Small Business Fundamentals Program Guidelines

The Small Business Fundamentals Program (Program) Round 2 (R2) will support small businesses to build their fundamental knowledge and capability in areas critical to long term business sustainability and growth.

The Office for Small and Family Business within the Department of State Development (the Department) invites proposals from existing business growth providers (Service Providers) for the provision of services and supports for small and family businesses and social enterprises to build fundamental business knowledge and capability through improved or tailored access to existing services and/or new services that address specific gaps in metropolitan Adelaide and in South Australian regions.

This Program is seeking to support a diverse range of South Australian small businesses across the State, including regional businesses, First Nations people, women, small business owners living with disability, and culturally and linguistically diverse business owners.

One or more provider(s) will be selected through a competitive grant process.

The Small Business Fundamentals Program R2 will:

• Increase the skills, capability and capacity of South Australian small and family businesses, and social enterprises, and their workforces.
• Support small and family businesses, and social enterprises, to improve profitability and competitiveness and employ more South Australians.
• Provide equitable access and support to under-represented business owner groups.

The Office for Small and Family Business is now seeking applications for proposals that include, but are not limited to:

• Advisory services (one-to-one);
• Mentoring and coaching programs (one-to-one or one-to-group);
• Workshops (delivered in conjunction with mentoring and coaching programs); and
• Regional, cohort or sector specific approaches.

Applicants must:

• have been in operation in South Australia for more than two financial years
• have demonstrated capacity to service participants over the two-year delivery period, across South Australia
• have demonstrated experience delivering fundamental business capability support to small businesses across the State

and can be:

• Industry/business associations and peak bodies
• Business Enterprise Centres (BECs)
• Regional Development Australia Boards (RDAs)
• Local governments (councils) in South Australia
• Co-operatives
• Corporations limited by guarantee (including not- for-profit organisations)
• For-profit enterprises
• Social Enterprises.

State and Commonwealth Government Agencies are not eligible to apply.

Service Providers must hold an active ABN.

This funding is to provide support for existing providers that can deliver fundamental business skills to small and family businesses. Applicants will be required to confirm they have experience in delivering these services and provide appropriate evidence of this activity and its success. Contracted Service Providers must have a demonstrated track record of delivering/facilitating business advisory programs to small business owners.

Service Providers will be required to monitor and provide monthly and periodic reporting on performance measures, including KPIs and metrics as agreed with the Department and stipulated in the grant agreement.

Eligible organisations are expected to deliver all components of the Program and may engage affiliated mentors to assist in delivery of the services. Applications must include details of any third parties that will be engaged to deliver the Program including organisation name, details of previous experience with similar work, key personnel, explanation of dispute resolution processes and evidence of costs.

Any grant funding to be provided is conditional on the recipient meeting agreed milestones and outcomes.

Funding of up to $250,000 (ex GST) over two financial years is available to selected delivery partners to support the delivery of this state-wide Program that will commence from 1 July 2025 and will be delivered until 30 June 2027.

Delivery and expenditure must be complete by 30 June 2027 (subject to demand and budget availability).

Applicants will be required to demonstrate co- contribution(s) to the initiative. The co-contribution amount, and project management, administration and marketing costs will be assessed as part of the value for money assessment criteria.

Not-for-Profit Sector Indexation

Applicants who qualify as ‘not-for-profit entity’ (as set out in Premier and Cabinet Circular PC 044 – South Australian Funding Policy for not for profit sector) must ensure their request for funding in their application is inclusive of indexation as required by the Department of Treasury and Finance.

Program participants are expected to make a financial co-contribution to access the services (up to $200 ex GST (total) per participant).

Program funding can only be used to cover costs directly associated with the delivery of this Program.

These costs include:

• Salaries and consumables
• Hire of facilities to deliver the services
• Fees to professional service providers
• Costs associated with the development and production of resources directly related to the delivery of this Program
• Program administration
• Promotional activities and business engagement (directly associated with the initiative)
• Other costs outlined in the proposal document if approved by the Department.

The following expenditures are explicitly excluded:

• Costs for catering and alcohol
• The purchase of capital equipment
• Costs for accredited training or course delivery
• Core business operations or business-as-usual activities
• Any activities not directly and wholly related to the delivery of services under this Program; and
• Any other costs as determined by the Department.

Funding will be awarded for proposals that are up to a maximum of 2 years duration.

Program participants will need to meet the eligibility criteria as agreed between the Service Provider and the Department and stipulated in the grant agreement to access funding under the initiative.

Applicants are required to contact the Program Manager via email no less than four business days before the closing date, and the Program Manager will provide a copy of the application form to the applicant upon initial review of the proposed concept.

The Program Manager can be contacted via OSFBPM@sa.gov.au. In your email, please provide:

• A brief description of your organisation’s experience in supporting business owners, including the number of workshops and mentoring sessions provided and content delivered through previous programs.
• A description of what outcomes the proposed initiative will deliver based on the Program objectives.
• Your email address and phone number.

The Program Manager will contact you within two business days to discuss your concept and provide you with the application form if appropriate.

Applications will be assessed against the Assessment Criteria established in the guidelines by a panel of representatives from the Department of State Development. Applications must outline how many participants are expected to participate in the proposed initiative, and explain any assumptions made, including unit costs per participant.

