It has been a very long yet rewarding day. I was up at 5AM, speaking at an event at 7:30AM and as I write this blog starting at 11:28PM – I am positively inspired from working with a chain of great people all day.
My day began speaking to a fine crowd of Business Owners, Mid-Tiers and Corporates at a Networking Breakfast organized by the Bankstown Business Advisory Service (“BBAS”). My awesome colleague Martha Arifin and I did a fine presentation on ‘Automated Marketing Strategies’ (which you are welcome to download here) to a room of almost 100 business owners who are eager for more knowledge to give them the edge.
As we spoke to this fine crowd, I couldn’t help reflect on how rare this actual concept is. Sure there are plenty of Networking Groups around town and business improvement events of one nature or another – but what is unique about BBAS is that it’s run by the Council. That is, an employee of Bankstown Council by the name of Domenica Mirarchi (“Dom”) one came up with fine idea to help connect, mentor and educate local business owners in the South West of Sydney.
To her amazing credit after several years of work, she turned a few small networking events into a very impressive business improvement type of organization offering events to connect, help each other and learn the edge (I actually know how big their database is and although I can’t tell you, I can tell you it’s massive!)
In this context Martha and I came in as ‘Expert Speakers’ to help out and to our knowledge there is nothing else like this across Sydney. That is – this is the first council we know of to have taken so much initiative in helping their business owners grow.
In speaking with Dom, she explained that this model has been adopted already by the Liverpool Council (South Western Sydney) with some trials to come in other councils and the like. It’s very impressive and it showed me actually how much can be done when someone has a good idea and you have a Government willing to back something.
I had no idea this concept existed till recently.
It’s true that across Sydney some Council’s honestly are very questionable in their value, but you get some that really work hard to help people (e.g. Bankstown, Hills & Parramatta are Councils I know that are doing their best and are beyond question). I think it’s a great sign that councils are getting more ‘Development’ centric and moving on from just being ‘Enforcement’ centric which obviously creates a great situation for everyone.
If you like what you see here, check out the BBAS website here – I promise you shall learn something.
Love your work, thank you to Dom and her team from Bankstown Council – and of course Stay Awesome!
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