A $200,000 funding boost for Rural Business Tasmania will help the organisation extend its support to rural communities hit by the economic fallout of Covid-19.
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The rural financial counsellng service offers support to farmers but its Small Business Support Program will extend to small businesses and sole traders within regional communities, such as grocery and convenience stores, cafes and other service providers in small towns.
RBT chief executive Elizabeth Skirving said demand for its 1300 883 276 phone service had already increased, but this was expected to rise again after Easter as businesses settled into post-Covid 19 realities and started to better understand the situation.
She said the organisation could help people find and apply for assistance packages, such as those found within the state government's Social and Economic Support Package or the Federal Government's Job Keeper package, or develop business recovery plans.
"The government has been very supportive of the agricultural sector and this funding will provide rural and regional communities with extra support as they move through current financial hardship," she said.
"It is about extending our guidance to small businesses to help them understand what government assistance packages might be available to them, to look at what their business might need, look at their cash flows, to work with banks if need be, to work out whether they go into hibernation and what their plans for reopening might be.
"Some people in our rural and regional areas might never have applied for government grants and allowances before, or filled out relevant documentation. Some of these things can be quite daunting. You are dealing with loss of trade in a very changed situation and having a friendly ear or someone to help explain how you apply for things can really help."
Mrs Skirving said that while the agricultural industry was in a much better position than some other industries, the impacts of Covid-19 were beginning to be felt in regional and farming communities, and for some the crisis followed drought and even bushfire.
"Many businesess have already been impacted on the east coast and in the central highands and were already seeing reduced spending. We need to make sure regional communities are still functioning after all this, that the really vital, essential services survive and continue to operate."
Assistance available in the Social and Economic Support Package include small business interest free loans, emergency cash payments of $2500, and help to set up websites and online stores, as well as business continuity support.
For Rural Business Tasmania's financial counselling service ring 1300 883 276.