Starting a Food Business

According to Food magazine, there were 1400 food processing companies in Queensland in 2008. Like you, many FoodQ members were inspired to create products to fill a specific niche in the market. They then had to learn how to run and grow their businesses efficiently. Through experience we know there’s much more to running a successful food business than just producing so we hope the links provided by our strategic partner, the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innnovation, help with planning, managing and developing your business.

SmartLicence
> access information on local, state and federal government business licensing permits and registrations.

Government Business Information Service (GOBiS)
> connects you with state and federal government services and programs.

Business Resource Centre
> offers a range of products and services that can assist with business planning.

Smart Skills
> provides short, free online courses to help you develop the skills and knowledge needed to operate your business.

Fact Sheets
> cover a wide range of issues relating to start-up and operating a small business.

Workshops and seminars
> to help you improve the marketing, business planning and financial management of your business.

Online Management Tools
> self-help diagnostic tools to help you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your business. Topics include:

• Financial benchmarking
  – compare your business performance with your competitors.
• Recruiting, managing and developing staff
  – improve your recruitment, staff retainment and employee development.
• Understanding customer needs
  – identify your target market and develop a selling position for your business.
• Workplace health and safety
  – create and maintain a workplace health and safety compliant environment.
• Surviving economic challenges
  – learn some keys to strengthen your business in an uncertain economic climate.
• Bright ideas for business
  – how to encourage ideas in the workplace to improve business performance.