Business Connect – Personalised Business Advice
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Get advice on how to start, run, adapt or grow your business
Business Connect
Business Connect is a dedicated and personalised NSW Government program that provides trusted advice to help you start, run, adapt or grow your small business.
Whether you are just starting out with a great business idea or looking to expand and grow your business, Business Connect can help you on your journey to business success.
Our business advisors are on hand to provide you with tailored business advice to help you with whichever stage you are at with your business. With options for face-to-face coaching, digitally facilitated coaching, in-person seminars and virtual webinars you can access the Business Connect services in a way that suits you.
Book your free advice session today
Start, Run, Adapt or Grow Your Small Business
There are a range of services, events and support available to small businesses from the Western Sydney area. These include:
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One-to-one in-person or virtual business coaching with an experienced advisor
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In-person workshops to give you core skills to take back to your business
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Seminars and Webinars covering a range of topics to help you build broader business skills.
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Online resources that are available 24/7 on-demand of pre-recorded webinars, podcasts and videos on a whole range of business topics.
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To find out more information about Business Connect, visit the Business Connect website.
Our Advisors
Our team of advisors come from a range of backgrounds and industry experience. This helps us align your business with the advisory who can help drive the biggest change and improvement for your organisation. Find out more about our different advisors below or get in touch and we will help align you with the best match for your business’ needs.
John Roberts
Western Sydney
John is a business coach and consultant with over 10 years of experience helping small businesses grow and succeed. He has a passion for helping entrepreneurs achieve their goals and build thriving businesses.
John started his career in the mining sector, where he gained valuable experience in management, leadership, and problem-solving. He then transitioned into the business management and property training sector, where he worked with a variety of businesses to help them improve their performance.
In 2017, John founded his own business coaching and consulting firm, where he helps small businesses develop and implement growth strategies. He also owns and operates two successful companies within the development and property sectors.
John is a natural leader and communicator with a proven track record of success. He is passionate about helping small businesses achieve their goals and he is committed to providing his clients with the support and guidance they need to succeed.
Joe Mekertichian
Western Sydney
Joe has worked as a Business Advisor and Coach since he co-founded The Epiphany Group in 2013. After starting his career in finance, Joe transitioned into Business Development for the Construction, Automotive, Engineering and Professional Services industries. Joe is committed to helping small businesses build the structure they need to take the next step in their business and consolidate their strategies. This includes people's capacity, capability & ability to persevere through periods of uncertainty & change.
Christine Day
Western Sydney
Christine has spent two decades in sales, marketing and general management roles. She has had extensive enterprise software, SaaS and IT services experience as well as not for profit aged care industry experience.
Her expertise is helping small business people with their sales, marketing, business operations and personal holistic health. She has helped a wide variety of organisations ranging from SaaS and IT Services and strata managers just to name a few.
Christine brings a sales perspective to marketing to ensure that businesses achieve their goals by increasing their leads and reducing their sales cycle. She believes that market research and data should dictate strategy and that decisions should be based on information.
Brad Mooney
Western Sydney
Brad Mooney is a highly accomplished professional with a diverse background in various industries. With a strong focus on leadership and business management, he has consistently delivered exceptional results throughout his career. Currently serving as the Managing Director of OTJ Construction Solutions Pty Ltd, a business he established in December 2021, Brad has demonstrated his entrepreneurial skills and expertise in the construction industry.
At OTJ Construction Solutions, Brad oversees the importation and sale of building materials, including concrete, timber, and steel. He provides general management services to several clients, such as Universal Concrete Construction, All Aspects Pumping, Streamline Concrete Patching, and BC Truck Hire. Additionally, Brad offers value engineering consulting, commercial management consulting, and systems and processes consulting to further enhance his clients' operations.
Samantha Nicolson
Western Sydney
Samantha Nicolson is a dynamic digital marketing strategist known for her transformative work with small to medium-sized Australian businesses.
Samantha’s expertise lies in developing high-conversion social media strategies and compelling organic content, empowering business owners to grow their audiences, increase their profitability and expand their visibility.
This work incorporates social media profile makeovers, the crafting of effective content plans, and the provision of technical advice across all forms of social media content, as well as comprehensive content development and creation.
Beyond social media, Samantha excels in email marketing, local SEO, Google Business Profile setup and ongoing optimisation to enhance online visibility. Samantha leverages her background in corporate banking, auditing, risk management and compliance to execute data analysis and map out customer journeys that align action plans with business priorities.
