15 May Sunshine Coast Daily: Customers win and business red tape slashed
Customers win and business red tape slashed on Sunshine Coast thanks to 100,000 Hours Project
Sunshine Coast businesses will be able to spend more time hiring staff and helping customers and less time dealing with boring back office paperwork thanks to a Queensland Government-backed innovation initiative.
Known as the 100,000 Hours Project, the initiative has been spearheaded by Noosa Heads-based financial technology (fintech) firm Promis and already has six firms participating. It received funding through a Queensland Government Ignite Ideas grant.
Promis Co-founder Cameron Lawrence said the aim of the project is to save 1,000 Sunshine Coast businesses an average of 2.5 weeks each over the next 12 months, through using Promis’ automated invoicing and payments management tool.
“By doing this, we can unlock in excess of 100,000 hours of wasted business time in the Sunshine Coast region – time that can instead be used by these businesses hiring new staff, serving customers or expanding their services,” he said.
Mr Lawrence said the first phase of the project is currently underway, with several suppliers to the local cafe and restaurant businesses jumping on board to support the project. These suppliers include Rapid Clean, Montville Coffee, On the Spot, The Source Bulk Foods and Coyo Organics.
By the end of April, the project is proposed to be extended to restaurants and cafes.
“Within a few weeks of starting the project, we’ve had suppliers and various business community organisations joining and within the next month we are keen to roll it out to help the many time-poor restaurant and café owners and operators along the coast,” Mr Lawrence said.
Mr Lawrence has lived on the Sunshine Coast since the age of 17. He founded Promis in 2016 with fellow Sunshine Coast resident Alexander Kohl. The business is based at Noosa Heads, with an office also in the Stone & Chalk fintech hub in Sydney.
The Promis platform delivers a simple connection tool which helps businesses automate their invoice delivery and reduce the time it takes to reconcile accounts. This reduces friction and time from the supplier/ customer relationship by eliminating the invoice chasing and processing cycle.
Promis received funding in November last year via the Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas Fund to drive the 100,000 Hours Project.
Queensland Innovation Minister, Leeanne Enoch said “Small business operators spend many hours every week on bookkeeping and bill payments. This will save everyone time and money and eliminates wasted effort so everyone can focus on getting back to business.”
Quotes from a named supplier here
“COYO is proud to part of the project. We look forward to being part of the collective 100,000 hours saved for the Sunshine Coast business community” said Sandra Gosling, owner and co-founder of Coyo Organic.
Promis developed the idea for the project while based at the Spark Bureau in Maroochydore some 18 months ago.
“It’s great to see one of the participants of our incubators moving forward and powering such an important initiative,” said Tony Riddle, Director of Spark Bureau.
The final phase of the project – earmarked for late 2018 – will see more technologies added to the project mix and also extend to the construction industry and then the rest of the business community.
Regional Development Australia Sunshine Coast CEO Darrell Edwards said: “We are users of Promis, and are very excited about the potential of the 100,000 Hours project as a game changer for our organisation and the coast as a whole”
More information is available about the project at www.promis.co/sc
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