News
Issue No. 24 - August/September 2005
City business, under construction
Enterprise Adelaide, one of the newest business units within the state capital city's government, is very much a work in progress.
Going in to the unit's base in Pirie Street, you'd expect to hear a lot about 'what we'll be doing once things get bedded down', but that's not the case.
Energetic manager Kevin Gilbert reports that Enterprise Adelaide has already interacted with 350 small businesses and provided 860 individual business advisory sessions since his team his the ground running in December 2004.
Enterprise Adelaide was founded as an extension of Adelaide City Council's workforce growth plan, intended to boost numbers of city workers.
Kevin believes the booming council initiative proves the council's conclusion that the city's assets "are not utilised as they could be".
The unit also has support from the Department of Trade and Economic Development and from employers' group Business SA.
It was designed to be a business to business organisation and staffed accordingly, by Kevin, business advisors Paul Mahoney and Glenn Vandersluys, and Karen O'Donnell in admin support.
"All of the team are commercial and come from a business background in small businesses or larger corporations," Kevin says.
Enterprise Adelaide services the full gamut of small business , many of them are retail and service based and usually private companies. Not many of them are larger firms, but Kevin says, "We don't turn anybody away".
There are only a few manufacturers in the city, but the success of what firms there are demonstrate the possibilities for a wide range of small business. The ICT sector is showing most striking growth, education and health are doing well as are professional services - particularly at export.
"With the major defence contracts that have been awarded to the state, we will see a lot of business referred to city-based services in a broader supply chain," Kevin sa...
