Page 2873 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 22 November 1989
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I was grateful to Mr Igor Savitsky, the general manager of the centre, and John Schooneveldt, who is the chairman, I think, of LEDI, the local employment development initiative, for the time they took to show me around the centre. I am sure, as I said, that they would be happy to show other members around as well.
The centre is essentially a facility designed for increasing the chances of success for enterprising new small businesses which show promise but which otherwise might fall by the wayside in the hurly-burly of our commercial environment in this Territory.
It is a sad fact, Mr Speaker, that some 80 per cent of all new businesses, in particular small businesses, in this country fail. In recent days we have seen even some very big businesses fail as well. But the fact is that small businesses are really very hard put to start out. The experience of centres such as this - and there are other such centres in Australia - is that businesses which start and go through such a centre have something like an 80 per cent success rate. For that reason alone, I strongly support the concept of such a place.
The idea is that organisations or businesses that are seen to be viable, in the sense that they have an idea which is worth while and a market that is worth serving, are allowed to come into the centre at a fairly minimal rent. They are not subject to long leases, so they have the flexibility of getting out if they cannot sustain their business. Some of the facilities which all new businesses need, such as telephone services, photocopiers and things of that kind, are supplied on a share basis at the centre. As a result, it is possible for new businesses to keep those kinds of overheads at a minimum. Heavy overheads are some of the biggest things that prevent new businesses from being a success. Those overheads start from day one, but of course the profits do not always start from day one.
The other things available at such a place are skills and advice of a kind which often is not available to new businesses. The sort of expertise that it is possible to get in a place like that is very important and very useful for new businesses.
There is a range of such enterprises presently at the Canberra New Business Centre - a game meat processor, a design consultant, a cartographer and a potter. There is a whole range of new businesses, each with a different concept of how they are going to make their businesses succeed. I think all of them have the get-up-and-go that our community as a whole ought to be supporting. I think the Canberra New Business Centre is right to pick those sorts of businesses and help them along.
Mr Speaker, as I said, the benefits of such a place are that it has those resources; it is in a good location,
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