Turn to us

When you’re a small business owner, you’re in charge of everything. It can be incredibly rewarding, and often very demanding.

You’re the person everyone turns to all day long. Customers, staff, suppliers etc. – they expect you to know all the answers and deal with any problems that come up. But when you’re faced with something that falls outside your expertise, who can you turn to? That’s where the Small Business Development Corporation can help. Most of our services are free, so you can access practical and confidential advice without adding to your expenses.

Our services include:

Free one-to-one business support

We offer advice and support to help you set up, manage and grow your business.

Our free business advisory service is here to help with starting your business – how to structure it, writing a business plan, market research, financial management, sales and marketing, dispute resolution and more.

Find out more about our business advisory service.

Practical workshops

Our practical workshops are designed to provide you with the skills and information you need to start and grow your business. They’re full of handy tips and key information and are a great way to build your business skills. 

Our workshops cover a range of business topics across seven key categories, and our delivered by presenters who are specialists in their field. If you are thinking about starting a business but are not sure where to begin, we recommend our free Starting a Business workshop.

See our upcoming workshop dates.

Dispute resolution

It’s not unusual for businesses to face disputes with other businesses or government departments. Unfortunately they can be tricky to properly manage and resolve, and there may be rules and regulations you need to follow. Luckily, you don’t have to do it alone. Our free dispute resolution service is easy to access and confidential, so you can get back to running your business sooner.

Find out more about our dispute resolution service.

Support for subcontractors

If you’re a subcontractor in the construction industry, you can be especially vulnerable to late or non-payments, insolvencies and unfair behaviour. We offer a dedicated subcontractor support service to help oversee and investigate complaints, resolve disputes and provide free advice.

Find out more about our support service for subcontractors.

Online resources to support you

Our website has a great range of free resources to help you develop your essential business knowledge and keep up-to-date with the latest changes affecting small business.

Advice on a range of essential topics

Visit the business information section of our website for information on most of the key aspects of running a business including getting your business set up correctly, legal and tax essentials as well as marketing, employing staff and leasing business premises.

Free templates, tools and guides

Our templates and tools are essential when it comes to business planning and growing your knowledge on a range of business topics.

They are free to download, and, unlike many other websites, we won’t ask for your email address.

Explore our range of templates, tools and guides.

Regular updates on changes impacting on small business

Navigating your way through the rapidly changing business landscape can be a challenge, especially when you’re focused on actually running a business, so let our SBDC Blog do the hard work for you. We post regular updates covering key issues and changes to regulations that may affect you, along with lots of practical tips and advice to help you run your business. Delve into our huge back catalogue of Blog posts on marketing and promotions, managing risk, financial management and key legislative changes.

Visit the SBDC Blog and sign up for our  e-news for an easy way to read all our recent blog posts.

Are you ready to turn to us?

To access any of our support services, call us on 133 140 or use our live chat

We are open from 8:30am to 4:30pm weekdays.

If you’d like to contact us out of hours, please leave us a message via live chat and one of our friendly advisers will get back to you.