November 21, 2016
A business expo held in Kingaroy on Monday night attracted a wide variety of stalls … but it was the guest speakers who created the biggest buzz.
Businesses and organisations came from Tansey to Nanango – and all points in between – for the evening, which was organised by the Burnett Inland Economic Development Organisation (BIEDO).
The 120 or so people who signed in at Kingaroy Town Hall had the opportunity to learn about various grants and small business opportunities from the many government and not-for-profit organisations present.
A team of guest speakers shared the stage, including:
- NBNco community affairs manager Damon Cavalchini explained what the NBN is, how the rollout is proceeding (it will be 50 per cent completed by June 2017), and business grants that the company is offering.
- Deb Mead, from AusIndustry, also explained various government assistance programs, and urged businesses to explore www.business.gov.au to discover handy business tools.
- Steven Schmidl, from the Australian Tax Office, who urged businesspeople to visit the re-designed ATO website, sign up to receive ATO newsletters and download the new ATO app, and in some good news, said a simplified BAS form would be introduced next year.
However, the main stars were Jody and Brendan Allen, founders of the “Stay At Home Mum” web phenomenon based in Gympie.
Jody shared her inspiring story, explaining how she started out with a Facebook group after she had been made redundant while pregnant.
The couple now has the biggest privately owned parenting website in Australia as well as more than 500,000 followers on Facebook, 25,000 on Instagram and 50,000 on Pinterest.
They had been looking to buy a business, and then almost accidentally along came “Stay At Home Mum”.
“This just fell in our lap,” Jody said. “We were getting 1500 likes an hour.”
Six years later, ‘Stay At Home Mum” has 12 staff.
They have several writers but Jody says she still writes between 10 and 30 articles a day.
She has also become an author – her third book will be coming out in January – and negotiations are under way for her to have her own TV show.
* * *
BIEDO CEO Kirsty Frahm developed the idea for the Business Expo in conjunction with AusIndustry.
“BIEDO had a history of working with AusIndustry in the past so I took the opportunity to reconnect with them,” Kirsty said.
Initially, the organisations were discussing workshops but “we then decided to get everyone together to see what they wanted”.
Attendees at the Expo were invited to fill in feedback forms and suggest ideas for upcoming workshops.
BIEDO will be hosting another Business Expo, this time for the North Burnett, on Tuesday night at Gayndah.
* * *
Kirsty also unveiled new BIEDO membership packages at the Expo:
- Individuals $22 (incl GST) Jan 1 – Dec 31
- Businesses/Organisations $99 (incl GST) Jan 1 – Dec 31
 |
 |
