This month at Breakfast at Sunrise, like a Business Santa Clause, Cr Ryan Murphy shared the great news about Lord Mayor’s efforts for small businesses - 100% elimination of fees for brand new startups the first year, 50% the second and 10% thereafter. 

It's a great step towards stemming the tide of the 80% failure statistic of businesses failing in the first year! 

Thank you Cr Ryan Murphy for sharing such welcome news supporting small businesses. 

It was also a pleasure to have CCIQ’s General Manager for Policy & Advocacy, Amanda Rohan and newly appointed Relationships Manager Paul Garcia join us for breakfast this month. 

SEBCC is proud to be collaborating with CCIQ to make a stand for small business.

THIS MONTH @ BREAKFAST AT SUNRISE

Our final breakfast for the year was a chance for all of us to come together and celebrate the year that was, and also look ahead to where the SEBCC is moving towards in 2020.

Going forward, all of our activities will revolve around four pillars:

• Connectivity
• Advocacy
• Accumen
• Resilience

Of course, we’ll be continuing with our monthly breakfasts and bringing you excellent speakers. In 2020, we’ll hold evening events and host two Meet the Candidates events prior to the Local and State elections next year.

We’re also very excited to announce our partnership with Grandshake - a platform to connect students directly with industry for work experience and work placement opportunities. As a committee, we are very passionate about ensuring our young local talent have as many opportunities to engage with the broader world of work as possible before committing to expensive (and increasingly irrelevant university degrees).

If you’d like to be involved with possibly hosting a student at your business, please reach out and we’ll put you in touch with the right people to find out more information.

As we come in to an election year, we know that ensuring small business has a strong voice at all levels of government is critical. That’s why we are very proud to partner with CCIQ and support their Small Business is a Big Deal campaign. 

All of us on the committee know intimately the struggles associated with running a business and so we need to ensure that every level of government is doing everything they possibly can to make doing business in Brisbane and in Queensland as attractive as possible. As an economic centre, Queensland is lags behind NSW and VIC. Our economy is struggling and businesses are feeling it from all sides. 

As we move into this renewed era of advocacy, our promise to our members is we’ll focus on POLICY not POLITICS. We’ll continue to be fiercely independent and commit to holding our elective representatives accountable to their commitments.  

Going forward in 2020, we’ll continue to promote government-funded programs and workshops that build your business acumen. Successful business owners understand the fundamentals of business and put them into action .

Finally, it has been a joy to be your President in 2019. I am so excited for where we are headed in 2020. I passionately believe that strong, local businesses are at the heart of a strong, local community. 

Thank you to all of you who have made SEBCC the wonderful Chamber that it is. I would particularly like to thank our committee for their tireless efforts month on month:

• Shane Cowan (Vice President)
• Des Bowler (Secretary)
• Joanne Hasted (Memberships)
• Jennifer Glisson (Secretary)
• Ray Strong
• Phil Searle
• Craig Noble

Thank you to David Farrel for being the funniest and wittiest Emcee south of the river. Our events are a joy to be at because of you.

Thank you to Aunty Marg for gifting us with your Welcome to Country every month as well as your wonderful sense of humour. 

I look forward to continuing to building this community with all of you in the years to come.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and a safe and festive holiday.

See you in February!

SEBCC Says Goodbye to a Long-Standing Member 

Vale Peter Gaston

The SEBCC has lost one of its long term supporters this week when Peter passed away from Brain Cancer. 

Peter was a long standing member of the SEBCC serving on the committee for several years. Peter was the chief organiser of our Melbourne Cup Sweeps every year as his love of Race Horses was his passion.

Our thoughts go out to his wife Brenda and family.

QLD SMALL BUSINESS STRATEGY - HAVE YOUR SAY!!!

Submissions due 5pm, Friday 13th December.

The Queensland Government is developing the next small business strategy and wants your input to ensure they- are providing the right support to build a strong and resilient small business sector to support growth and jobs.

You can have your say by:

Completing the online Queensland Small Business Strategy Discussion Paper survey.

https://www.getinvolved.qld.gov.au/gi/consultation/6951/view.html

OR: Emailing your submission to SmallBusinessStrategy@desbt.qld.gov.au.

OR: Posting your submission to:

Queensland Small Business Strategy

Department of Employment, Small Business and Training

PO Box 15033

CITY EAST

BRISBANE QLD 4002

Feedback should be provided to the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training by 5pm, 13 December 2019.