The initiative by the State Government is a chance for local operators to improve their productivity and grow.

It comes at a time when a number of Wagga’s businesses have closed down and shopfronts remain empty.

Harry Ly, owner of Vietnamese restaurant Roll Viet, said it was perfect timing to help his store grow after acquiring it only less than one year ago.

“We’ve done some improvements to the place, but we’ve also been affected by the drought,” Mr Ly said.

“One of our main customers are farmers and their families, but they’ve been saving money for their households, which is understandable.”

Asked about the challenges, Mr Ly cited overhead costs, especially rent in central.

“On the main street, it’s high and it takes a lot from revenues,” he said.

“Every month, it’s the first item we pay, followed by costs of supplies and labour.”

As well as reducing overhead costs, attending networking opportunities and growing his food business to festivals were also on his agenda as things to improve.

“We do most advertising on Facebook and by word of mouth,” Mr Ly said.

“Since we’re still small and new, it’s hard to spend money on advertising, but we’re hoping to develop more.”

In the Riverina, businesses employing 1–4 staff members increased 98 business (or 1.9 per cent) in FY2016, data by Regional Development Australia Riverina shows.

Further, the turnover range that had the most number of businesses was the $0–$50,000, accounting for 20.5pc.

Someone who knows about business growth is Casey Wilson, founder and director of House On The Hill Marketing, a business-development firm.

Miss Wilson said the biggest challenges she found with businesses in the region included a lack of understanding about how online marketing can propel their business forward.

“So many small business owners just don't have time to focus their energy on online marketing when they need to be pounding the pavement drumming up business and meeting with clients,” Miss Wilson said.

She calls for a community-wide approach to boosting all small businesses.

“We need to be supporting one another, providing referrals and passing on contacts,” she said.

“When one businesses does well, it tends to have a flow-on effect on other businesses in the town.”

Miss Wilson welcomes the State Government initiative to help the region.

“As a small business owner, I think it's fantastic to see a wide variety of free events taking place around the Murray Riverina,” she said.

“Many small businesses don't have the additional revenue for expensive informational sessions, so they skip them altogether.”

The challenge of growth in regional cities is faced by software engineers.

Dev Mukherjee, CEO of Anomaly, a Wagga-based software-development firm, said the main challenge for the industry was one of perception.

“While there’s the opportunity to grow because fewer developers are in the regions, there is still a stigma associated with software developers who are regionally based,” Mr Mukherjee said.

“The perception is that the best developers are based in a metro setting, which came from the big tech companies growing out of Silicon Valley.”

The software firm has been operating for a decade with staff who were educated and graduated from Wagga’s institutions.

Mr Mukherjee said growth could be achieved only from increase “scale in generating revenues”.

To do that and to alleviate the perception problem, he calls for more technical conferences and software-based conferences to shift away from the city to regions.

“For small and medium businesses in general, I’d like to see more industry-specific events in the region,” he said.

“That way, it’d help us talk with others and potential customers.”

Small Business Month will have a series of events in October across the Riverina and Murray regions. 

Funded by the NSW Government and presented by the NSW Department of Industry, it will provide practical information, ideas and networking opportunities to help businesses start up and grow.

It is a chance to celebrate the role that NSW’s 736,000 small-to-medium-sized businesses play in creating jobs for 44 per cent of its workforce and economic growth.

All events are designed to help small business owners improve their productivity, grow their business, and engage with other businesses striving for similar goals.

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