NEIS Program

What is the NEIS Program?

Do you have a great business idea? Want to Start Your Own Business with Support

The New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) is a government-funded program designed to help people with starting a business through small business training, expert coaching and income support (for eligible participants). The program is part of New Business Assistance, an Australian government initiative managed by Centrelink and the Department of Human Services.
NEIS stands for New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, is a self-employment initiative to help jobseekers start their own business.
The Neis Program, which is a Government funded New Business Incentive helps people start their paths to being their own boss.
NEIS Centrelink information can help you learn more about what assistance centrelink can provide you with starting a business idea

NEIS training can help you achieve a nationally recognised small business qualification. During the training your NEIS provider will help you to develop a NEIS Business Plan

Your NEIS provider will refer you to the appropriate training taking into account your business idea. This will be either a:

Certificate III in Entrepreneurship and New Business or
Certificate IV in Entrepreneurship and New Business.
NEIS Training is a Services Australia approved activity for up to 13 weeks. This means that people receiving certain types of income support (such as JobSeeker Payment) are not required to look for work while undertaking their small business training.

How Much is the NEIS Allowance?

NEIS Allowance is equivalent to the single, 22 or over, no children rate of JobSeeker Payment, and is paid fortnightly in arrears. Payment is subject to the participant meeting specified obligations under their NEIS Participant Agreement.

Am I eligible for NEIS Assistance?

To be eligible for NEIS you must:

Be at least 18 years of age
Be Able to legally work in Australia
Available to participate in NEIS training and work full-time in your proposed NEIS business.
You can also participate in NEIS if you are a part-time worker or student (up to 25 hours per week), or volunteer.

NEIS Program eligible participants must also not have:

Received NEIS assistance within the past 12 months
Filed for bankruptcy and still be classified as bankrupt

There are also Business eligibility requirements for NEIS

You must: not be currently operating on a commercial basis
be independent, reputable and legal
demonstrate potential commercial viability
be established, located and operated solely in Australia
ensure controlling interest in the business remains with the NEIS participant(s).

You can easily apply for NEIS Program at Holmesglen here or find other NEIS Program providers

What you will need to start your own business

So you have your business idea whats next?
First you will need to get your Australian Business Number (ABN). Register for an ABN here
Next you will want to register your Business Name. You can Check your Business name availablity here
Every Great Business idea needs a great Business website. Find your Business Domain name here

Checklist For Moving Out Cleaning

One of the most demanding aspects of moving out is post-moving cleaning. While many people make it the last resort, if you want a more productive and organised moving scenario, you need to clean and dispose of junk every time you pack something and cover a part of your home. In such cases, you need a deceased estate rubbish removal services.

But before you proceed with hiring cleaning services, you must perform some cleaning operations yourself. If you’re failing to manage a disposal routine post-moving out and even before that, here’s what you need to do.

Start Small

Like you start packing by gathering your clothes and optimising your closets; similarly, start small when you’re cleaning the house. It will make things easier for you if you clean by a checklist. For instance, start from your bedroom, which contains the primary essentials for packing.

Buy a couple of recycling bags, and while your pack your clothes, dispose of anything unnecessary or unwanted. Since transportation services also cost a lot, you will have to manage your luggage. While you dispose of old and unnecessary clothing, you can pack them up in trash bags to make them easily portable.

Once you cover the bedroom, ensure that all mirrors are cleaned. Dust all surfaces thoroughly before locking the door to the bedroom the final time and ensure that the garbage cans are empty.

You must also vacuum rugs and carpets that are floor-mounted. In multiple cases where homeowners convert their property into a rental, they take care of things like thoroughly cleaning due to state tenant and rental regulations.

Keep The Place Sanitary While Packing

You will be using the house while you’re packing, so don’t forget to clean the bathrooms now and then. Many homeowners don’t fulfil sanitary requirements and risk their healths and others. As a homeowner, it’s your responsibility to clean the house and sanitise the bathrooms thoroughly.

Ensure that you cover the bathroom mirrors, sinks, and walls if they are tiled. Bathrooms are effortless to clean since they’re solely made of washable flooring and wallpaper. Regularly cleaning toiletries will unburden you from thoroughly cleaning the house post-packing and moving out.

