When you’re running your own business, sometimes you feel like you’re going it alone, or that your problems are just specific to your company.

But you don’t have to work it all out yourself. CCIWA works hard to offer help and advice to develop and connect business people with other business people.

We supports all businesses from the very small right through to the largest, in providing information, advocacy, advice and peer support.

Small businesses frequently look to us for advice on human resources and safety expertise because a lot of don’t employ a HR or safety manager, especially if they have less than 15 people.

Our employee relations advice team can bring a lot of value to a small business. If you went to a lawyer over a staffing problem, the cost can be significant. But you can get help by calling our employer’s advice centre as often as you like and work, step-by-step, through the challenges.

We also have tools on a range of topics relevant for small to medium business. This homegrown advice from Western Australian business provides a comprehensive resource to fill the gaps on just about every question we are asked by our members.

With the larger businesses we use connectivity. We create a coalition to influence decision makers. We ask the large businesses how we can provide them with community voice, and how we help determine platforms that will help a business community make impactful inroads.

GST was an example of that, but there are a range of topics on which we can work together that we would never do individually.

Our networking events bring business people together into the same room, which is helpful for discussing issues businesses may be facing and finding potential customers and supply chain opportunities.

We regularly encourage members to weigh in on issues with the feedback used to help devise advocacy strategies