About Businesses in the City of Charles Sturt

From our 156 survey responses, 47% of business owners worked from home, 38% rented a space, 12% owned their space whilst 3% used a co-working or shared space.

41% of businesses had been operating in the area for over 10 years, 16% between 6-10 years, 23% between 2--5 years and 20% of you had been operating for less than 2 years.

Employees and working from home

38% of businesses did not employ anyone, 57% had 1-19 employees whilst 5% of you had 20-199 employees and only 1% employed over 200 staff.

Responses indicated that 51% of businesses expected staff numbers to stay the same, 38% were looking to grow however 14% expected staffing numbers to decrease or were unsure.

51% of businesses supported people working from home and 13% were thinking about it but didn’t have a plan yet. The remaining businesses were aiming for staff to return to the business premises or told us that working from home was not possible for the business or was not supported.

Those business owners that supported staff working from home, felt that health and well-being and work life balance had improved.

Highlights of what businesses told us

Looking back on the last 12 months – 58% of businesses told us that COVID-19 had taken its toll on their profitability, several provided comments that COVID restrictions had made growing a small business challenging.

We asked our business community about the future...

Thinking about the next 12 months, how confident or worried do you feel about the future of your business?

Looking to the future - 60% businesses were confident about the future of their business in the City of Charles Sturt. However, 28% of respondents were worried about the future of their business and put it down to several factors including the ever-changing covid environment, rent stress, construction and roadworks interference, supply chain issues and/or and shipping costs.

We asked our business community...

What types of training or skills development would be useful for your business and staff?

Digital marketing, business, financial and strategic planning as well as learning to tender and grant writing were highlighted as useful for businesses and staff, delivered through a mixture of online learning, events, workshops and masterclasses and one to one support.

We asked our business community...

How would you rate the following in terms of importance to your business?

Developing an online presence, growing the business and access to grants and funding were considered extremely important for our business community. Only 54% were aware of the grants that Council offered.

Interestingly in terms of Local Supply Chain, 76% of respondents source goods and services from other local businesses.

Of our survey respondents, 94% said they were not exporting goods. 2.5% were considering it but indicated that they would need support.

We asked our business community ...

What are you looking to achieve?

Businesses are looking for ways to innovate and become more environmentally friendly.

Our local businesses are looking to achieve this in the following ways ...

We asked our business community...

How can Council support your business goals?

The top five responses were:

• Provide business owners with information and advice.
• Advocate to state and federal government for more funding.
• Assist business owners in developing new skills.
• Help to reduce business costs.
• Help businesses become more environmentally sustainable.

Businesses suggested lots of ways Council can offer support. There was strong agreement that Council prioritise purchasing from local businesses and plan a program of events and activities that bring people to the region.

We asked our business community...

What are the advantages and disadvantages of operating in the City of Charles Sturt?

70% of respondents stated that liveability was the main advantage of operating a business in our city. Comments received showed that it is a supportive business environment and that our central location and good transport links allow good access to markets.

Disadvantageous included parking, rubbish, lengthy developments, limited public transport, and drug and alcohol issues.

We then asked...

If you could change one thing or solve one problem, what would it be?

The responses are summarised in the diagram below.