Move On To The Kitchen

Most people have built-in open kitchens that are one of the first visuals around the interior of their houses. Since kitchens are operated almost daily, it’s hard to undermine the importance of cleaning them. But when you’re moving out, you need to clean it entirely in and out if you’re leaving home for rental purposes.

Since many people take their appliances with them when they move out, but if you’re keeping some electrical cooking appliances, make sure that you clean them out after the last usage to make them appear good as new. Overall, dust all surfaces in the kitchen once and vacuum or scrub the flooring.

Finalise Cleaning Processes

Ensure that there is no rubbish around the exterior walls of your home. Mow the lawn to make it look as good as new. Add finishing touches by collecting all the trash cans post-moving out and placing them outside so the rubbish removal services can locate them quickly.

Is your business scalable?

After overcoming the survival stage businesses can exponentially increase their revenues.
Scalability not only means the ability to grow, but to do so with minimal investment and costs.
If you want to know if your business is scalable, you need to review different parameters such as the current demand for your products or services and your own ability as an owner to manage risk.
Have you ever thought about whether your business is scalable? What does that mean? During the early years of a business we are more concerned with making it survive than it’s growth. But when we are certain of its viability, then it is time to think about how to increase revenues and profits for the owners in an exponential way.

As experts explain, a business model is scalable when it has the capacity to generate more sales for a minimum investment and stable costs. That is, when growth is not hindered by a rigid production structure (such as the existence of a single supplier) or by a shortage of resources (such as the lack of capital to open another physical location); and, again, when obtaining more income does not mean a greater effort in time and money than the current one.

Now that you are clear that scaling doesn’t just mean growing, let’s look at the factors that determine and indicate that your business is on the right path to generate more wealth.

A proven product or service
Clear and automated processes
The ability to manage risk
Outsourcing of non-strategic activities
Having the necessary talent for the new stage
Openness to change

A proven product or service

If you still have doubts about the demand for your products or services or if you are still making adjustments to your value proposition, it means that your business is not ready to scale. So no matter how many sales you have in your business, even if you are already receiving orders from abroad, you need to wait longer and work on your business model as well.

Scalability needs firm foundations; otherwise, years of work and effort can fall apart in a few weeks after a bad decision.

Clear and automated processes

Are you still at that stage where, as a business owner, you are handling many tasks at once? Are there processes that are still being done manually? Are you just now incorporating automation tools? Are there many areas of the business that do not have clear and documented processes? Then your business is not ready for the big leap.

Without processes and automation tools that allow you, for example, to have better control of inventory in a store, your team will not be able to absorb a sudden increase in activity, the amount of information to be processed and customer demands.

The ability to manage risk

In a stage of accelerated growth, business owners must manage increasing costs, new demands and unknown scenarios. Therefore, not only they, but the entire organization, must be better prepared to manage risk.

That means that the operations must be agile, costs must be controlled and monitored so that your team of collaborators is able to make their own decisions, since the learning curve is much steeper and the demand for results is greater.

Outsourcing of non-strategic activities

Another clear indicator of a company’s ability to scale is the outsourcing of tasks to save time and money on activities that are important for daily operations, but have no impact on strategy.

This is the case of outsourcing logistics, shipping or accounting management when there is not yet enough of a budget to hire an accountant 100% dedicated to the company.

Having the necessary talent for the new stage.

Before starting a scaling process, it is also essential to have the personnel that will be in charge of new strategic tasks, such as the management of the online store or the export area. Are you clear about the new positions to be filled? Have you already defined the profile of these new professionals? Do you know how difficult it is to find them, and what you will have to offer in terms of salary and compensation to attract them to the business and keep them?

Consider that, many times, the best recruitment is internal; therefore, with the necessary training and a fair offer, current collaborators can become key pieces of the new expansion stage.

Openness to change

In order to scale up, it takes much more than an owner with innovative ideas and the ability to manage risk: it requires a corporate culture open to change, where all employees feel that they have room to propose new ideas, take risks and make mistakes, without jeopardizing their chances of growing up the corporate ladder.

