History
The Sunbury Chamber of Commerce was established in 1990 and evolved to become the Sunbury Business Association in 2010.
The SBA is a Not-for-Profit organisation funded solely from Memberships and Sponsorships, with all proceeds reinvested back into initiatives to benefit SBA Members, Sunbury Businesses, and the Sunbury regional community. All Board, Committee and support roles are filled by volunteer professionals from Sunbury's Business Community.
For 26 years, the organisation's objective has been to facilitate business success in Sunbury by helping businesses to grow, create employment, and build a stronger, sustainable and connected community.
Who are we?
The SBA is a collective of small, medium and large business Members from a range of industries, including;
- Retail
- Tourism, hospitality, accommodation, restaurants & cafes
- Automotive
- Business Services
- Personal Services
- Health and Community services
- Education & Training
- Manufacturing, Construction
- Transport, Logistics & Warehousing
- Real Estate, Property Services, Maintenance
- and the many Home-Based businesses in the Sunbury area.
The SBA has a Board of Directors and a number of working-Committees to oversee SBA projects, events and initiatives. All of our Board and Committee members are volunteers, and we are always on the look-out for good people to lend a hand at events or with Committee activities.
The SBA has strategic partnerships with Business and Community organisations, and is proud to work with the Victorian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Hume Council, Sunbury's Women In Business Group, the SunRanges Business Collective and a range of Residential, Community, Sporting & Social groups.
What do we do?
Business Support & Growth
The SBA supports its Members by providing a range of initiatives including;
- Information & training events and seminars, aimed at informing, educating and up-skilling Sunbury regional business Owners and Managers.
- Networking events that encourage interaction and knowledge-sharing between business peers and mentors
- Sponsorship & promotional initiatives available via SBA events, website and media partnerships
- Promotional opportunities via networking with, and exposure to SBA Members, Partners, Guests and Consumers
- Personal development and community exposure via volunteering opportunities at events or working with SBA committees
Advocacy - "The Voice of Sunbury Business"
Business and Member feedback indicates that as a single “lone” business, many feel that they have no "voice" or ability to affect change with Governments or Regulators. A major role of the SBA is to help Sunbury Business to be heard, by providing a united platform and advocacy vehicle for all Businesses in Sunbury.
Strategies that enable the SBA understand and advocate Community & Stakeholder issues include;
- Development of relationships with key Stakeholder groups and individuals, including
- Community Support organisations
- Sporting & Social
- Residential
- Business & Industry
- Regulatory organisations
- Media
- Undertaking Business Surveys to identify infrastructure, planning, resource, regulatory and management issues that impede Owners & Managers as they strive to grow their businesses
- Analysing feedback to identify issues, trends and impacts
- Development and review of mandated bi-partisan Policy Statements for use in lobbying and advocating for positive change
- Development of key relationships with Media Partners, enabling "The Voice of Sunbury Business" to be heard, while keeping the community updated of events and activities.
Healthy Business Networking Breakfast
Proudly brought to you by the Sunbury Community Health Centre and the SBA, our popular Healthy Business Networking Breakfast program had its first event for 2016 on 13 April at Sunbury's Goonawarra Golf Club.
We had a great group of Sunbury Business representatives, from a cross-section of industry sectors.
Goonawarra Golf Club provided a lovely venue, where our guests watched early morning golfers strolling through the mist as they chased little white balls around our lovely local course.
Sunbury Community Health Centre provided a great healthy breakfast, and Sunbury's best coffee was provided by Sacco Coffee to those who needed that early morning caffeine-fix!
SBA President Michael Osborne provided a brief update on SBA activities, including our new Committee structures, events programs, and the exciting new partnership wirth the Victorian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (VCCI).
Joe Agius from the VCCI spoke briefly about our new partnership, which offers SBA Members free access to VCCI "Essentials Membership Package", valued at $644. This package is great for all sizes of business and includes dozens of business tools and templates covering staff management policies & processes, workplace safety and more. The SBA will also benefit from VCCI's policy unit which can help us to advocate and lobby on behalf of Sunbury's Business Community to all levels of government.
Bruce Marshall from Hume City Council provided a brief update on Council projects, including stage-2 of the O'Shanassy Street redevelopment, and the refurbishment of the fountain at the Village Green.
And when the brief formalities concluded, guests spent time meeting and networking with business-peers, creating and building relationships, and exploring new business opportunities. Stay-tuned to our calendar for future Healthy Business Networking Breakfasts, and don't miss our Annual Dinner on 18 May! Check out our other event pages for more details!
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Shoppers are being encouraged to get out of their cars and take a good look around Sunbury’s laneway arcades to discover a diverse range of businesses, including retail, cafe's and service providers.
Sunbury Business Association (SBA) president Michael Osborne said that while service industries, including real estate and lending, were doing well thanks to low interest rates, retail in the town was ‘‘a massive struggle’’.
