What is the Business Recovery and Growth Fund?
The Business Recovery and Growth Fund is a program that will support Wyndham businesses affected by COVID-19 and help them adapt to a post COVID-19 economy.
Background
The flow on impact of COVID-19 is presenting major challenges to all businesses across the country with the Federal and State Governments’ Economic Stimulus/Survival Packages designed to inject money into the economy and provide financial support to businesses and employees with the objective of minimising business closures and job losses.
The “WynLocal Economic Support Package” was endorsed by Council at a Special Meeting on 23 March 2020 with a major initiative of the package being a grants program available to eligible Wyndham businesses.
With the first stages of social distancing protocols being relaxed and other stages scheduled in the future it is now timely to implement the “WynLocal Business Recovery and Growth Program” (‘Program’); a program that aims to resource and encourage businesses as they emerge and re-establish operations and seek to invest in their capacity to grow.
Objectives
The Business Recovery and Growth Fund aims to:
- Provide support to Wyndham businesses that have been adversely impacted by COVID19
- Enable businesses to adapt to a post COVID19 economy
- Build entrepreneurship, innovation and business capacity including, but not limited to:
- investment in new technologies and digital platforms that drive business efficiency and revenue generation
- investment in professional development
- investment in alternative service models
- investment in local business to local business collaboration
Funding
The Business Recovery and Growth Fund has a total funding pool of $1.5million. The program comprises the following levels of funding:
- Non employing businesses up to a total of four employees (effective full time)
- maximum of $5,000 excluding GST
- Five employees to fourteen employees (effective full time)
- maximum of $10,000 excluding GST
- Fifteen employees to fifty employees (effective full time)
- maximum of $20,000 excluding GST
- Local business and industry incorporated associations that meet the eligibility criteria
- maximum of $10,000 excluding GST
Eligibility
The WynLocal business grants program is available to businesses which meet all of the following criteria:
- The principle place of business is a Wyndham City address
- Holder of an Australian Business Number
- Employ fifty people or less (effective fulltime)
- Trading for a minimum of 12 months prior to 1 March 2020 and submitted an annual return to the Australian Taxation Office for the period 2018/19
- Compliance with all relevant local, state and federal legislation
Local business and industry incorporated associations are also invited to apply if they meet all of the following criteria:
- Memberships comprising a minimum 80% local Wyndham companies
- A minimum of fifty financial members with voting rights as outlined in the organisation’s rules of association or constitution
- A base rate annual membership fee in excess of $50.00
To allow Council to undertake due process in the assessment of an application, the following information will be required to be submitted by all applicants:
- Trading name of business
- Names of business owner and/or directors
- Address of primary place of business
- Australian Business Number
- Years trading in Wyndham
- Description of business operations
- Evidence that the business completed a taxation return in the previous financial year
- Annual turnover as included in the previous year’s taxation return
- Evidence of the number of employees in the business
- A percentage assessment of trading downturn since 1 March 2020
- A detailed statement outlining why the funds are required and how they will be utilised
- A clear and realistic budget of costs associated with the project or initiatives to which the funding will be applied. This budget may be greater than the funds being sought with the grant funds being a percentage of the total project cost
Examples of support Wyndham City may consider include but are not limited to:
- Investment in business training and skills development including:
- business mentoring
- business continuity planning
- financial management systems
- Growth planning business model review including identification of opportunities to success
- digital literacy
- Investment in programs that specifically aim to raise enterprise revenue including:
- Marketing skills and/or investment in marketing systems
- Promotional and marketing campaigns that demonstrate business growth measurability
- Investment in professional personal and organisational development programs that build organisational capacity including but not limited to responding to employee and employer wellbeing.
- Investment in technologies and digital platforms that aim to; create new markets, grow existing markets and/or penetrate new markets
- Investment that drives the development of alternative service delivery models
- Investment in business to business collaboration initiatives
- Funding to support the retention or employment of apprentices or staff undertaking approved traineeships
Beyond the need for many businesses to gain support and bridge the current and immediate impact of the Coronavirus, medium to long term growth and that which generates local employment potential will be highly valued.
Timing
Applications close 10 July 2020.