In an environment of creativity and motivation, growth is made possible beyond material resources and the number of working hours. That’s why you not only have to surround yourself with the best talent, but also be able to clearly convey your vision.

Those are some of the factors to take into account when considering scaling up your business, we hope they prove useful, and if you’re thinking about growing your business it’s always a good idea to check 7 tips to help you make a good post for your business.

What is Dermapen?

What is Dermapen?

This revolutionary micro-needling device (also known as collagen industion therapy) aims to tighten, lift and rejuvenate skin to visibly improve the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, trauma scars, pigmentation and enlarged pores. It is safe and effective for all types and skin colours. There is a no risk of post-inflammatory hyper-pigmentation. When compared to traditional dermal rollers, Dermapen causes less epidermal (skin) damage, reducing levels of pain and discomfort.

How Does It Work?

Dermapen advanced technology and oscillating stamp-like pen, vibrates and glides over the skin systematically creating micro-punctures which cause the body to naturally respond by launching processes to repair the physical damage. The result is an increased production of new healthy collagen and elastin. The punctures also act as micro-channels that carry topical nutrients used during the treatment deep into skin layers for an increased effect.

Is The Treatment Painful?

A mild numbing cream is applied to lessen discomfort 30 minutes prior treatment. Unlike other methods of needling Dermapen’s unique oscillating system further increases tolerance by diffusing nerve sensation hence only vibration with light pressure is felt. After the treatment you can expect the skin to feel warm and slightly tight, similar to that of light sunburn. This will progressively reduce over a period of 2 days.

What Is The Downtime?

Dermapen offers non-ablative technology that eliminates the risk of heat injury and preserves epidermal integrity, providing the most ideal balance between optimal results and minimal downtime. Petechiae may appear on areas of thin or more delicate skin and may last for 2-3 days before eventually dissolving. Minor skin flaking and potential skin dryness may also occur up to 3-4 days. The use of a suitable moisturiser and sunscreen is recommended to keep your skin hydrated, enhance results and promote repair. Application of mineral make up may be applied to camouflage any redness.

How Many Treatments Will I Need?

Dermapen can be safely repeated every 4-6 weeks until you achieve the desired results. For collagen induction we recommend to start with 3 treatments but with a minimum separation time of 4 to 6 weeks between treatments. For scar reduction an average of 3 to 6 treatments are recommended. The number of treatments required will depend on how each individual responds to the treatments and the extent of the damage at the beginning. Most people will begin to see results after the very first appointment and within several days to several weeks you will notice a smoother, brighter, more radiant appearance, however, the condition full effects of the treatment do not appear until several months later.

BOOK YOUR DERMAPEN TREATMENT TODAY!

How to Build an Effective Business Strategy

Business Strategy: What It Is & How to Build an Effective One

Written by Clifford Chi @BigRedDawg16

In the business world, professionals are obsessed with tactics because they can help them meet their short-term goals. But if all you do is focus on the short-term, you won’t spend enough time or energy figuring out how you can succeed in the long-term.

→ Download Now: Free Business Plan Template

Fortunately, building a strategy can help you achieve both your short-term and long-term goals. Strategy focuses on principles, which help you think, instead of tactics, which help you execute, so it allows you to concentrate on why your business does certain activities, not just how you do them or what you do. Read on to learn exactly what a business strategy is and how you can build an effective one today.

Business Strategy

Your business strategy is a roadmap for achieving your business’ goals. It establishes a set of principles that inform your business’ priorities, decisions, and actions. It’s not, however, the actual tactics you’ll leverage to execute your business strategy.

Your business strategy should be based on your overall vision for the company. For some brands it will be global market expansion. For others it may be more important to double down investing in existing markets they are already successful in. Regardless of your end goals, creating an effective business strategy will require thorough research beforehand.

How to Build a Business Strategy

Identify your business’ aspirations and values.
Conduct a self-assessment.
Pinpoint which segments of your market you want to capture.
Determine how you’ll beat your competition.
Set clear goals.
Make a plan.
Figure out which competencies are needed to beat your competition and sustain your business’ success.
Decide which management systems are needed to hone these competencies.
Measure your results.
Be flexible and willing to adapt.
Consider hiring a business consultant.

