By Tanya Steele
Rotary Club of Belgrave hosted its first Hills Business Connections Breakfast for the year on Thursday 8 May – giving many local Yarra Ranges business owners a chance to sip coffee and network at the same time.
Over a cooked breakfast, business owners from Belgrave and beyond in the Yarra Ranges met to connect and hear a talk from Montrose business coach Keith Collins.
With plans for more early morning breakfast meets to come, Rotary President James Hillard said the initiative is to connect people, especially business people, in the hills.
“This will be an ongoing thing for us,” he said.
“Networking and helping each other in business is paramount.”
Yarra Ranges Councillor Jeff Marriott opened the proceedings, and an around-the-room introduction saw business owners connect and make themselves known, from restaurant owners to accountants in the area.
Mr Gillard said that after Covid basically ‘belted’ small businesses in the hills, the Rotary Belgrave wanted to begin the networking events to help to contribute to the Hills community.
“This is one way for us to contribute back,” he said.
The group received a small lecture on tips and tricks for small businesses by Keith Collins, who is a business coach who grew up in Mooroolbark and has lived in Montrose for over 30 years.
“My passion has always been to help small businesses thrive – by building a better business and therefore a better life,” he said.
Mr Gillard said afterwards that the Rotary volunteers felt great and that it seemed to go well.
“We had good numbers, but the judgment will be from everybody else that turned up,” he said.
Business owner Alex Palmer from Little Hendrix Cafe in Belgrave attended and said his cafe has been running for coming up on three years now.
“We are very community oriented, so it was an absolute pleasure to attend and meet so many of the local business community at the breakfast this morning,” he said.
“We learnt a lot, and it was a very successful event.”
“Thanks for having us, we are very happy to be part of the local hills community.”
Funded in 1954, the Belgrave Rotary thanked their sponsors over social media for their assistance in putting on the event.
“A thank you to some of our supporting sponsors, Insurance Made Easy, Rozult Computers and Mark Filgate, from Tin Pan Alley, Upwey, for cooking up a fabulous breakfast,” the post read.
Thursday 14 August will see another gathering take place, with guest speaker Tanya Lacy from Intercept Experience to feature at the event.
Mr Gillard encouraged other local businesses to get out and come along.
“Feel free to come to the next one, and purely and perhaps learn something new or meet someone,” he said.
