Business Basics grant program — Opening soon

The countdown is on for the opening of the Queensland Government’s new $10 million Business Basics Grant program.

Eligible small businesses across the state will be able to apply for a $5,000 grant to increase core skills and adopt best practice when the program opens on 31 May 2021. Guidelines for the program are now available and we’re encouraging interested small business operators to review the details, check your eligibility and gather supporting documentation well ahead of the opening date.

The program is a great opportunity

What it is
A Queensland Government grant of between $2,000 and $10,000.

Who it is for
Small businesses subject to closure or highly impacted by COVID-19 shutdown restrictions.

How it assists
Supports small businesses to adapt and sustain their operations and build resilience.

Who is eligible
To be eligible, a small business must:

Employ 1-19 staff (not including the owner, staff must be on the payroll, sole traders must employ at least one other person)
Have a valid ABN, active as at 23 March 2020 and be registered for GST
Have Queensland headquarters
Have turnover greater than $75,000pa for FY2019 or FY2020

WebP is an image format developed and first released by Google in 2010.

On average WebP images are nearly a third smaller than jpg and png, as page loading time is critical and images are often over half the load this is a significant saving.

Now that most modern browsers support WebP (approx 75% the exception being Safari) it is time to start using this format.

Of course we do not wish to leave the other 25% without images so we needs to configure our sites to deliver WebP when visitor’s browser supports

The Small Business Digital Grants program provides small businesses with access to digital technologies and services to enable them to work smarter, engage with the global economy and make the most of online business opportunities arising from digital disruption.

Matched funding of up to $10,000 (excluding GST) may be provided to eligible businesses for the purchase of hardware, software and services (such as digital coaching). The minimum grant funding is $1,000.

The business must show how the digital technology or service purchased and adopted will enhance the digital capabilities of their business and help

To further supercharge your website eEasy is now using Cloudflare

Cloudflare is designed to accelerate and secure your website.

It provides content delivery network services that cut in half the average page load time.

Also an extra layer of security is added, before serving your site Cloudflare will scan to see if the visitor appears to be a threat based on a number of characteristics including the visitor’s IP address, what resource they are requesting, what payload they are posting, and how frequently they’re making requests. The combination of these systems means that

This information sheet from the Arts Law Centre of Australia explains the procedure to follow if you believe a website has breached your intellectual property rights.

When you become aware that your copyright material is on a website without your permission, your first step should be to contact the website directly and request the operator or webmaster gives you credit (a link) or removes the infringing material. Often, people are not even aware they are breaching copyright and will be happy to comply with your requests. If they fail to comply

The Small Business Digital Grants Program round 5 is now open for applications.

Grants up to $10,000 (matched by participants) are available to help small businesses to enhance digital capabilities such as website optimisation, receiving online payments or creating a social media plan.

To be eligible the business must:

have fewer than 20 employees at the time of applying for the grant
have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) and be registered for GST
have a Queensland headquarters
have a turnover of $2 million or less for the last financial year
not be insolvent or have owners/directors that are

Matched funding of up to $10,000 to eligible Queensland businesses for the purchase digital services.

Round 4 has now closed  Email Us to be notified when the next round opens.

The grant can cover the development of an online marketing plan, a new website build or upgrade, content development (web pages, mobile apps, visual and audio media etc.). Development of an online marketing plan, marketing strategy development, and training.

The business must show how the digital technology or service purchased will enhance the digital capabilities of the business and help them to be more competitive.

Small

Update  April 2019

Gutenberg is now the default wordpress editor and whilst it does glimpse the way ahead it is not proving an easy change and many are disabling it.

A lot of users are finding it hard to use and are choosing to keep the classic editor, the classic editor plugin now has 4+ Million Active Installations

Original Article Nov 2017

A new editing experience for WordPress is in the works, with the goal of making it easier than ever to make your words, pictures, and layout look just right — without

Google announced on their Webmaster Central blog that “Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal”

Searches from mobile devices are estimated to make up more than 50% of all Google searches.

It’s an increasingly mobile world for the web’s users, and if your site does not accommodate Desktop, Tablet and Smartphone browsers you’re not going to be sending the right signals to Google that it wants to see! Google’s Mobile Update is promising to give a significant boost to all Mobile Friendly Sites while