1. Identify your business’ aspirations and values.

In business, traditional goal setting lets you measure what you do, but it doesn’t lend itself to gauging how you do it or why. And if you only focus on the results, it can sometimes incentivize you to take a course of action that prioritizes your organization’s needs over your customers’ needs.

To help you focus more on your purpose and process instead of just your results, consider setting and anchoring to an aspiration, or your vision for your business in the future when building your business strategy — it’ll inspire you to do work that better serves your customers. Once you set an anchor to an aspiration, you can add your goal to the equation, which will help you simultaneously produce customer-centric work and hit your numbers.

2. Conduct a self-assessment.

Once you’ve figured out your business aspirations and values, it’s time to conduct a self assessment to help you evaluate the best avenues for business growth and success.

You can do this by conducting a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your business. What do you do well and how can you capitalize on that? What can be improved and how?

3. Pinpoint which segments of your market you want to capture.

Your product or service most likely isn’t the best fit for your entire market, so it’s crucial to pinpoint the segment or segments of your market that benefit the most from your product or service.

Customers who genuinely need and want your product or service are also the customers who retain the longest and are least likely to churn, boosting your customer lifetime value and lowering your customer acquisition costs.

4. Determine how you’ll beat your competition.

Ricky Bobby’s legendary saying that “If you ain’t first, you’re last” doesn’t necessarily apply to the business world, but it does have some bearing on it. Your customers won’t buy two of the same products or services, so if you want to capture as much of your segment of the market as possible, you need to place first in the majority of your target customers’ minds.

Some of the best ways to stay top-of-mind are crafting a creatively refreshing brand, differentiating your product or service from the rest of the crowd, and pricing your product relative to its perceived value.

5. Set clear goals.

Now that you’ve completed your research and established a vision for your business, it’s time to set some goals.

Think about what you want to accomplish and work backward to figure out the steps to get there. Setting business goals will help inform your strategy and how each department collaborates to achieve your objective. To start, you can come up with:

Business goals: These are high level objectives you’d like the organization as a whole to accomplish.
Department or team goals: These are key objectives delegated at the department level to help the organization achieve their overall goals.
Employee-specific goals: Using departmental goals, establish goals for individual employees to contribute to reaching business goals.

These cascading goals will make sure that all stakeholders involved in executing your business strategy are on the same page and properly aligned.

6. Make a plan.

With your business goals defined, it’s time to make a plan to accomplish them. This plan should include actionable tasks your team can take and should outline the steps needed to achieve your mission or objective.

This plan can be rolled out as either a short-term or long-term plan or a combination of the two. Additionally you’ll want to check in with your plan often to make sure everything is still on track, and make adjustments as the business requires them.

7. Figure out which competencies are needed to beat your competition and sustain your business’ success.

Unfortunately, passion isn’t enough to beat your competition and rocket to the top of your industry. Talent and skill are just as crucial. Depending on your aspirations, goals, and market, you need to figure out which types of teams and employees you need to develop and recruit to not only beat your competition, but to also sustain your success.

For example you may need to recruit more engineering staff or hire a data science team with experience in your niche to achieve your goals.

8. Decide which management systems are needed to hone these competencies.

If your business is a team, then your managers are the coaches. They’re responsible for developing, supporting, and inspiring your employees to do their best work possible.

Establish check-ins with your team to ensure both employees and managers have what they need to succeed. Invest in technology that enables your team to work together more efficiently and propels your business goals forward. Because no matter how much raw talent your employees have,they’ll never reach their potential and, in turn, help the business reach its potential if they don’t refine the skills and discipline necessary to compete and succeed.

9. Measure your results.

It’s not enough to simply set goals and hope things work out. You’ll need to actively monitor your progress if you want to achieve greatness. As mentioned previously, you should be checking your plan monthly to make sure things are running as they should.

Evaluate your metrics to ensure your team is meeting key performance indicators (KPIs). If they are not meeting them, find out why and come up with a solution to get things back on track.

10. Be flexible and willing to adapt.

Along with measuring your results, it’s also a good to examine where your strategy is falling short and make changes.

