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Small business programs

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Discover initiatives to help your Brisbane small business thrive.

Discover a range of initiatives designed to support and nurture Brisbane-based small businesses. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or an established business owner, our programs offer invaluable resources, networking opportunities, and tailored support to help you thrive. 

Small Business Friendly Brisbane initiative

We are focused on becoming Australia's most small-business-friendly council, supporting the growth of local businesses. Small businesses drive local jobs, provide essential goods, and help grow Brisbane's economy. We're committed to making business easier and providing top-notch service to support you.

Our Community Experience reflects our vision for how businesses, residents, visitors, and Council employees interact through shared values of community, connection, and care. Our small business commitment shows our dedication to improving how we engage with and support local businesses.

When small businesses thrive, Brisbane thrives. That’s why we’ve set clear goals to support small businesses and publish our achievements against these commitments for the 2024-25 financial year.

Our small business commitment and our performance

Our commitments
  • We will raise the profile and capability of small businesses.
  • We will promote and showcase small businesses.
What we've done
Raise profile and capability
  • Relaunched the Business in Brisbane Facebook group as a public group during May 2025 Queensland Small Business Month, connecting over 3,482 local business owners with information and support (as of June 2025).
  • Delivered 65 training and education sessions at Brisbane Business Hub, 26 capacity-building sessions at Suburban Business Hub and 7 business workshops in Libraries. 
  • Maintain precinct websites for Fortitude Valley, Racecourse Road, Banyo Village and Rosalie Village precincts.
  • Held the 19th Lord Mayor's Business Awards, celebrating 44 finalists and awarding 11 businesses and business leaders.
  • Recognised the contributions of 4 multicultural business leaders through the Lord Mayor's Multicultural Business Dinner and Awards.
  • Awarded $250,000 in Lord Mayor's Women in Business Grants to 53 female business owners.
  • Ran Future Food and MedTech accelerators to help businesses scale.
  • Trained 40 solo entrepreneurs through the Maker Entrepreneurship program.
  • Delivered over 70 scholarship placements through the Lord Mayor's Multicultural Business Scholarship Program.
Promoting and Showcasing Businesses
  • Featured the Small Business Award and the Micro Business Award in the Lord Mayor’s Business Awards.
  • Provided regular updates to chambers and trader groups via email, and promote their offerings via postcards, Council’s website, and the Business in Brisbane Facebook group.
  • Featured articles and updates in the Business in Brisbane e-newsletter and printed newsletter on events, opportunities, and support.
  • Recognised long-standing businesses as #localicons in the Business in Brisbane Facebook group to boost their profiles.
  • Promoted #supportlocal in the Business in Brisbane Facebook group each month, encouraging participants to comment to share information about their business.
  • Engaged with industry groups to promote sector activities and members.
  • Grew the Visit Brisbane website with more than 2 million users and 4.6 million page views to reach visitors and other businesses.
  • Showcased 29 Brisbane makers in the Local Business Showcase window at Suburban Business Hub, driving sales and awareness.

Our commitments
  • Actively communicate and engage with small businesses.
  • Develop and promote place-based programs for small businesses.
What we've done
Communication and engagement
  • Established the Brisbane Business Hotline in 2012, offering 24/7 support for businesses.
  • Held 7 Small Business Roundtables, with input from the Queensland Small Business Commissioner.
  • Engaged with 1,091 businesses at the Suburban Business Hub and hosted workshops for over 2,000 attendees at the Brisbane Business Hub.
  • Continued the Business in Brisbane e-newsletter and reintroduced a printed Business in Brisbane newsletter.
  • Provided dedicated Council contacts, strengthening ties with business networks.
  • Welcomed new Brisbane businesses to introduce support available, and provide the right information to set them up for success.
Place-based programs
  • Delivered the Better Suburbs – Places and Spaces initiative with active project in Ryans Road, Nundah and Lambert Road, Indooroopilly. 
  • Delivered Growing Precincts Together to support 45 businesses through bespoke programs including business coaching, support for food businesses and visual merchandising.
  • Sponsored Kenrose Street Festival (Carina) and the Giddy-up Country Festival (Sandgate).
  • Delivered the March Munch & Win promotion (Rosalie Village) and Support Local promotions (Banyo Village and Racecourse Road)
  • Delivered full day AI-powered social media masterclasses in Eight Mile Plains, Keperra, Carina and Nundah with 53 businesses participating.
  • To support the almost 300 precincts Brisbane-wide, we added the Better Access, More Customers guide to the Precinct Playbook online resource.

Our commitments
  • Reduce red tape for small businesses.
  • Ensure fair procurement and prompt payment terms.
  • Support business resilience and recovery.
  • Measure and report our performance.
What we've done
Simplify administration and regulation
  • Maintained a dedicated complaints page with clear guidelines on investigations.
  • Regularly updated policies on local laws, planning, and procurement.
  • Refreshed this website to make it easier for small businesses and other customers to interact with Council through digital channels.
Fair procurement
  • Maintained 7-day payment terms for small business suppliers.
  • Offer the Better Brisbane Proposal process for market-led proposals.
  • Published our 2024-25 Procurement Policy and Plan on this website to be transparent about our procurement and to acknowledge our Small Business Friendly commitment.
Resilience and recovery
  • Provided co-working opportunities and workshops at Brisbane and Suburban Business Hubs.
  • Delivered over 100 one-on-one mentoring sessions through Brisbane Business Mentors.
  • Posted monthly #supportlocal messages in the Business in Brisbane Facebook group.
  • Offered Business Continuity Planning as one of 4 topics provided through on-demand workshops for business networks.
  • Delivered the free Vibrantly Vacant art decals program to improve vacant shopfronts.
Measure and report
  • Held regular Small Business Roundtables to gather feedback.
  • Provided a dedicated Council contact for business networks.
  • Published this page to share our small business commitments.

Small Business Roundtable

Council launched the Small Business Roundtable in 2021 to respond to small business needs.

Meeting regularly, it connects Council officers, industry representatives, and business leaders to address issues, gather feedback, and shape support for small businesses.

Small Business Friendly Program

The Queensland Government's Small Business Friendly Program aims to enhance the operating environment for small businesses and provide the opportunities they need to thrive.

Council's commitment to this program reinforces our longstanding dedication to making it easy to do business in Brisbane.

More information

For more information on Council's small business friendly commitment, email Council.