As Dr Seuss once said, “When you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.”
And boy is NSW in a Covid -19 driven jobs slump. But how will Premier Berijiklian’s new $3000 small business grant go in un-slumping Central Coast businesses?
What is it?
First up, let’s take a gander at what the NSW government is proposing.
“These grants can be used to pay for things like advertising and marketing costs and are designed to help eligible small businesses shift from survival to revival,” reveals Minister for Customer Service, Victor Dominello to Coast Community News.
So the new grant on offer is essentially an economic defibrillator, if you will, for small business reeling in the wake of COVID-19 and its financial ramifications. Scratch that, it is more of a pain killer or jar of multivitamins. Not that anyone is complaining – between $500 and $3000, this cash injection is still enough for any small business to breathe a sigh of relief if you know what to do with it.
What can I do with it?
As the backbone of any community, it is vital that small businesses keep thriving. That’s why the NSW government is aiming at businesses and not-for-profit organisations in offering assistance to meet the costs of safely reopening to the community and growing their existing operations.
That means you can use the money to make temporary physical changes to your business, like adding perspex barriers at your point of sale, or buying cleaning products to maintain safe environments for staff and customers.
While careful social distancing and public health measures are crucial to running a small business right now (and undoubtedly into the future), this grant will come too late for most businesses who have already implemented such measures.
Fortunately, the grant is not limited to remunerating these costs. The list goes on, covering; marketing, communications, advertising, and digital solutions such as e-commerce and website builds. Aw heck yeah! Now we’re talking!
Ok, so let’s mention the elephant in the room for a moment – Advantage Agency is a team that offers branding and marketing solutions on the Central Coast – and we humbly submit that we are bloody good at it. Of course we are going to promote digital marketing and boosting your online presence! But, in all earnestness, we do believe that supporting small businesses in getting on their digital feet during this global pandemic is crucial to their success and that of their community. If we were holding banners they would read “For crying out loud!”, “Save yourselves!” and “Use your small business recovery grant for digital branding and marketing”.
But we aren’t.
Who is Eligible?
The eligibility criteria is available on the Service NSW website and sets a benchmark annual turnover of $75,000. You will need to submit a Business Activity Statement or, in some cases, an Income Tax Statement as evidence.
To be eligible, you also have to be considered in a highly impacted industry (see more on how that is defined here) and have suffered a 30% decrease in turnover between March to July 2020.
Oh, and you can still be eligible if you received the government’s $10,000 small business support grant in the last financial year.
Un-slumping (it’s not a real word btw)
Like we said, we think we know how to help your business un-slump. Here’s our breakdown on what to spend your $3000 on:
- Create a website asap if you haven’t already got one, or refresh your existing if you do
- Stand out above the rest with quality branding
- Invest in or enhance your online marketing strategy
- Make your business hit the top of page 1 on Google with careful SEO and SEM. (Don’t know what these are? Find out here)
- E-commerce is so hot right now – start an online store
- Hit the socials – social media marketing is not just for millennials
Apply for your cash injection and then contact Advantage Agency to discover how we might help your business specifically.
So you see, un-slumping yourself and your Central Coast business just got that little bit easier after all.
