What have Participants Achieved?

In every location in which the program has been conducted its benefit to participants has been evaluated carefully, and its success has been shown in a variety of ways.

It changes people’s attitudes! People complete the program with improved, serious and realistic intentions to grow the business and employ people. This means they are what may be called “business planning ready”.

• Barriers to growth shifted from external to internal, i.e. those the business person can control.
• Follow up surveys show that the intention translates to reality.
• The participants enjoy the process and recommend the program to others.
• Meeting immediate skill development needs at the same time as serving as a catalyst for people to develop skills to grow their business
• Groups continue to meet under their own steam

Another important benefit has been for Councils, who do not always like their compliance and regulatory image. Councils who have supported the program have shifted from being seen by home based businesses as impediments to being enablers in the quest for economic development. Sometimes the program has spurred a Council to undertake regulatory reform, for instance the Marion City Council in Adelaide.[1]