Beauty salons, barbershops, and butchers – there are many small businesses in Tauranga.

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce wants to give small business owners a face, name and a voice with the launch of its new initiative Small Business Tauranga.

Launched on February 17, Small Business Tauranga aims to offer support to small business owners and managers in Tauranga.

'Small businesses are such an important part of the business environment here in Tauranga,” says Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stan Gregec.

'They make up the core of businesses in Tauranga and they're the businesses that need support. If you're a new business, or trying to start a business, it can be tough out there – particularly as a business owner.

'We feel there is a real need out there to recognise and support those small businesses.”

Stan says the key message is advising small business owners of what support is currently available to small businesses that they may not have known about and what is newly available.

'The benefits are that they can feel connected and recognised and to have a voice on local issues. We want to hear what their thinking is.”

Stan says there are two ways the chamber will be working with small businesses.

'One is that we have a lot of support that we can offer and potential government assistance.

'We can help them with business advice and potentially have some funding available to help them upskill.”

Small Business Tauranga will also help small businesses to connect the dots, says Stan.

'We will plug small businesses into the networks they need to be part of; and we provide a whole lot of networking opportunities ourselves.

'We'll be visiting the small business rather than expecting them to come to us.”

The chamber this week also announced Minister of Small Business Craig Foss' visit to Tauranga next month to discuss specific ways in which the Government is currently supporting the small business sector.

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce also announced its new joint venture with NZ Business Market – a pop-up market for small businesses – which will be held in Tauranga on a regular basis.