With a BA Honours in Finance & Marketing and professional development in digital marketing, social media marketing, paid ads, copywriting, and email marketing, Samantha is a trusted advisor for businesses across the digital landscape. Her mission is to leave her clients feeling empowered and equipped to achieve their digital marketing goals.
Sheila Cabacungan
Western Sydney
Sheila is a Certified Financial Planner, Registered (Financial Advice) Tax Agent and SMSF Specialist Adviser with over 20 years’ experience. Since 2009 she has worked exclusively with small business owners and self-employed entrepreneurs.
Sheila has spent her career working in Financial Services as a Banker, and Financial Planner. She also has experience as a facilitator and mentor for women, youth and small business owners in the areas of financial literacy and financial capability.
Sheila uses her skills in behavioral finance, leadership and management, financial planning, taxation, banking and financial management to create plans for small business owners with a focus on money and cash flow.
Anne Neilan
Western Sydney
Anne spent 15 years of her career working in digital marketing and eCommerce roles for Coca- Cola, Danone, NRMA and lastminute.com.au. In 2018 she founded Neilan Digital to bring big business knowledge to small businesses, so they have a clear plan to apply the strategy, processes and analysis needed to drive sales using digital and online.
With a strong background in market research, she doesn’t believe in action without analytics and uses a data driven approach to understand how best to utilise all the options from search and social to email and web to get people buying and keeping them loyal.
Anne works with business owners to give them the confidence to use digital marketing and ecommerce to grow and scale their business. She takes a pragmatic approach, creating realistic, manageable strategies and plans for her clients. Anne’s mission is to make sure no small business owner get left behind in the digital age.
Cathy Wagner
Western Sydney
Cathy has worked across numerous business, including Bluescope, , Property, Government, Project Management and Education where she supported industries at both base, then management level. It was during the 2008 GFC, however where she found the most inspiration and saw the need to ensure small businesses not only survive but thrive during difficult times. She sees the need for process, planning and analytics to ensure businesses outlasts world crises with innovative, practical solutions.
Using her background in Project Management and Human Resources, she has combined her expertise in research and technical writing to support SME’s to understand legislation and compliance and speaks on Project Based Business practices.
Cathy is an expert in start-ups, RTO, NFP and NDIS compliance documentation and founded ProActive Confident Solutions in 2009. Her aim is to keep it simple using her expertise to create templates and give support to small business requirements in business planning, policy and process documentation using a practical approach.
Khozaima Khairulla
Western Sydney
Khozaima has a strong commercial background. An astute number cruncher (presenting to CFOs, CEOs and BoDs). His business acumen has been honed both in E&Y and Commercial Multinational Companies.
He has a passion to help small businesses break through the glass ceiling and achieve their full potential. This may be through brainstorming ideas, to better credit and inventory management or a simple disciplined approach of KPIs, goal setting and strategic business planning.
Khozaima has been independently consulting since 2012 and specializes in small to medium sized businesses in the following areas;
Developing Business Plans, Business transformation, Commercial and financial due diligence, Financial modelling and forecasting, Overall brainstorming of Business strategy, Process review and improvements, Strategic and IT reviews.
Sophia Tong
Western Sydney
Sophia is an experienced Chartered Accountant and Tax Adviser with over 20 years in the business services industry. Growing up in South Western Sydney, she has firsthand knowledge of the impact a small business can have on a family, coming from a family that owned a restaurant in the area.
Throughout her career, Sophia has focused on working closely with small business owners, assisting them with their accounting and tax obligations. She goes beyond providing financials by guiding and educating her clients, ensuring they have the necessary resources to understand the numbers behind their business. Sophia possesses extensive expertise in business structuring, offering crucial support to clients starting their businesses. She also provides small business tax advice, conducts business valuations, and offers accounting and tax compliance services. Her experience ranges from working with small start-ups to advising high net worth individuals.
Sophia takes a holistic approach, helping new business owners comprehend not only their financials and taxes from a retrospective perspective but also how these factors influence their day-to-day decision-making going forward
Rob Langtry
Western Sydney
Rob has worked as a consultant and advisor to a range of businesses from 3 employees to over 2,500 – both here and overseas for the last 6 years, capping off a stellar marketing and management career. Rob started in Market Research with Colgate and Rothmans, moving on the public relations, marketing, and management with global companies in Australia, New York, London and a decade in Indonesia managing export and domestic clients’ marketing. For ten years he was global head of marketing for Australia’s $3 Bn wool exports.
