Boosting business success through upskilling

Managing Director and Indigenous business owner, Petina Tieman from Complete Business Solutions (QLD) Pty Ltd in Cairns, knows her work with start-ups, micro businesses and small business has been successful.

Petina and her 13 Queensland team members, (assisted by two virtual assistants in the Philippines), work across rural, regional and remote areas of Queensland, and Papua New Guinea, helping both Indigenous and non-Indigenous small businesses’ grow their business skills, capability and capacity. The company, with Brisbane and Gold Coast sub-offices, also works closely with government.

Through multiple government contracts, Complete Business Solutions supports more than 300 individual business owners in regional and remote areas, of whom 80 percent are women and 45 percent are Indigenous.  Through other contacts, it provides mentoring and business support services throughout Northern Australia the Torres Strait Islands and in 2022 it expanded services into Papua New Guinea.

“Most of our First Nations clients above the age of 30 in regional and remote areas haven’t finished secondary school, or been exposed to business acumen,” Petina said.

“They will have an idea and be quite passionate about that idea, but they don’t know how to bring it to fruition or monetise it.”

Complete Business Solutions fills the void, teaching mindset change, basic business fundamentals, and simple sales and marketing skills through its business skills development programs.

Forty-three startup micro businesses have been supported in Papua New Guinea, which has seen underprivileged streetside vendors monetise their hobby, increase their pricing from bartering to market value, enabling reinvestment in materials and supplies.

While governments invest heavily in skill development in regional and remote areas, Petina said there was a lack of employment opportunities in the communities.

“We create economic development opportunities by helping First Nations peoples establish and self-manage micro-businesses.”

Petina also volunteers about 20 hours a month to represent rural, regional and remote business owners in discussions with industry and government.

The company, which will soon employ two school-based trainees, offers regional and remote Indigenous businesses free use of their Cairns Business Hub facilities and recently delivered the 2-day Deadly Women in Local Government Conference in Cairns.

Complete Business Solutions epitomises the Queensland Government’s procurement approach ethos of ‘Diversity through Supply Chains’, teaching skills that empower businesses to join the supply chain, encouraging workforce diversity within its business, supporting women in business, and educating and empowering leadership opportunities within marginalised groups.