Are their changes in the industry or external factors that impact your current strategy? This may be an opportunity for you to adjust your approach. Your plan is your roadmap, but it should also be flexible enough to pivot along with your business.

11. Consider hiring a business strategy consultant.

If all of the steps above seem overwhelming and you have the resources, consider hiring outside help. Business consultants can provide guidance and training to help you achieve your business goals.

Pros

Expertise: Consultants often have a narrow area of focus — meaning when you hire one, you’re getting an expert in your selected field. They can help you build a framework or structure that aligns with your goals. They can also add a different perspective to tackling issues your team has tried and failed to resolve on their own.
Unbiased: Since a consultant is not an employee of your company, they are not hindered by existing viewpoints or tradition and can look at your company with fresh eyes. This makes it easier for them to hone in on your goals and the best strategy to achieve them.

Cons

Expensive: Hiring a consultant is definitely an added expense and will most likely cost more than paying an existing employee.
No guarantees: Although consultants are experts, they don’t come with guarantees of success. Their is no guarantee of reaching a certain performance metric or number of sales. However, you can always vet consultants by asking for recommendations, looking at references and examining their work history.

Hiring a business strategy consultant is a great option if your team has been struggling with the steps above without success. A third party may pick up on business insights you may have missed.

Principles Over Tactics

We live in a day and age where the internet is overloaded with advice. You have access to countless amounts of tips and tricks that could potentially help you build a successful business. But without the ability to think critically about whether these tips and tricks actually apply to your specific situation, you’ll never reach long-term success.

That’s why strategy is so important. It grounds your business in principles that can apply to almost any situation and, in turn, help your business achieve both its short-term and long-term goals.

This article was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Business Support Fund – Third Round VIC

The Business Support Fund provides businesses in specific industry sectors with funding to help them survive the extended period of restricted trading.

Close date: 23 Nov 2020 11:59 PM AEDT.

Application detail:

Applications will remain open until funds are exhausted or until 11.59pm on 23 November 2020, whichever is earlier.

What is available?

Funding of between $10,000 and $20,000.

Who is this for?

Victorian businesses in specified industry sectors.

Overview

This round of funding aims to support businesses in industry sectors that have been restricted, heavily restricted or closed as a result of continued COVID-19 restrictions, including those in:

tourism
culture
entertainment
events
sports and recreation

Grants may be used to help the business to:

meet business costs, including utilities, salaries or rent
seek financial, legal or other advice to support business continuity planning
develop marketing and communications activities
carry out any other supporting activities related to the operation of the business

Eligible businesses receive:

$10,000 if its annual payroll is less than $650,000
$15,000 if its annual payroll is between $650,000 and less than $3 million
$20,000 if its payroll is between $3 million and up to $10 million

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible, businesses must:

operate a business located within Victoria
participate in the Commonwealth Government’s JobKeeper Payment scheme
employ staff and be registered with Workcover Insurance with WorkSafe Victoria
had a annual payroll of less than $10 million in 2019-20
be registered for goods and services tax (GST)
hold an Australian business number (ABN)
be registered with the responsible Federal or State regulator

How do you apply?

You can find out more about eligibility and how to apply at Business Support Fund – Third Round.

Want to see what other Grants are available?

Click here to search for Grants available by the Federal Government

Benefits of Making a Website for Your Australian Business

At the moment, the Internet has become a worldwide phenomenon. It has been able to interconnect millions of users all over the planet. People have made the Internet an indispensable part of their lives. If they want to find out where to eat, they look on their cell phones for restaurant recommendations. If they want to buy clothes, they can look at online catalogs of stores, and even shop online.

Now that everything is just a click away, brands must be alert. User-brand interaction is no longer the same. Now you don’t just have to go out and look for your customers, they can come to you. The only thing you have to do is learn to take advantage of the opportunities that the Internet offers you. Web pages are one of them. That’s why today we will show you how having a website will help you grow your business.

Broader Reach
Lower Investment
Better Way to Find New Collaborators
You Find New Clients
It Gives Confidence and Support to the Physical Store
Open 24/7
Increases Sales
Cheaper Advertising
It allows you to expand nationally and even internationally

Broader Reach

A web page is designed to be seen anywhere in the world where there is access to internet. Space and time barriers are reduced. Thus, a customer of yours who cannot come to your physical business can do so virtually. In this way, you can make your brand visible to more people at any time.

