Local help for business owners with concerns

Women in business and Regional Development would like to highlight this important opportunity from Rural Business Support.

Rural Business Support’s (RBS) Small Business Team can work with eligible small business owners who are concerned about the impact of drought, bushfire and/or COVID-19 on their business. The program is modelled on the successful Rural Financial Counselling Service (RFCS), which has been helping farm businesses for more than 30 years. RBS delivers the RFCS across South Australia and Northern Territory.

What is the Small Business Financial Counselling (SBFC) program?

The SBFC program provides practical support to eligible small business owners in rural areas who are concerned about their financial situation. The program is fully subsidised by funding from the Australian and South Australian Governments. The only cost to them is in committing adequate time away from their business to work with us. The more time they are able to commit to the process, the better the outcome! If you have a spare couple of minutes please watch the video below to learn more or download our fact sheet.

What are the benefits of working with a Financial Counsellor?

A financial counsellor can help business owners to prioritise the important decisions that need to be made now and develop plans to help them gain some much needed clarity amid the uncertainty. Initially this might involve looking into government grants or other payment options to help ease some of the financial pressure.

Once we have worked together to consider different options, our team can help them put plans into action and start moving forward. We’ll accompany them and support them along the way. We can work with participants to:

Identify the important decisions that need to be made
Consider different options they may have to improve their business
Develop a plan to keep their business on track and the business owners feeling in control

Our financial counsellors live and work in rural and regional communities, so they understand well the challenges that local business owners are facing.

Who is eligible to access the SBFC program?

To receive support from the RBS Small Business Team, a small business must:

Have 19 employees or less
Be experiencing, or at risk of, financial hardship due to drought, bushfire
or COVID-19
Be located in an area classified as rural (i.e. not in Adelaide)
Be ineligible for the Rural Financial Counselling Service

What can participants expect from the program?

At their first appointment we’ll seek to gain an understanding of their situation and the support they are looking for. We can then work with them to: