Taking Care of Business

EDM update The ED Unit kicked off 2012 with an-other very successful Lunar New Year celebration in Marrickville. This was followed by the Economic Development forum for the Parramatta Road corridor, with the latter enabling the unit to take advantage of the economic develop-ment services being provided to Leich-hardt Council to make this a joint fo-rum.

For the first time in its 15 year history the Bairro in Petersham included utili-sation of the parking lanes on New Canterbury Road to create an ex-panded venue which better incorpo-rated the main street businesses.

The Marrickville Business Association, an initiative of the ED Unit, supported by Council held the first Marrickville specific business awards night. This was an extremely successful evening with the highlight being the long service awards. The awards, presented by the Mayor, are now proudly displayed in shop windows and offices dotted throughout Marrickville. In keeping with the ED Unit’s charter the awards night was delivered at no cost to Council. The primary communication tool of the mba, is its web site

www.marrickvillebusiness.com.au , which will be launched formally in early August 2012. I

n partnership with Westpac Bank the ED Unit’s small business skills devel-opment program continues to grow in popularity with participants appreciating the interactive learning and energy of the presenters.

The ED Unit is coordinating the fourth Inner West Small Business Expo to be held on Friday 3 August at Le Montage, in Lilyfield.

Duncan Gilchrist

Economic Development Unit Newsletter—Number 2 of 2012

Sample of a before shot of Parramatta Road

The Dining Room at the Stella

Sample of an after shot of Parramatta Road

The Parramatta Road Forum provided a great opportunity for businesses on both sides of the Marrickville/Leichhardt corridor to engage in some long awaited uninhibited visioning. The ED Unit precipitated discussion with a presentation of some extracts from the August 2002 - Par-ramatta Road Strategic Plan which provided nu-merous before and after scenarios and some very good examples of integrated urban design and planning. Representatives of 27 businesses attended the forum which also

attracted the CEO of Urban Taskforce Australia, Chris Johnson and the area manager of NSW Department of Roads & Maritime Services. A report will be going up to both Marrickville and Leichhardt Councils recommending consistency of streetscape for the corridor which has the po-tential to be a showcase gateway for both LGAs and a signpost for the great restaurants and shopping just either side of the main road.

The Tempe Sydenham St Peters Forum which took place in December was not only an excel-lent opportunity to hear from local businesses generally but also to obtain first hand some feed-back on the impact of IKEA. Businesses gener-ally indicated that IKEA had a positive impact on their bottom line with one business indicating a 25% increase in turnover.

A crowd favourite, the God of Wealth, pro-vided good luck for all in attendance while the highly acrobatic Lion Dancers and fire-works provided spectacular entertainment.

Lunar New Year 2012

Guests of honour at this year’s Lunar New Year included the Mayor - Clr Morris Hanna, Clr Mary O’Sullivan, Peak Lu - President, Australian Federation of Chinese Organisations, Clr Le Lam - Auburn Council and Francis & Sally Lee.

Economic Development Business Forums

The Stella Hotel that provided the venue is itself a great example of a rejuvenated business with the photograph gallery depicting the history of the area evidencing its clear connection to com-munity.

NSW Commissioner for Small Business

There has been a big boost for the protection of the rights of local businesses with the appointment of Yasmin King as the first Commissioner for Small Business in NSW. The EDM recently met with the Commissioner who indi-cated significant interest in the Marrickville Home Based Business Network as home based businesses will be targeted for support through a soon to be announced state wide mentoring service to be provided through the NSW De-partment of Trade & Investment. The Commissioner also agreed to partici-pate in a similar event to the one featuring Professor Ed Blakely and will pro-vide the opening address at the Economic Development Australia NSW State Practitioner Network’s regional conference in Kiama.

What or who is Economic Development Aus-tralia (EDA)? EDA is the peak representative body for economic development practitioners

in Australia. Duncan Gilchrist, EDM at Marrickville Council is on the National Board and is the current Chair of the EDA NSW State Practi-tioner’s Network whilst John Whelan, EDO is the Secretary of the state network. EDA has developed accredited training courses and created the qualification of Australian Certified Economic Development (ACEcD) practitioner which is now recognised throughout Australasia. There are only 57 practitioners in Australia with the length of service, experi-ence and expertise who qualify for, and therefore eligible to use, ACEcD after their name – Duncan and John are two of these accred-ited practitioners. There is also a rigorous continuous learning pro-gram in place for this qualification to be reviewed and renewed annu-ally.

