Online strategy turns bush business global

Rick’s Garage in the Sunshine Coast hinterland has Queenslanders travelling for hours to experience a 1kg burger.

The increase in customers and performance has been credited to the move to jump online and also use Google products according to business manager, Ben Jamieson.

Research from PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals that if small and medium-sized businesses make better use of online and mobile technologies $49 billion dollars of economic value could be gained. It also reveals that over half of that figure, $26bn, could be unlocked by outside inner-metropolitan areas.

Google and the Regional Australia Institute have partnered up to launch a competition for regional business owners who are using the internet in new ways to find new customers, hire staff and export overseas.

“This untapped economic potential was harnessed by businesses that used mobile applications to boost efficiency by cutting travel costs and allowing workers to share information and have online meetings” said Richard Flanagan, head of small business marketing at Google Australia.

RAI CEO Jack Archer said, “Access to high speed internet was a competitive challenge for regional areas”.

“Going online opens up national and global markets for businesses restricted to local buyers, as well as accessing services and labour markets that aren’t local for specialised workers” he said.