Business students could be one answer to the resource shortage many small-business owners contend with when trying to grow their operations. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
For small-business owners looking for economical ways to grow their operations, university entrepreneurship, innovation and business planning programs are low-hanging fruit, according to a local small-business leader.
That’s what Industry Capability Network (ICN) ACT business manager Louise Wakefield found when she joined the Australian National University (ANU) mentorship program in her perpetual search for ways to support Canberra’s small businesses.
The program, run by ANU’s College of Business and Economics, was designed to help get students employment-ready by providing access to real-world business environments where they could apply their theoretical knowledge – but it’s a two-way street.
As part of their coursework, the program sees students undertake a project to research, explore and provide insights into a small business and the ecosystem in which it operates, ultimately developing a roadmap incorporating strategies and action plans.
Louise says it’s a valuable and potentially underrated opportunity for small businesses with limited resources.
“Being part of ICN ACT – a small business itself – I am cognisant that when you’re working so hard in your business, it’s hard to find time to work on your business. This is the feedback we get all the time when talking to small-business owners,” she says.
“Over the past nine years that this program and work-integrated learning programs like it have been running at the ANU, hundreds of companies have benefitted from the outcomes.”
ICN ACT’s Louise Wakefield initially joined the program as part of her mission to help local small businesses, but as part of a small business herself, she benefitted greatly from participation. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
Students are encouraged to approach the project in the context of Canberra’s unique business ecosystem, which Louise says is quite different compared with other major Australian cities.
“We have over 34,000 businesses here and the majority are small or micro businesses,” she says.
“Canberra also prides itself on being a knowledge economy. Where in other jurisdictions, industries such as construction and manufacturing project work might dominate, we focus on professional services and knowledge, which comes with its unique set of challenges.”
Having initially joined the program to gain better insights into how to promote and speak to its benefits to other local businesses and encourage uptake, Louise says she was surprised at how much was to be gained by small businesses that participate.
“At one point I had two groups of student teams working with me. One looked at building a business model canvas for ICN ACT as a start-up, and the other group worked on a concept for an initiative to explore the role that the tertiary education sector – a major sector in the ACT – could play in small-business success and how small businesses could, in turn, make students more employment-ready by applying their theoretical knowledge to small-business problems,” she says.
“Both produced tangible outcomes we could implement, like identifying several opportunities for ICN to engage with other sectors. Other students made business improvement suggestions around our company profiles or investigated the integration of better technological solutions to further support our operations.”
Aside from doing the groundwork for improvement opportunities that small businesses often don’t have the time or resources to research themselves, Louise says numerous additional benefits come with exposure to the next generation of business minds.
“No matter what industry you’re in, having fresh eyes on your business is going to be beneficial, and there are major upsides to having the opportunity to tap into a younger perspective and find out what innovative ideas they may have,” she says. ”Plus, in a competitive marketplace, it doesn’t hurt to get your name out there with upcoming talent.
“It’s a well-run program and I’ll be excited to promote it to small businesses across the capital region in 2024.”
Expressions of interest from ACT’s small businesses can be sent to Alex Tietge at the ANU College of Business and Economics – email alexander.tietge@anu.edu.au or phone (02) 6125 5297.
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