Ready to ignite your business idea?

The City of Cockburn and Curtin Business School are offering two fully funded scholarships for Ignition 2023, an intensive one-week training program. Valued at $3,750 each, these scholarships provide aspiring entrepreneurs with the tools, knowledge, and support needed to turn their business ideas into reality

🔥Accelerate your business success
The Ignition program fast-tracks entrepreneurial success with practical sessions, expert clinics, mentorship, and advice from industry leaders. Participants gain the skills and confidence to transform their ideas into successful businesses.

The scholarship is open to Cockburn business owners and residents. Whether you're just starting out in business, have a research project to commercialise or are an existing business owner, Ignition is for you!

City of Cockburn scholarships: how to apply
Apply for the fully funded scholarships for Ignition 2023 before Friday 14 July at 5pm using the button below. Please note eligibility requirements are applicable.

Edge23; get in early for a 35% discount 

• 8-10am: Welcome and site tours
• 10am-1pm: Inspirational speakers and expert panellists
• 1-4pm: Breakout sessions and networking 

Monthly Networking gets record numbers!

Despite the chilly morning, we had a fabulous number of small business owners turn out for the City's free Cockburn Micro Business Networking group in June!
 
With a monthly guest speaker, delicious morning tea and welcoming conversation, it’s no surprise we’re seeing more micro businesses attend each month, with over 40 registrations for June. 
 
A new feature is our 'Trading Table’, where businesses are invited to share their information, business cards and leaflets, so they can make some great new connections. This was a big hit last month and we expect this to grow in popularity.
 
Next month our guest speaker, Roberto Boi, from Dilate Digital, will share how to build a strong foundation for your website. His presentation will cover how to:
 

• Give your website a rock-solid structure
• Create quality content using the art of storytelling
• Develop a better customer journey so your brand gets engagement.  

 
If you’re a home-based business, have a small team or are solo operator, then come along and join us on Wednesday 26 July at the Success Library Conference Room.
 
The group is free to attend, but registration is essential for catering purposes, use the button below to reserve your ticket.

Are you ready to become a Defence supplier?

If you’re not sure about your readiness to supply the Defence force, then help is at hand. The Office of Defence Industry Support (ODIS) has launched the FREE Defence Business Readiness Tool 2.0 (DBRT).

Designed especially for small and medium sized businesses, it helps you to evaluate your readiness to become a Defence supplier.
DBRT is now divided into two parts. The first section has just 21 questions, while the second part is now facilitated by a Defence Industry Advisor.

Here's how the DBRT can benefit your organisation:
Assess your readiness
By answering a few questions, you'll learn what Defence business readiness means for you.
These questions centre around four criteria - market understanding, delivery confidence, strategic outlook and product development.

Understand 'Refence Ready'
DBRT 2.0 demystifies the concept of being 'Defence Ready' to help you align your operations and strategies with defence suppliers.

Prioritise growth actions
DBRT 2.0 gives you tailored recommendations based on your assessment results. You'll then have an action plan to propel your business forward and be ready to respond to opportunities within Defence industry.

AI: what can it do for your business?

Are you curious about the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can help your business?

No two businesses are the same, so there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to AI. However, business owners are finding AI frees them from some mundane jobs or speeds up repetitive tasks.

If you’re looking for an introduction to using AI in your business, then here are four tips form the Small Business Development Corporation.

Use caution when selecting the AI tool
Check the terms and conditions of the tool you’re using before getting started. It’s important to understand the potential risks to your data and intellectual property.

Use AI to improve skills, not replace
AI can help to improve your skills, but it’s never a replacement for human communication. For example, use AI to help generate interview questions, but be cautious of using it to assess those responses.

Get comfortable with ‘prompt engineering’
Prompt engineering is the skill of crafting questions and inputs for an AI to ensure you get the best results. There’s lots of great ideas on asking the right questions, but one idea is to ask your AI what it needs to know to help you on your project.

Scrutinize the outputs from AI
Being a critical reader when it comes to your AI outputs is a crucial step. AI gathers information from multiple sources, and this can be taken out of context leading to mistakes. You are the expert in your own business, so double check the information so you can correct any errors.

🌐 Read the full article here.