Welcome to Transcape Management Services

Research and Advocacy for small business, the communities in which they operate and the people involved.

The world is a changing place. Ten years ago we worried about high unemployment, support for businesses and the future for our young people.  Now we are still worried about support for business and the future for our young people but we are also concerned about the aging workforce and the future for the older person and the lack of skilled workers.  And of course we have the single greatest economic crisis of our times right here and now - but community and small business will lead the way to recovery and growth more quickly than big business ever can!

Transcape conducts research and investigations on behalf of small business and their supporters.  We use this information to influence government policy and government process to enable small business owners greater freedom in what they do and to have greater ability to achieve the outcomes they want.  For tyoo long goverments and policy makers have refered to small business as the "engine room of the economy" and then proceeded to continue to support big business and ignore those in the engine room, this must change for the sake of the economy and for the health of those people that own and run a small business.  (See here for graphic comment).

We also focus on community - small businesses exist in communities and a healthy vibrant community goes hand in hand with healthy vibrant small businesses.  Many big businesses and the larger banks don't care particularly about communities or small business but the best communities do care and they argue and fight and cooperate and plan and change as they see fit to make the present and the future better than it might be.  Small businesses are one of the main contributors to the character of a community - the shops, the restaurants and cafes, the services, the builders, the professionals all make a community look and feel different from other communities.  While big business and government keep trying to make all communities the same through the development of large shopping malls and poor government policy in protection of small business owners, the best communities keep on developing through their small businesses and as a result they tend to be healthier and more efficient.

SBA gathers and distributes information for progressive communities, small businesses and policy makers.

The information in this website will help develop plans and activities to increase the capacity of a community to deal with these issues and with change in general.

The key issues for the future of any community is a healthy business sector, a healthy natural environment, a vibrant and inclusive social environment and a healthy population.

This can be achieved by the development, and continual maintenance, of  long term strategies that focus on business, the environment and the people.

This website focuses mainly on business issues and the general capacity of a community to deal with change. The environmental and health issues are covered in other sites and places.

But the interaction between all these sectors is vitally important and a healthy population will only come from worthwhile employment, vibrant business activities, a rewarding social and sporting environment and constructive community politics.

Issues include:

    • Business development (if there are no businesses there will be no economy!)
    • Workforce development (the skills and the people)
    • Capacity building for organisations and individuals (providing the skills and attitudes needed to achieve long lasting effect)
    • The planning process (how to develop a plan, involve others in the process and maintain on going activity)
    • Managing community politics (how to influence attitudes and events in an honest and ethical way - and how to deal with those that don't!)
    • Managing change(creating and managing the on going process of change)
    • Recognising and grabbing hold of opportunity (chance management)
    • The continuing maintenance of plans is important.  Times change, international economics and politics can change quickly creating new opportunities and causing new problems.  The best communities can react to these situations quickly to take advantage of opportunities and limit the negative impact of change.

Features of a healthy business sector:

    • Businesses representing as many sectors and activities as possible – retail, wholesale, manufacturing, value adding, consulting on business issues, animal processing, tourism, trade services, hospitality, household services
    • A good mix of high growth, leading edge and traditional businesses
    • Import replacement and export development businesses
    • Small businesses providing support to other businesses and to local government
    • Businesses that are representative of the community profile
    • Profitable and manageable businesses
    • a steady stream new entrepreneurs becoming available and establishing businesses
    • Businesses that are starting up, growing, being sold, closing down (for good reasons), changing products, changing owners etc

Small business is the engine room of the economy but the poor old dtsokers always get ignored when rescuing is needed.