In Australia, for micro and small business operators, financial assistance and free mentoring are available through a government-funded program called New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, or NEIS.
New entrepreneurs can access free mentoring for the first 12 months of participation in the program and receive financial assistance for up to the first 39 weeks of business operation.
Existing micro-businesses impacted by COVID-19 can access NEIS if they need help to keep their businesses running.
Also, people with part-time contracts, who are working up to 25 hours per week, can access NEIS if they are looking to start their own business.
While NEIS providers are local, you can also take Employability Skills Training or get financial help to hire new staff.
Lisa Teh director of the digital marketing firm CODI Agency says, there are many website builders on the market who are offering free plans on how to create a professional website.
Yes, it might be easy and cost-effective to start an online store or online business, but you need to allocate budget towards driving traffic to that store or that site. I think that’s where a lot of people fall down. They might have a fantastic website, but then they haven’t allocated in the strategy, time, effort, budget towards how they are going actually to get customers. And that’s one of the biggest challenges that I see people come up with.
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