Areas of capability development must include as a minimums:

• Financial management, cash flow, budgeting (to assist with managing cost of doing business)
• Business and strategic planning
• Sales and marketing (including social media and digital).

Capability to also deliver on topics listed below will be considered favourably:

• Attracting, employing and retaining staff
• Leadership and management
• Increasing business efficiency
• Developing new markets and customers
• Risk Management
• Preparing for natural disasters
• Cyber security and dealing with outages
• Succession planning
• Preparing to access capital.

Applications will not be considered where:

• Retrospective funding is sought
• Other funding sources are deemed better suited (e.g. funding under existing programs or services in the nominated region and/or for the nominated industry sector)
• The applicant has already received a grant from other sources for this activity (including funding from the South Australian Government or the Commonwealth Government)
• The application does not contribute to achieving the Program Objectives.

The assessment panel will consider the merit of applications with reference to the following factors, which must be addressed and substantiated in all applications:

• The outcomes and benefits for participants
• Demand for the initiative(s)
• Value for money (including applicant and third-party contributions including cash and in-kind or both, Project Management, administration and marketing costs and costs to small businesses)
• Geographical reach and impact to diverse business-owners. Availability of the program across the whole of South Australia with program places made available to regional, First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse small business participants
• Demonstrated experience and past performance supporting small businesses
• The capacity and capability of the applicant (and any third party if applicable) to identify the needs of participants to either refer them elsewhere or connect them with the most appropriate mentor, deliver the initiative to the intended audience and achieve the outcomes it has committed to in its application. (This includes consideration of the applicant’s financial position, and prior experience of the applicant and any mentors engaged).

The assessment panel may also consider other aspects of the application it regards as relevant when assessing applications and may request additional information if required to undertake the assessment.

All successful and unsuccessful applicants will be notified by email of the result of their application.

To access grant funding, successful applicants will be required to sign an agreement in the form of a formal grant agreement or deed with the South Australian Government which stipulates the obligations of the applicant and the conditions under which assistance is given. No approval of an application, nor any notification to an applicant that their application is successful, nor any invitation to negotiate will be effective to constitute a contract or to create any legitimate expectation unless the agreement is executed by both parties.

The applicant will be required to repay the funding where there is breach of the agreement.

The successful applicant will be advised of the process during negotiations to finalise the agreement.

The proposed Program will include:

• Supporting participants with business essentials support that includes mentoring / advisory services.
• Development of an implementation plan for participants to best position business owners to progress with implementing improvements post program completion.
• A mixture of both in-person and online one-on-one mentoring
• A limited number of group workshops to complement mentoring may be considered however programs that seek to deliver workshops in isolation of mentoring will not be considered.
• Managing all enquiries to the Program, including redirecting applicants to the most appropriate service either within the Service Provider’s offerings or to another provider or service if the Program is not considered suitable.

The intake for the program should be staggered to ensure the Program is available to eligible participants until June 2027.

Contracted partner organisations will be required to report on the initiative’s progress and performance monthly and periodically throughout the initiative and up to 12 months after conclusion of the initiative. KPIs will be negotiated for the successful application(s).

Successful applicants will be required to survey Program participants to gather data for quantitative and qualitative reporting purposes at various stages of the Program (start to post-completion).

Reporting will include the outcomes achieved, activities undertaken, summary of participant data, including demographics, evidence of expenditure of grant funding, lessons learned (analysis), case studies, business impacts, other materials and/or approaches developed for continuing the support for businesses beyond the funding period.

Initiative details, estimated and actual economic outcomes, the amount of funding, case studies and other pertinent information may be made public, subject to the Government’s consideration of any commercial and public interest factors.

The Department reserves the right to amend these guidelines including application terms at any time.

Decisions on all matters relating to the awarding of grant funding and proposals under this Program is at the absolute discretion of the Minister for Small and Family Business (Minister) and/or the Department.

This includes the right not to award any grant funding, or award a lesser amount, if the Minister and/or Department deems appropriate.

The Department complies with the South Australian Government’s Information Privacy Principles Instruction (Department of the Premier and Cabinet Circular PC 012). The Department collects information (including personal information) as reasonably necessary for the purposes and functions of:

• Administering the Department’s grants and funding programs.
• Keeping applicants informed about the Program, relevant upcoming events, grant funding initiatives and outcomes, our services, special events or client feedback surveys, as well as our activities in general.
• Improving the Department’s websites and other services.

The collection and use of information by the Department extends to use of such information by the Minister for Small and Family Business for the purposes as outlined above.

Any information contained in or relating to an application, including information identified by an applicant as confidential information for the purposes of applying for funding under this Program, may be disclosed by the Department to, or used by the Department:

• To its employees, advisers or third parties in order to manage the Program (including but not limited to, for the purposes of evaluating and assessing the application)
• For due diligence, monitoring, reporting and audit purposes
• Within the government of South Australia where this serves the legitimate interest of the Department
• In response to a request by a House or Committee of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia or South Australia
• For training, systems testing and process improvement, including compiling statistics and reports
• If an application is successful, for promotion of initiative activities and outcomes
• Where information is authorised or required by law to be disclosed
• Where the information is already in the public domain.