Recently Victorian Small Business Commission have produced a fact sheet for small businesses to understand how they can access tools and resources to reduce their energy costs. This information includes comparing energy bills, accessing energy assessment grants, accessing discounts on energy efficient products and how to access services for complaints against energy providers. 

Keeping overheads down is an important part of running a small business, and with the recent increase in energy prices, it is important to reduce energy costs where possible.

SBWN's community initiative for 2016/2017 has been a roaring success.

This year SBWN has changed the community "give back" initiative. Instead of individual scholarships awarded to young women in the community, we embraced an opportunity to reach hundreds of young women and men around the region.

We sponsored Rebecca Slavin, 2016 Bass Coast Young Citizen of the Year, to speak to secondary schools around the Gippsland region. The schools selected one or more year levels, ranging from year 9 to year 12, to attend her brutally raw and honest account of her recovery from Ice addiction.

Her message hit home with many students, and Deanne Staley received many messages of thanks from both students and parents.

The feedback was all positive, and it has been an honour to have helped Rebecca touch so many young lives. If we have helped save just one family from the heartache and heartbreak of Ice, we have succeeded.

Schools Rebecca has shared her story with included:

• Newhaven College, Phillip Island
  
• Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College, Leongatha
  
• Korumburra Secondary College, Korumburra
  
• Wonthaggi Secondary College, Wonthaggi
  
• Mirboo North Secondary College
  
• Foster Secondary College
  

Rebecca at Wonthaggi Secondary College with a handful of students

Rebecca with students from Korumburra Secondary College

In the Press

Extract from "The Mirror" after the Foster Secondary College talk:

Ice talk made an impact

Rebecca Slavin ( Bass Coast Young Citizen of the year 2016 ) visited the college last Wednesday to discuss her experiences with drugs and alcohol. Year 10 and Year 11 students were captivated by her story.

Rebecca grew up locally and came from a close and loving family but at the age of fourteen began to experiment with alcohol. At the age of seventeen she had her first hit of the drug Ice, and it was not long before she descended into the hell of severe addiction. Rebecca was totally honest about how she lied, stole and manipulated in order to feed her need for the drug. Not only did it affect her relationships with her friends and family, but she also became a victim of domestic violence.

Associating with other Ice users resulted in Rebecca frequently being beaten. At one stage she was kidnapped and at another had a gun held to her head. She was frequently hospitalised and her heart stopped for a short time - she had experienced death. However, the drug held such a fierce grip on her she went straight back onto it.

As confronting as her story was, the important theme was the message of hope. Rebecca eventually attended over a year of rehabilitation and managed to fight her demons, re-learning the interpersonal skills most people take for granted and regaining a stronger sense of her own values and morality.

Most impressive was the courage Rebecca showed in being able to share her experiences, including answering questions with candour that to others may have been invasive. The college would like to thank Deanne Staley and the Southern Women's Business Network for sponsoring this event. Thank-you to Rebecca for reaching out to our young students and teaching them that no matter what the situation, help is always available.

Bronwyn Clifton
Student Wellbeing Leader
Foster Secondary College

Pictured from left to right: Joshua Standfield, Deanne Staley, Bronwyn Clifton, Rebecca Slavin, Amy Tudor

Other articles in the press:

http://www.mnsc.vic.edu.au/13-general/news/510-rebecca-talks-about-ice

Read more about Rebecca Slavin here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-20/gippsland-ice-rehab-rebecca-slavin-inverloch/7946336

As a follow up to our June event on the subject of Superannuation with the amazing Natasha Williams of VicSuper - please find attached in PDF form, some useful tips to get you headed in the right direction...

Boost your Super.pdf

Source: The New Daily

Thank you to Jane Benston for her fabulous presentation on Women in Leadership last month.

Jane recommended several books during her talk and we promised to post the reading list for our members here:

JANE BENSTON'S READING LIST

1. Stop Playing Safe – Margie Warrell 
   
2. The 5 Levels of leadership – John Maxwell
   
3. Developing the leader within You – John Maxwell 
   
4. Thrive – Arianna Huffington 
   
5. The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni 
   
6. The 7 Habits of highly effective people – Stephen Covey 

---

For Interested SBWN Members - Jane runs regular workshops in Melbourne, her February event is the 1 day Small Group Workshop for Women in Leadership

In this Exclusive 1 day Small Group Workshop for women in Leadership, you will:

• Clarify the unique gifts, talents and passions you bring to your role as a leader and learn how best to capitalise on these to get the recognition you deserve
  
• Discover how to enhance your confidence, build your authentic leadership presence and develop a new level of results that has you being seen, heard and valued
  
• Identify your true value and discover how to step fully into your identity as a leader
  
• Overcome the roadblocks and barriers standing in your way as you navigate the complex corporate maze towards more success, enjoyment and fulfilment
  
• PLUS we’ll dive into your specific career aspirations and help you to map out the next crucial steps to ensure momentum well into 2015
  

Building confidence in public speaking is the ultimate stretch. Following on from her inspiring presentation earlier this month Jennifer Burrows is facilitating a 1 day highly experiential workshop essential for presenting and persuading with confidence, credibility and impact.

KEY POINTS THAT WILL BE COVERED:

• Detailed audience analysis to ensure what we say is as relevant and motivating as possible.
  
• Defining our single, most important audience take out AKA asking for the business
  
• Identification of Key Messages.
  
• Fundamental structure of the presentation. 
  
• Opening with confidence and Closing with conviction
  
• Emphasising, adding impact and making memorable your Key Messages.
  
• Establishing and maintaining your presence, credibility and authority in front of your audience.
  
• Engaging and building rapport so that the audience wants to listen and ultimately have a relationship with you.
  
• Exploring a range of presentation delivery tools and techniques to interact with and engage the audience including answering questions with confidence, using case studies, stories and anecdotes, involving the audience plus voice modulation, movement, pausing etc.

You’ll also receive a workbook containing all the planning templates, linking language and steps to planning all your future presentations.

This is a fun practical workshop involving on your feet exercises so you can maximize your ability as a presenter and public speaker in a safe, non-threatening environment. Plus Jen will step you through the 5 Minute Phobia Cure so you can kick your nerves to the kerb for good.

Cost $197 pp Tickets for PERFECT YOUR PITCH AND GET PITCH PERFECT - or you can email Jen direct at jburrows@valueforlife.com.au

Dear Ladies,

Megan Vuillermin of Your Small Business Mentor who spoke so passionately on the subject of branding at our April meeting has kindly provided a list of further reading resources for SBWN members.

UPDATE: We have since opened up the privacy settings somewhat because members that had spent some time creating their profiles were not adjusting them to show the world all their hard work!

When we updated our database to the new site we set everyone's Profile to the maximum Privacy settings. This means that after you've entered all your Profile details, most will not show up for the general public unless you update your Privacy settings.

Many of you will want to display as much information about your business as possible, so here's a quick lesson on how to do it.

How to change your Privacy settings...
First Login to your account using your Email and Password. Once logged in you will see the View Profile option appear at the top right of the page in the Login area.

Clicking on View Profile will take you directly to your Profile. Once there click on the Edit Profile button. You can edit all your details from here.

You will see the word Privacy underlined as shown below, click on that to get to your Privacy settings.



Now you can choose the information you want to show to the general public. For example, I chose to set every field to Anybody except Landline because I don't have one.




That's it, your Privacy Settings are updated. Well done.