Working with EDA has enabled the ED Unit to access relevant government leaders and officials on a regular basis. In the last few months we have met with the Minister for Local Government, Commissioner for Small Business and the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee (NSW). This enables the Unit to discharge its advocacy role. By making ourselves available to government we are often able to obtain advance knowledge of proposed grants and programs. One example of where the ED Unit was approached to run a funded program was the highly successful Young Entrepreneurs Program. The EDM has been instrumental in developing the inaugural EDA NSW Re-gional Conference held in Kiama in July this year. The EDA Annual Conference this year will be International, involving part-ner practitioners from New Zealand and South East Asia. The theme for the conference is Economic Leadership in the Asian Century with Food Sus-tainability a strong subtheme which was encouraged by the success of the Marrickville Manufacturers Association.

Leichhardt

Economic Development Contract

The contract with Leichhardt Council to provide economic devel-opment support, in particular, to facilitate the High Street Task Forces for the Rozelle/Balmain and Leichhardt/Annandale pre-cincts is now in its penultimate month. Leichhardt Council is in the process of finalising its Employment and Economic Development Strategy with the input gained from the collaborative work with local businesses undertaken by the Marrickville ED Unit. It has been a mutually rewarding experience for the team with Leich-hardt resolving to create a full time Economic Development Offi-cer position and announcing that it will soon be advertising to fill that position. The Rozelle Festival which will run for the whole of July involving over 50 local Rozelle businesses, the Rozelle Neighbourhood Centre and Rozelle Public School provides a classic example of what can be achieved through targeted busi-ness facilitation. It is also hoped that the good will created through the delivery of this contract enables both councils to work harmoniously to revitalise the Parramatta Road corridor.

Made in Marrickville

The ED Unit suggested the Marrickville Manufacturers Associa-tion try something completely different on the local scene – a pop up shop at the Marrickville Metro. Manned for a full business week by one of the ED Unit’s Economic Development Officers, John Whelan and his son Liam, this initiative was a big hit with local shoppers. The manufacturers were represented by Candle-light Chocolates, The Pasta Factory, Casa Del, Pat & Stick Ice Cream and Serendipity Ice Cream while the products of Home Made Fine Foods, Paesanella, Pepe Saya and Alpino Gelato, already available at the Metro Grocer, were also promoted.

Enterprise Connect

The Federal government initiative Enterprise Connect continues to work with our local manufacturers. They are currently working with Agrifood Skills Austra-lia to determine skill shortages in the bakery industry. Marrickville with its many bakeries creating a wide and varied range of products has been selected as an ideal location in which to pilot this project.

The EDU will be working with Agrifood Skills Australia to set up information sessions for businesses interested in a skills audit and then the provision of on site training. This pilot project will be expanded to all parts of Australia and ex-tended to other manufacturing sectors.

Enmore Theatre Parking

Since our last newsletter we have been advised that TAFE will be in a position to provide up to 40 spaces Mon to Thursday and approximately 100 and 120 respectively for Friday and Saturday. Greg Khoury, Century Venues and Robert Cousins, Petersham/Enmore TAFE are to be congratulated on a great outcome. This is an excellent example of a public/private partnership where the ED Unit was pleased to play a small part. The dynamic Whelans - John & Liam

The trading name Made in Marrickville is owned by the Marrickville Manufacturers Association Inc and is widely used to promote the products of the association as premium brands. The above excerpt, taken from a recent marketing campaign in the Inner West Courier, evidences the use of QR coding as a multi media link. Through i-business and e-commerce themes developed by the ED Unit for the 2011 Inner West Small Business Expo, ongoing pro-grams are being used to assist local businesses and business associations to adopt and effectively use cyber based marketing and promotional tools essential for survival in the twenty first century and beyond.

Marrickville Business Association

The Concept To create an apolitical business association capable of acting as an umbrella association to provide rep-resentation to all businesses in the Marrickville local government area regardless of whether they are in a recognised central business district or designated business levy precinct.

