Connecting Indigenous businesses with success at The Circle

The Circle – First Nations Entrepreneurs Hub, opened at the end of August 2021 in the Lot Fourteen precinct in Adelaide, and will provide business support to Indigenous entrepreneurs and businesses.

Kelly May is Operations Manager of the Hub.

‘The name ‘The Circle’ was unanimously supported through consultation with our focus groups as it is symbolic of family and community and draws on tradition, coming together around a campfire, connecting, talking, educating and learning,’ Kelly said.

‘The warmth of the campfire and sharing ideas, old and new.’

The Hub is intended to complement and coordinate with existing entrepreneurship and innovation services and other initiatives to ensure First Nations business interests are well supported.

And not by coincidence, it is located at the growing Lot Fourteen innovation precinct in Adelaide’s CBD, amongst some of the most innovative and entrepreneurial business names in the world, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure Space, MIT Astronautics and the Australian Institute of Machine Learning.

It also sits close to one of Australia’s newest government agencies which is literally reaching for the stars, the Australian Space Agency, along with a host of cutting-edge space related companies like Saber Astronautics.

‘The Circle engages with many businesses at Lot Fourteen and provides our members with a direct link to collaboration and networking opportunities with both global companies as well as local entrepreneurs,’ Kelly said.

‘As our profile at Lot Fourteen increases, so do opportunities to connect our members with other businesses and stakeholders.’

As of December, the Circle had acquired over 80 Indigenous business members, who through the Hub are able to access support such as temporary work space and meeting facilities, business development support, referrals to experts in specific business fields, connections to supply chain and business opportunities and connections to existing services.

‘The Circle has been met with positivity from members, industry, government and service providers alike,’ Kelly said.

‘We are thrilled with the uptake of memberships so far and thrive on getting to know our members and understanding their business. The strong attendance at each of our October Indigenous Business Month events is positive and representative of the message spreading amongst the Indigenous business community; and the approaches from industry wanting to be involved.’

‘As a newly formed service offering, we are keen to understand our members’ needs and to ensure our service model meets those needs.’

‘The Circle hopes to position itself as the centre of knowledge relating to the Aboriginal Business Sector in South Australia; and to connect members to opportunities and activities to increase capability, capacity, confidence and to thrive.’