Boost for women in business

Minister for Employment and Small Business and Minister for Training and Skills Development
The Honourable Shannon Fentiman

Australia’s largest food and drink incubator is one of 15 small businesses run by women that will benefit from more than $550,000 in Queensland Government grants.

Minister for Employment and Small Business Shannon Fentiman visited successful recipient, Wandering Cooks in West end to announce the successful recipients in the latest round of Advancing Women in Business: Industry Partnerships program.

“Wandering cooks is a well-deserved recipient with their innovative urban food hub that provides flexible and affordable kitchen and storage space to more than 100 artisan food producers,” Ms Fentiman said.

“This fantastic business is run by women and began as Brisbane’s first incubator for food entrepreneurs and has grown into a clubhouse for food & drink producers, chefs, buyers, suppliers, educators and the food and drink-loving public together.

Ms Fentiman congratulated Angela Hirst, Director of Wandering Cooks, for her passion and providing the resources for local food and drink businesses to grow.

“It is tremendous to see such diverse organisations, including small businesses and community groups, benefiting from this funding.”

Minister Fentiman congratulated the 15 successful funding recipients and thanked them for their commitment to supporting women to grow and thrive in business.

“The recipients represent a diverse range of professions including retail leadership, plumbing, women’s health, Indigenous mentoring, financial education, tourism, executive learning, music and the encouragement of female pharmacists,” Ms Fentiman said.

“The number of Australian women in business has increased over the past 20 years.

“However, in line with other OECD countries, women remain substantially underrepresented as entrepreneurs.

“You can’t be what you can’t see, so having more women starting their own successful small businesses, collaborating and supporting other women in business will encourage more women to give it a go,” Ms Fentiman said.

“It’s wonderful to see an increase of more than 6,000 Queensland women stepping up into the world of owning and running their own business since 2011 – leading the way in closing the gender gap in business ownership.

“The Palaszczuk Government offers a range of grants to assist women in business, providing mentoring and the professional advice they need to grow and have the confidence to create more local jobs.”

“We know that 177,500 new jobs have been created since we were elected and that small business has played a major role in this success story as more than 97 per cent of Queensland businesses are small businesses.”

The Advancing Queensland Strategy commits to encouraging and supporting women to start and grow businesses and to employ more Queenslanders. The Advancing Women in Business Industry Partnerships Program commenced in 2016-17 to support these aims.

The full list of 15 recipients is as follows:

Wandering Cooks
QMusic
National Retail Association
University of Southern Queensland
Master Plumbers Association
Acceler8
Powerhouse Collective
Murawin
Tourism Gems
Utano Consulting
Advisory Board Centre
Queensland Resources Council
Of One Mind
The Pharmacy Guild
Complete Business Solutions

Minister for Employment and Small Business and Minister for Training and Skills Development
The Honourable Shannon Fentiman

Tuesday, October 02, 2018