To provide a value proposition that addresses both time and money with membership being free, meetings only as required and events/promotions run on an opt in basis if you are interested (such as the Business Awards)

Bug Communications at Stanmore assisted the ED Unit with the develop-ment of the logos, artwork and style guides necessary for the association to be distinctive and easily recognisable.

The Facilitator

The MBA has already established significant credibility with the business community as the partner organisation with Westpac providing hands on business skills development for local business operators.

Westpac provides the venue and the catering while the ED Unit via the MBA provides professional presenters and recruits interested businesses. This builds upon the great work of the Marrickville Business Chamber and provides the opportunity to target a wider audience. This partnership is able to provide the workshops at no cost to participants or council.

To date sessions have each attracted between twenty and thirty partici-pants. Check out the You Tube clip on the MBA web site, meet the busi-ness operator and hear their testimonial.

The MBA also facilitated the Business Achiever Awards.

The Business Directory

MBA members are being collated in a business directory which will in time feature special offers and loyalty programs. Businesses will also be encour-aged to post position vacancies targeting local job seekers especially in the hospitality sector.

Businesses are able to upload their details at any time into the basic direc-tory. More elaborate web pages and banner advertising will be available shortly at very reasonable prices. The added benefit of the MBA site is that linked activities will always be driving customers to the site either directly or through social media and QR codes.

It is hoped that over time the MBA will be seen as the businesses face of the Marrickville LGA for all dealings involving external agencies and/or where a collective voice is required to be raised for the benefit of all busi-nesses.

The Web Site The engine room driving communication for the association, the web

site www.marrickvillebusiness.com.au , is owned by Marrickville Council and moderated on behalf of the association members by the ED Unit.

The site is capable of registering participants and taking payments for events/promotional activities and will pay its way through the sale of advertising.

The site has been under development for some months now and is being rigorously tested to ensure a smooth introduction.

One of the great features is the ability to watch and listen via You Tube to local business operators talking about their participation in events.

As content is added the site will provide information of relevant to local businesses and businesses contemplating a move to the Mar-rickville area. A short prospectus will introduce potential new busi-nesses to the broad attraction of the Inner West with links to more details information which will contain not only relevant business sta-tistics but also those simple things of interest to a family contemplat-ing a move to a new area such as schools, public amenities and transport.

The site will be able to provide information on grants and opportuni-ties relevant to business with the offer to assist with interpretation of criteria and preparation of submissions by the ED Unit being a value added point of difference.

A PLACE TO SHOUT OUT LOUD TO THE WORLD

Three-Cup Award Winners

Campos Coffee, Newtown

Coffee Alchemy, Marrickville Cornersmith, Marrickville

“Marrickville has become the new café central, and Cornersmith is its queen bee, where James Grant and Alex Elliot-Howery have cap-tured the collective imagination with their backyard beehives, rhubarb and rose milkshakes, and pickling-days Monday.”

Jenny Ford from The Best of Marrickville, a tireless promoter of the

Marrickville CBD, addresses the participants

marrickvillebusiness.com.au

Category Winners Casual Dining - Frango Petersham Charcoal

Chicken - Petersham Formal Dining - Sixpenny, Stanmore

House & Home Ware - Brass Plus, Tempe Professional Services - Bug Communication, Stan-

more Speciality Retailer & Services - 2Spoilt, Marrickville Fitness & Sport - Bikram Yoga Inner West, Peter-

sham Community Services & NFP - Newtown Community

Markets, Newtown Made in Marrickville Award - Epicurean Kitchen,

Marrickville Special Business Contribution – IKEA, Tempe

Urban Centres Food &

Convenience Stores Dulwich Hill - The Larder Epicerie Fine

Marrickville - Lamia Super Deli Newtown - Deli on King

Petersham - Charlie's Deli

MBA Business Achiever Awards The inaugural Marrickville Business Association’s Business Achiever Awards took place at the Westside Reception Centre in Marrickville on Friday 15 June, 2012. The purpose of the awards was to recognise the contribution of long serving busi-nesses to the local economy and those businesses that had significant achievements within their own industry. This was new territory for the association so the targets for the evening were moderate and expected to be achievable. It goes without say-ing that the evening was in fact a huge success with those in attendance proud to be part of such and illustrious collection of business achievers.

