ACT Treasurer Andrew Barr will announce a beefed-up business advice package on Monday to help public servants set themselves up as small-business owners.
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The ACT budget, which Mr Barr will hand down on June 3, will also include new support for small local businesses to help them take advantage of changing economic times.
Mr Barr expects the exodus from the federal pubic service – 2000 Canberra jobs will go from the bureaucracy in the coming 12 months and 6500 over three years – will create opportunities in consultancies as the Commonwealth outsources things it has been doing in-house.
He wants to help people who might have spent a career in the public service take advantage of those opportunities, and has created a $150,000 "private sector transition fund". The fund will not give grants, but advice – workshops on business planning, developing business models, law, marketing, human resources and industrial relations.
Workshops for public servants are run by the Canberra Business Council, whose chief executive Chris Faulks said between 28 and 30 per cent of people signing up for business advice in the past six months had been public servants – a big rise on the 13 to 15 per cent over the past three years. The workshops were subsidised by the ACT government funding, but people still had to pay.
Ms Faulks said several former public servants were looking to set up consultancies, but the range of businesses went much wider – from starting a cupcake factory, to writing, coaching, building and construction. People needed help with understanding business structure, tax, cash flow, accounting, marketing, and legal issues, as well as writing business plans. They were also set right on some unrealistic expectations – such as planning on a profit in the first year.
Exisiting small businesses were also looking for help to take advantage of changes in the way business was done – for example, learning to use social media and marketing to expand their reach.
Ms Faulks welcomed the extra funding from the ACT government, but said it was "not a huge amount of money" and she wants it matched by federal funding.
The advice has been offered through Canberra Business Point, run by the council, but is being rolled into the CBR Innovation Network announced last month. Mr Barr also announced $800,000 to continue the work of Brand Canberra, which markets the city nationally and overseas, especially as a destination for business and university education.
The business package comes just over a week before the ACT budget, in which Mr Barr will unveil an ambitious plan of borrowing, asset sales and infrastructure development aimed at keeping the Canberra economy from slipping into recession. Mr Barr also plans to take advantage of Treasurer Joe Hockey's 15 per cent incentive payment to states and territories to sell assets.
