A note on compliance
The Small Business Support Line is NOW OPEN!
Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time). The Support Line will be closed on Australian National Public Holidays.
The Small Business Support Line will provide an initial 'single' point of contact to access information and referral services that assist small businesses including:
- Finance and cash flow management (including loan and banking products)
- Marketing and promotion, including research and statistics
- Business planning and diagnostic services
- Legal, accounting and taxation services
- Personal stress and hardship counselling
- Registration and licences
- E-Business and online assistance
- Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S)
- Government initiatives, grants and assistance
- Employing staff
- Home-based business
- Importing and exporting
- Tenders and contracts
- Intellectual property
- Franchising
- Insurances
- Retail leasing guidance
- Government regulation
- Human resource management.
Any business, big or small is subject to a range of fundamental responsibilities and obligations that enable and govern the day-to-day operations of the business. Whether it is acts or regulations that determine how a business can operate, the licenses required to start and operate a business or the financial obligations of business in terms of taxes and local council rates. These obligations also extend to areas including Occupational Health and Safety, marketing and selling.
The building of your online profile begins with the assumption that as a responsible business you are already complying with all relevant and applicable laws. The role of these resources is not to take the position of law enforcement or a compliance body but rather to encourage businesses to beyond compliance - to be more aspirational. We do however provide guidance and information for each of the five responsible business practice principles around the kinds of regulations, laws and minimum requirements that businesses need to adhere to or that you may be asked to provide evidence of in the procurement or tender process with larger organisations or government. You can find this information when you have registered on each of the main principle pages easily identified by the following flag and box design:
If you are interested in finding out more about the regulations and policies that affect small-to medium businesses we have provided information below to assist you.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) is the peak council of Australian business associations. ACCI's member network has over 350,000 businesses represented through Chambers of Commerce in each State and Territory - links to each are provided below:
ACI is the peak industry body for the practice of Compliance, Risk and Governance in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Established in 1996, ACI represents all industry sectors from large and small businesses and supports our members and their organisations through a range of benefits and services including:
- Career development, Training and Education
- Publications & Tools
- Networking
- Benchmarking and Research
- Advocacy
To find out how ACI can help support you in your organisation in ensuring your success and long term sustainability, visit www.compliance.org.au or phone +61 2 9290 1788.
Here are some suggestions for ways to keep up to date with changing regulations and requirements for small and medium sized businesses:
- Subscribe to legislative change update emails
- Delegate a staff member the responsibility for regularly reviewing legislative websites for changes and communicating them to the business
- Obtain assessment by an external expert of the business' compliance position
- Implement business change after an incident of non-compliance is flagged, either internally or externally
- Monitor instances of non-compliance to ensure performance is improving