Long Service Awards

Platinum Awards Ford's Pharmacy

Advance Mont de Piete Loan Office NewsLocal - Inner West Courier

Gladstone Hotel Petersham Bowling Club

Concordia Club The Sandringham Hotel

Gold Awards Bravo Coffee

Fernando's Hair & Beauty Alpino Gelato Paesanella

Silver Awards

Charlie's Deli Joseph G Capogreco & Associates

Gloria's café Lewisham Physiotherapy & Sports Medicine

Cass Brothers J S Pinto & Co.

Petersham Travel Serendipity Ice Cream

Tower's Antiques Westside Reception

W F O'Brien Dr Anthony Zahra

Banana Joe's The Sydney Self Defence Centre

Tempe Tyres Cyprus Community Club

Alfa Clothing Maurice Menswear

The Mayor addresses the audience

W F O’Brien - the apprentice who now owns the company

The Sandringham Hotel Is there an older business?

Newtown Markets— the first facilitated social enterprise for the EDU

Alpino Gelato who tell us they are the first gelato manufacturers in Australia and have just received accreditation for both Kosher

and Vegan certification A special thank you to our media partner for the awards and a Marrickville Business Centurian, in

their own right - NewsLocal

Petersham Bowling Club accepts its award and along with the Concordia and Cyprus Clubs demonstrated a very differ-ent face of business with their long term commitment to the Marrickville commu-nity, our memories and our way of life. Recollecting the lives of founders, sav-iours, the countless volunteers and the role they played during the good times and the bad times was a very special part of the evening - congratulations, and once again thank you.

The comment has been made about how the media will latch on to some topics but not others. The abolition of the licence fees (not the application fee) for commercial activities on footpaths, primarily foot-path dining, really grabbed the imagination of the major and local news-papers, not so much as to congratulate us but waggle the finger in the faces of our neighbouring councils. That said, the level of appreciation from the business community in general has been enormous. The most pleasing aspect from an economic development stand point was busi-ness owners indicating that they would reinvest the savings back into the business with new tables and chairs and/or extended hours for casuals at the top of the list. The ED Unit is now in the process of developing an inexpensive flyer which will be distributed to likely prospects offering them assistance to set up dining platforms including the provision of entertainment. The

Feedback from Businesses

The EDU is committed to engaging with our business community in order to discover its needs and tailor our programs and strategies accordingly. Both formal and informal evaluations are undertaken. Here is a sample of some of the feedback to date:

long term goal is to have all dining platforms being used with live enter-tainment a feature. The resulting increase in the number of patrons and longer busy periods also has the effect of making people feel safer add-ing to a self sustaining process.

COUNCIL ABOLISHES FOOTPATH TRADING LICENCE FEES

“It was a great night, you can expect a

lot more Petersham businesses there

next year.”

Sam Santoro - Charlie’s Deli Petersham

“I am not a very outgoing person and was very hesi-

tant at first, but once I started I didn’t want to stop.

A great learning experience which really opened

my eyes and made me think”

Speed dating for business workshop

“You have no idea how long we have waited for someone to

show some interest let alone be willing to try and tackle the

huge job of fixing this road”

Chatting with business over a cuppa after the Parramatta Road Forum

“The chairs and tables outside are 24 years

old and only fashionable back in the ‘80’s. It

will be great to finally replace them.”

Gloria Belinha—SMH 29 June 2012

Cool or Quirky

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 101

The ED Unit has been assisting Leichhardt Council with its Employment & Economic Development Strategy which will soon see the appointment of their own full time economic development officer. The highlight of this engagement has been the facilitation of the Rozelle Festival. Starting with an enquiry which led to a small but enthusiastic workshop at Tali Gallery, the Rozelle Festival, a concept combining Christmas in July with a Beanie Festival, took off like wild fire fuelled by the passion of over 50 local businesses. The festival is on every weekend in July and by the looks of the photographs below for many more Julys in the coming years.

Family involvement is a feature The birth of a new local identity

Beanies & Smiles - highly contagious Community bank walks the talk

Why stop at a Beanie - proof that business can be fun

“Congratulations and thank you for a fantastic initiative.” COLQUHOUN & COLQUHOUN, Solicitors

The Beanie Bush