The festive season is well and truly here with exactly one month until Christmas. The announcement of eased restrictions means there's even more reasons to celebrate! Read below for information on how these changes affect your business.
Premier Daniel Andrews has outlined the following eased restrictions for Victoria:
Masks – From 23 November
Masks must still be worn indoors and in outdoor settings where you cannot keep safe social distance.
While the general rule for mask-wearing outdoors has been relaxed (if you’re outdoors and you can keep a safe distance, masks are no longer be mandatory), many industries are required to continue wearing face coverings as part of their COVIDSafe Plan.
Hospitality businesses – From 23 November
For smaller venues, the density limit will change to one person for every two square metres – up to 50 customers. QR code record keeping will be mandatory. For bigger venues, the density limit will stay the same, but the cap will increase to 150. Total venue capacity will also rise to 300.
Return to the office – From 30 November
We can begin a phased approach for staff heading back to the office:
up to 25 per cent of workers will be able to attend on-site; or
businesses with fewer than 40 staff can have 10 staff on-site subject to density quotients.
'Workers' refer to people working on a site including, but not limited to, owners, managers, employees, contractors, workers on labour hire and security.
UDIA Victoria understands from the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions that clients, contractors and other external visitors to an office setting, are counted towards the office site limit. We therefore advise that for now, it is safest to include clients in your site limit.
Standard workplace requirements including density limits continue to apply.
Those heading back to the office must be nominated by their employer, or continue working from home.
2021 Civic Awards - Last chance to nominate your business
Nominations for Council's annual Civic Awards are currently open!
The annual awards provide an opportunity to acknowledge individuals and organisations who work tirelessly towards making our community a great place to live.
Nominations are being called for the following categories:
Citizen of the Year
Volunteer of the Year
Youth Leadership Award
Community Strengthening Award
Enterprise Maribyrnong Awards (Contribution to Business Community, New and Emerging Business, Innovative Business)
Active Maribyrnong Sporting Award
Arts Award
Award recipients will be invited to attend a civic event in early 2021 where they will be presented with their awards.
Are you a founder located in the municipality, with an idea ready to test and validate? Be the first to apply for the 2021 Start, Now Pre- Accelerator program.
“Now” will deliver a Pre-Accelerator program to 16 cohorts in partnership with council. The Program will accelerate Participants through the process of finding a business idea and then developing and scaling that idea into sustainable model.
The Project aims to support 320 Participants through the program in partnership with councils across Victoria.
A new innovation centre is bringing together businesses, industry groups, research institutions and not-for-profit organisations to create solutions to reduce waste, increase recycling and reuse, and generate new revenue for Victorian businesses.
The centre will work with a variety of businesses – from farms and cafes to factories and appliance shops – to streamline the way they operate, reduce waste, and improve efficiency.
The centre will do research and offer expert advice and resources through a virtual hub, facilitate collaboration and events, and offer grants and support for businesses.
To mark the launch of the centre, the first round of the $10 million Recycling Victoria Business Support Fund is now open. The fund will help businesses, industry groups and not-for-profit organisations to improve resource efficiency, reduce waste to landfill, increase recycling and reduce their operating costs.
Running a small business from home can be daunting but with the right tools and information, you can learn how to run an effective and profitable homebased business.
The ATO are offering two one-hour webinars to help you improve your small business skills:
Running a homebased business
Digital options for your small business
Find out what expenses you can claim as tax deductions and how to calculate them.
There are many online services and digital systems that can help you with business activities such as marketing, sales, accounting and reporting.
Discover the benefits of digital systems and what systems are available for each area of your business operations.
Did you know that the Victorian Small Business Commission’s latest rent relief advice can be found in English (click here), Simplified Chinese (click here), Arabic (click here) and Vietnamese (click here).
