Our say | Thank businesses for still hanging in there

The first Biz Month was held in 2015 to celebrate the importance of the contribution local businesses make to our community.

Initially run as Biz Week, the promotion tied together new and existing business events as part of council's Bathurst Buy Local Campaign.

From there, it has grown from strength to strength to become a month-long promotion and not even a pandemic has been able to stop this year's event going ahead.

This year's event is an initiative between the Western Advocate, Bathurst Regional Council and Prime7 with competitions, events and business training all month.

Many of the events, including the annual BizMonth business lunch on September 29, are opportunities for local business people to come together and network, more important than ever as they each try to navigate a path through COVID-19.

But BizMonth is also a chance for local shoppers, customers and clients to show their appreciation for their favourite businesses through the 2020 People's Choice Awards.

The Western Advocate has teamed with the Bathurst Business Chamber to run the awards with nominations now open ... and it couldn't be easier to get involved.

Step one is for Bathurst businesses to nominate for the awards.

They can simply go to the Western Advocate website and find the Vote Now article pinned to the top right-hand corne.r From there they can click through to the story to find the nomination form at the bottom of the article.

Nominations close on September 9 and on September 11 the awards will go live when we throw it open to the people of Bathurst to cast their votes.

There will be a week of online voting on the Western Advocate website before the winners are announced at a virtual event at 5.30pm on Tuesday, September 22

There.are 12 categories to choose from and we'd love to see the broadest possible cross-section of the Bathurst business community celebrated in this way.

This year has been a tough one for many but local small businesses have been among the hardest hit.

Here's a chance to say thanks for hanging in there, and we'll hang in there with you.