Today we launch our new Small Business Development Corporation Strategic Plan 2026-30. It is our roadmap for the next four years, as we continue our important work supporting Western Australia’s enterprising small business sector.
Small businesses are both the backbone and the heartbeat of our state. From the tradie starting out in the suburbs of Perth, to the tourism operator in the Kimberley; the craft brewer in the Perth Hills to the family-run supply store in the Wheatbelt: These are the people the SBDC exists to serve. And it is those Western Australian small business owners we had in mind when crafting our new plan.
Aligned with the State Government’s priorities
One of the central goals when creating our new strategy over the last eight months, was to ensure it was connected not only with what small businesses need, but with the bigger picture for Western Australia.
The Premier and the WA Government are clear on their priorities - Creating a future that is Made in WA and diversifying our economy to build resilience and create jobs. With small businesses operating across every industry sector, they play and will continue to play an indispensable role in contributing to the success of these initiatives and our state’s future. As such, the WA Government’s vision is at the forefront of our strategic focus and our new Strategic Plan.
Ensuring our services remain contemporary in evolving sector
The SBDC has now been operating for more than 40 years. Our agency continues to delivery because we regularly “take the temperature” of what kind of support small businesses need as the operating environment shifts, remain nimble and action-oriented, and staff our operation with a team that is genuinely driven by care for small business owners themselves.
This strategic plan represents both continuity and evolution, carrying forward the core strategic pillars from our 2023-26 plan, viewed through a new lens. It reflects everything we continue to listen and learn about what small businesses need, what government can uniquely provide, and where we as an organisation must stretch, grow and adapt. Most importantly, it is built around a clear and honest acknowledgement of our core purpose: to serve.
Serve is not a pillar in this plan - it is the foundation that underlies all our work. When we regard every decision, every service, and every engagement through the lens of how it helps WA’s small business owners to start well, survive and thrive, our focus becomes crystal clear. Whether we are helping someone navigate the process of securing licences and approvals for their enterprise, mediating a dispute, suggesting new tools they can use to run their business more efficiently or advocating for making it easier to do business in our state, we are in service of the small business community of Western Australia.
Our four strategic pillars
Building on that foundation, we have outlined the four strategic pillars that will shape and direct the SBDC’s work over the next four years:
- Under Grow, we will contribute meaningfully to the diversification of the WA economy, explicitly connecting our work supporting small businesses to the State Government’s priorities and demonstrating the economic value of a thriving small business sector.
- In Strengthen, we will refine our advocacy agenda to continue to pursue a fair and level playing field, by being a voice to government and industry for small business operators across the state.
- Through Connect, we will deepen and expand our partnerships and alliances across all sectors, recognising that in a state as large and diverse as ours, no single body can do this work alone and our collective might lies in collaboration.
- Under Evolve, we will ensure that we remain a contemporary, agile and effective organisation fit for the challenges and opportunities today and tomorrow will bring in our fast moving environment.
I am proud of the team that will deliver this plan – Team SBDC - and energised by what lies ahead. The work is meaningful, the need of our small businesses is real, their contribution to the state is essential, and the SBDC is ready to deliver.
Read the SBDC Strategic Plan 2026-30.
Saj Abdoolakhan
Small Business Commissioner
