Melinda Shobrook, of CyberTribes Social Media, is encouraging people interested in starting a business to consider taking advantage of support measures from the Australian Government such as the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme.
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Mrs Schobrook is successfully runs a social media company after completing the NEIS program and has just launched a new website.
In 2015 she was a single mum of four with a dream of starting a social media consultancy. She received training at Illawarra ITeC and for the last two years has been working hard to build up CyberTribes to help other small businesses grow an audience through organic engagement on social media.
“I had the idea a long time ago. I was working in communications for different not-for-profit organisations and discovered I had a natural flair for building followings around causes. I thought I could probably set up a business doing this.”
Ms Shobrook started setting up social media accounts when she was working as a communications and project support officer for an organisation in Arnhem Land. And developed her skills from there.
“At the time I was a single mum and had been for 10 years,” she said.
“And I thought if I set up my own business I can be more involved with my kids. It really did work out that way. The good thing about having a digital business is it is your skills and service and expertise that you are selling. So you don’t actually need a shop front.”
Ms Shobrook initially worked from home and met clients in coffee shops. But CyberTribes has grown so much she moved into an office in Wentworth Street, Port Kembla early in 2017.
Her clients range from Warrigal Employment and Gala Cinema, an accounting firm, Port Kembla Chamber of Commerce and Pacific Furniture.
She has also become an accredited trainer in social media with Fusion Training and runs workshops for small business at Illawarra ITeC where Virginia Wren was her business coach when she did the NEIS program.
“I call myself a social media specialist. And I hire specialist sub-contactors for different clients. And I have a partnership going with Internetrix if I have a bigger scope project,” she said.
Ms Shobrook is just about to do small business workshops in Sydney.
“Basically NEIS gave me an opportunity I would not have had,” she said.
“I was a single mum who was working part time and I was a low income earner. And my job service provider Deidre Hindmarsh at Sureway Employment in Kiama said I should look at the program. NEIS just opened a way for me to set up and start my own business. The thing about NEIS is they train you”.
Ms Shobrook said it was essentially a micro-enterprise business course that gave her all the skills she needed from bookkeeping to marketing and administration. “They teach you how to set up a small business and maintain it and develop a detailed business plan”.
“Then after I did the course they gave me payments for about seven months. So while you are not making enough money you are covered. It was just brilliant.”
Ms Shobrook loves looking back at her journey of growing in self-confidence through NEIS.
“As a low income earner and a single mum it is a big deal to step into the business world, hold your head high and carve out something,” she said.
CyberTribes specialises in organic engagement on social media rather than paying for engagement a social media channel.
“I am passionate about reaching audiences effectively by the way you communicate with them. Especially visually. It is important to speak their language. Then they want to be involved in what you are doing, your product and your brand. Branding is very important in what we do”.
Ms Shobrook said CyberTribes was about helping small businesses find their tribe online. And then attracting and keeping them.
“You’ve got to make it so they always come back and they tell other people and become brand ambassadors. Social media is social. We are passionate about creating interactions and keeping them going. Our tag-line is ‘people follow people’. Social media is all about social proof. People are going to go where they can see there are lots of likes and lots of reviews and people are actually vouching for you”.
The Australian Government has a range of programs to support small business and a new filter tool has been launched to make it easier for owners starting out to see what measures are available.
The NEIS program has been recently expanded to support up to 8600 job seekers start their own business each year.
Some of the small business measures available from the Australian Government for eligible small business owners:
- Tax cuts: The Australia Government has reduced the company tax rate from 30 per cent to 28.5 per cent for companies that are small business entities with an aggregated turnover of less than $2 million. Businesses with an annual turnover of up $10 million will now have until June 30, 2018, to immediately deduct eligible assets up to the value of $20,000.
- Simpler GST reporting means less red tape: The Australian Government is reducing the amount of GST information required for BAS to simplify GST bookkeeping and reporting requirements. This means small business owners can complete their BAS requirements with less hassle.
- Faster depreciation helps SMBs get the equipment they need: New laws have passed that allow small businesses to claim an immediate deduction for assets they start to use – or have installed ready for use – provided each depreciable asset costs less than $20,000. This will temporarily replace the previous instant asset write-off threshold of $1,000.
- Increasing access to company losses: Simpler tax rules will soon make it easier for companies to claim losses when they seek new opportunities to innovate and grow. A new and more flexible ‘similar business test’ will be introduced, relaxing the current ‘same business test’, to allow businesses to access past year losses when they have entered into new transactions or business activities.
- New Enterprise Incentive Scheme: The Australian Government is supporting job seekers to pursue entrepreneurship and self-employment as an alternative pathway to employment. The recently-expanded New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) supports up to 8,600 job-seekers start their own business each year.
- Cutting the red tape: Reducing red tape and regulations will enhance competition, decrease business costs and give business owners more time to run and grow their business. The Australian Government set a target of reducing red tape by $1 billion per year, but has already removed $5.8 billion between 2013 and 2016.
- National Business Simplification Initiative: To make it easier to set up a small business and deal with government, governments have agreed to work together to make it simpler to do business in Australia. The National Business Simplification Initiative, will help existing businesses grow and remove barriers to new business creation, which will help innovation flourish and create more jobs.
- A Small Business Helpline: The Fair Work Ombudsman’s helpline is there to provide small business people with a priority service to help with quick, easy and targeted employment advice. Since its launch in December 2013, the Small Business Helpline has answered more than 380,000 calls.
Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