In addition, thanks to Google search engines, more potential customers can find you. Just by putting a keyword on the Internet they can reach your business. For example, if someone wants to know about a mahogany furniture dealer near their district, the first thing they will do is search on Google. Then they will analyze all the results and go to the store that’s most convenient to them.

It is in this way that just by implementing a website, you can get a greater reach of potential customers. A website can have the same reach as the Internet has. And you will get even more benefits if you list your website on a business directory like ours.

Lower Investment

As we mentioned in the previous point, just by opening a website you can reach a lot of people for not a lot of money, compared to traditional media, where this would be very expensive to obtain. For example, having a store open to show your products all day long would be very expensive.

Now, creating a website is very easy and inexpensive. You can get a web domain on servers like WordPress or Jimdo. Besides they offer you some templates and themes that you can adjust according to the requirements of your brand. There is a wide variety of actions that you can perform by buying the domain of your website, from displaying information about your company so they can find you to sell products virtually.

The best thing is that with a website you don’t need to pay rent or permanent workers. You only have to take care of getting a good web developer and the business will run by itself.

Better way to find new collaborators

With a website you can reach many people, but not only customers, but also people who want to work with you and grow your australian business. If you want you can implement a “work with us” section on your website. This way you can save huge amounts of money in making a big call for work. You can receive proposals and then filter them according to the profile you need. All in a fast, simple and economical way.

You find new clients

Thanks to the reach that a website gives you can always find new customers. Because when they have a need, they will search on the Internet. And if you have a well positioned website, they can find your brand and start a business relationship.

The best thing is that just like word-of-mouth advertising, a website can be recommended, thus increasing the network of contacts.

It gives confidence and support to the physical store

Most major stores now have a website where they can showcase their products and tacitly tell their customers that they go hand in hand with technology. This not only brings customers closer, but also gives an image of professionalism.

It works the same way as with the yellow pages in the old days, having an ad gave endorsement and credibility to the brand. Now they are not as popular, but people do use the Internet, and the web works in a similar way to the profiles in the yellow pages. Remember that now everyone searches the web to find out if a business really exists, and what better way to reassure people and give them confidence than with a friendly and well-designed web page, listed on the modern equivalent of yellow pages, a directory listings.

Open 24/7

A website is a showcase for your brand 365 days a year open around the clock. No need to pay workers or rent, just have a well designed website. This way a customer with tight schedules can visit your site at the time they want, for as long as they want. Without being afraid that the store will close or that he will feel harassed by the salesmen.

On a website, the user can take as much time as he wants and browse at his own pace, in case there is an online store on your website. Or he can simply learn more about the brand and be absolutely sure to establish a commercial link.

Increase sales

Just by making your brand visible on the Internet through a website you can increase your sales considerably. First, because you give your customers one more way to see your products, allowing them to take all the time they need. Secondly, because a website increases trust in users and allows you to close more sales. Finally, it helps expand sales to places you may never have gone before, expanding your business and making your brand better known.

Cheaper advertising

On the Internet, advertising works differently. It is totally different from traditional advertising such as radio, television and print ads. It takes advantage of the resources that exist on the Internet and uses them to your advantage. One of them is Google Adwords, which allows you to place ads in the search engine and position yourself in the top search results so that your future clients can find you faster. The best thing is that you only pay for each click that the customer makes on your ad. This is totally different from traditional ads, where you pay very high amounts and you can’t be sure who is really interested in what you have launched.

It allows you to expand nationally and even internationally

As we already mentioned, with a website there are no time or space barriers. So if you want to expand your business, there is no better way than implementing a friendly and well designed website. You can open an online catalog or offer your services virtually. This way you can expand your brand little by little. You can even reach international levels if you set your mind to it.

Now that you know some of the benefits of creating a website, what are you waiting for? It’s time to adapt to this globalized era and start succeeding! Maybe even look into the benefits of having your business website on an online business directory now that you have one.