Rob is an acknowledged expert in brands, marketing, market access and business development. He specialises in fuelling small business growth based on generating clear positioning, market impact, business growth and profitability and the long-term value of brands.
He has been instrumental in the success of a number of start-ups, two of which are now global ‘unicorn’ brands in their own sectors. He supports businesses who want to achieve the difficult balance between short-term sales and revenue generation and long- term equity and profitability. He has an international reputation for building brands.
Julien Bertoli
Western Sydney
Julien is a skilled professional with 15 years of experience across Consulting, Marketing, Digital and Information Technology.
After an early career as a Management Consultant working for some of the top consulting firms, Julien launched his first business in 2016, supporting health professionals with innovative services and retailing sports recovery products online.
A successful exit in 2020 gave him the opportunity to launch a second business, a marketing agency with a strong focus on sustainability.
Since 2020, he and his team have been helping businesses of all sizes define their marketing strategy, implement impactful messaging and generate leads and sales across multiple channels.
Throughout his career, Julien has worked with many small businesses and has experienced first-hand the challenges business owners face. This helps him design solutions that take into consideration the limited resources available to small business owners. With the experience of the full company lifecycle, understanding of the levers of growth, and a passion for small businesses and innovation, Julien can help businesses with their challenges related to marketing, sales, digital channels and technology.
Charl du Plooy
Western Sydney
Charl is an experienced people leader with over 25 years of expertise in Banking, General and Life insurance. He has worked with renowned organizations like Citibank, IAG, AMP, and TAL. His exceptional leadership skills have driven teams to surpass targets in distribution, HR, and financial services.
Charl is an entrepreneur at heart, co-founding NEOS Life with like-minded professionals in 2017, demonstrating a commitment to industry growth and innovation. As a visionary leader, he empowers individuals to reach their fullest potential personally and professionally. His vast experience and insights make him a trusted advisor in business strategies and growth. Charl continues to inspire and pave the way for a brighter future for individuals and businesses alike.
Taryn Wynne
Western Sydney
I am passionate about small business. I am a believer of dreams, and appreciate how there are just not enough hours in the day for all the "noise" that goes with owning a business. I grew up in family businesses, have managed other peoples' businesses over the year and, have 4 of my own.
I have too been amazed daily; by the people I encounter on my journey of business, life, immigrating and motherhood. I meet incredible humans with the most amazing skills; but who don't have a channel to use those skills/passions as they don't want a big corporate job. My aim is to join those two forces by creating a village by listening, motivating, teaching and connecting.
I am a qualified Cost & Management accounting professional with experience in a varied range of industries such as Consumer Products, IT Services and Agriculture, Hospitality & Family businesses. I have utilized costing, management accounting, financial accounting as well as general and business management skills during this time. I have the ability to not only set strategic direction for businesses but also to streamline processes to achieve maximum efficiencies and effective controls.
I have a commercial and strategic approach and therefore I am able to drive a business toward achieving its strategic objectives profitably. I have a professional work ethic with an appetite for continuous learning and development combined with the ability to converse comfortably at all levels and provide strong team leadership skills.
View our upcoming events.
Book Your Session Today
Are you eligible for Business Connect?
If you own a business or are thinking of starting a business in NSW then Business Connect can help.
You must have the right to live and work in Australia and be a resident of NSW or have your business premises located in NSW.
The Epiphany Group support the government in the delivery of Business Connect services across Western Sydney. If you or your business is located outside of these areas feel free to get in touch and we can help you find a partner in your area.
What is the cost?
Business Connect services are fully funded by the NSW Government. All business advisory and events are free-of-charge for small business owners.
Upcoming events
Are you part of our Business Connect client base, an advisor, a small business owner, or someone with aspirations of starting a business? If so, we're excited to extend a […]
PubConnect
“From the minute we began working with Julien through Business Connect with The Epiphany Group he not only offered exceptional guidance during our initial mentoring session but also delivered immediate results. Our objective was to enhance lead generation and boost conversion rates through our Facebook Ads, and Julien played a pivotal role in helping us reach that target.
Moreover, as a mentor, he displayed keen attention to detail, unwavering dedication, and provided constant encouragement. Thanks to his generous sharing of skills and knowledge, we now have a high level of confidence in independently managing our advertising campaigns.”.
Genevieve Sibbick | Founder
