Business Station to host Grassroots Women In Business events in Great Southern

Business Station’s award winning Grassroots Women In Business program will expand to Albany next week, offering business advice to the “invisible women” contributing to the economy. Not-for-profit business advisory service Business Station will hold several Grassroots Women In Business events in the Great Southern from May 11-13. Leader of Business Station’s Grassroots Women program Kelley Chisholm, who will be heading many of the events, said the program targeted small businesses and micro-businesses of fewer than four people. “We’re committed to that entrepreneur woman who is selling a product from home ... or she is a mobile business, a small shopfront,” Ms Chisholm said. “The idea is we support them with services like training and workshops. “Our main goal is to help women form into groups, because if you can form into a group, it’s not so much about information that people need in business, it really is about the people around them.” The Grassroots Women program was the WA winner of Telstra’s 2022 national Best of Business Awards for the Accelerating Women category. “(Grassroots Women) identify the fact that we really need to support that real micro-business woman, because a lot of time when people talk business, they’ll talk about someone who owns the pub, but that’s a big enterprise,” Ms Chisholm said. “And so the woman who is small, I always talk about this idea, she’s actually invisible.” Ms Chisholm puts this “invisibility” down to some women deciding not to register their business or viewing their business as “a side hustle”. “The problem with that, for me, is it really limits growth when you say things like that,” she said. On May 11, Ms Chisholm will host a four-course “Women of the Region Dinner” presented by Business Station at The Gardens at Bullimah, with food from local chef Sally Francis and Young George’s Melissa Palinkas. Business Station will also be holding five events for women in small business in Albany on May 12 and 13. Attendees will hear from Ms Chisholm and other Business Station leaders, as well as local business women, including Alkaline Cafe owner Melissa Homewood. The events will start with a morning tea from 10.30am on May 12 titled “How to define success for small businesswomen”. Ms Chisholm said the success of a business should not just come down to the amount of money it makes. “You’re not successful because you make this much money, you’re successful because of the reasons you went into business and what you’re getting out of it — which may be autonomy, independence, making a difference, doing something you love,” she said. For details visit bit.ly/37T6wWu.