Investment (www.cmtedd.act.gov.au) offers small business advice and administers a range of business support and development programs.
Home of the white pointer: For South Australian business advice, start at www.business.sa.gov.au. They offer great small business support and advice, including several Business Enterprise Centres and Regional Development units.
National Business Enterprise Centres: In addition to the state government business development departments listed here, a national network of Business Enterprise Centres is available to help you get your business going in the right direction. Go to www.becaustralia.org.au to find a BEC near you.
For more about business planning, and other business resources, skip ahead to Chapter 6.
Setting Yourself Up for Success
I talk a lot about the pros and cons of small business in this chapter and, as you’ve probably gathered by now, I speak from a somewhat conservative standpoint because I know both how tough small business can be and also the amount of commitment required.
However, don’t imagine for a minute that you’re not capable of success. With careful research, willpower, financial backing and a healthy dose of inspiration, you’re going to be hard-pressed to think of a reason you can’t succeed in the way many others have done before you. (And, of course, that’s what the rest of Small Business For Dummies is all about!)
Chapter 2
Figuring Out What’s So Special about You (And Your Business)
IN THIS CHAPTER
What is it that makes you, or your business, so special?
Even if you have a business that’s similar to thousands of others — maybe you mow lawns, have a hairdressing salon or tutor high school students — I still recommend you come up with an idea that makes your business different from others in some way, or that provides you with a competitive edge.
Similarly, if your business caters for a very specific niche — maybe you sell gluten-free cookies or baby clothes made from organic cottons — you need to identify what it is about your skills or circumstances that enables you to service this niche better than others.
In this chapter, I help you define the essence of what makes your business special, or more likely to succeed than others. This quality is called your strategic advantage and is the single most important ingredient for ongoing business success.
Understanding Strategic Advantage
Many business people use the terms competitive advantage and strategic advantage synonymously. However, to be really precise, you could argue that these two terms relate to slightly different aspects of your business.
A competitive advantage is something that’s different from, better than, or not offered by your competitors. For example, if a town has two hairdressing salons and one offers a mobile service but the other doesn’t, the first salon has a competitive advantage because they’re providing something their competitors aren’t.
A strategic advantage is something that stems from capabilities within your business that are hard for others to copy. These capabilities tend to be a unique blend of assets, knowledge, people networks, skills or technology. For example, imagine the owner of the salon with the mobile haircutting service has a background in nursing, and so has a natural understanding of the needs of her many elderly housebound clients. Imagine also that the owner’s husband is a mechanic, which means the vehicle used for providing the salon’s mobile service is kept on the road at minimal cost. This unique blend of skills and cost efficiency forms part of this salon’s strategic advantage.
Having said all this, competitive and strategic advantages tend to overlap so much that I try to avoid getting bogged down in arguing about the distinction. I use the term strategic advantage in most of this chapter (because, after all, a true strategic advantage should ultimately result in a competitive advantage — an idea I return to at the end of this chapter) but if you’d rather use the term competitive advantage, that’s just fine.
Identifying
