What’s Happening?
The newly opened Capricorn Business Hub is providing practical support for start-ups and small businesses across Rockhampton. Through one central service, owners can reach experts, industry stakeholders and local leaders.
The Queensland Government partnered with Capricorn Business Hub Limited to establish and operate the facility. The project fulfils a key election commitment to strengthen assistance for regional small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Services include practical advice, mentoring, workshops, networking and access to funding opportunities. Rockhampton business owner Stuart Varrall is sharing his experience as the hub’s Entrepreneur in Residence.
His role will help the next generation of local entrepreneurs establish, strengthen and grow their businesses.
Why It Matters?
Regional entrepreneurs can have limited access to business advice, skills development, investment and connections to larger markets. The hub aims to bring those services closer while helping founders remain in the region.
Varrall said local entrepreneurs had the ability to build successful businesses, although distance could create additional barriers.
“Local entrepreneurs face all the usual challenges of business, but with a few extra hurdles on top. Outside a metro area, resources can be harder to find and slower to arrive, the specialist isn’t in town and the contacts further afield. The capability is here. What’s missing is the encouragement and confidence to start something different to what everyone else is doing locally.”
Those barriers can affect more than individual businesses. They can also make it harder for the region to retain entrepreneurial talent and develop new industries.
Varrall said people were more likely to stay when they could see opportunities and find a community around their work.
“You can move anywhere for a house or a job, but you stay because you found your people. Talented people don’t usually leave the region because they’ve run out of ambition, they leave because they can’t see their next step from here. Our aim is to make sure they can thrive here.”
Local Impact
Business owners can receive one-on-one coaching, business planning and digital capability workshops based on their current needs. Accelerator programs will also help them overcome challenges, build resilience and identify growth opportunities.
At a broader level, the hub seeks to strengthen local supply chains and support digital transformation across key industries. This work can contribute to a stronger, more resilient and connected regional economy.
The shared setting also allows businesses from unrelated sectors to exchange ideas and learn from common problems.
“The best hubs are a collective of different businesses at different stages of their journey. Each business is unique, but there’s a lot of overlap and diverse businesses face the same issues. A florist and a tech start-up sitting side by side can be facing the same challenges, working out product market fit or how to price. Beyond the space, there’ll be a weekly coffee catchup where anyone can come as a guest, mentoring, workshops and programs from idea stage through to accelerator, and regular pitch nights with Capricorn Angels.”
By the Numbers
- $1.6 million: The Queensland Government partnered with Capricorn Business Hub Limited to establish and operate the new facility.
- 20 years: Varrall brings two decades of experience across hospitality, artificial intelligence, product manufacturing and software development.
- 2022 and 2024: SmartHub Rockhampton closed in 2022, while plans for Capricorn Business Hub came together in 2024.
Zoom In
Capricorn Business Hub grew from efforts to rebuild the business community once connected through SmartHub Rockhampton. Varrall traced that work to the council-run co-working space at Customs House.
“I was a member of SmartHub Rockhampton, the co-working space the council ran out of Customs House. When it closed in 2022 and it was clear it wasn’t coming back, I started looking at how we could re-ignite that community. I joined up with Matthew Doyle, who was also a member and local business owner and the plans for the Capricorn Business Hub came together in 2024.”
That background now informs Varrall’s work at the new facility, where he draws on experience from several industries.
“The Entrepreneur in Residence role lets me bring my 20 years of business experience to the venture. I’ve been involved in everything from hospitality to AI to product manufacturing and software development.”
Rather than applying one approach to every founder, Varrall concentrates on the decisions holding individual businesses back.
“My role is to work with founders on the things they get stuck on. Pricing, product market fit, first hires, cash flow, but more importantly connecting them to the right people in the community and beyond to support and guide them through their journey.”
Zoom Out
Access to capital and outside markets remains another part of the hub’s work. Instead of duplicating existing services, it connects businesses with organisations already active in those areas.
Capricorn Angels has been started in partnership with Angel Loop to bring regular investment pitches to the region. Founders can present their businesses to investors from Rockhampton and across Queensland.
The hub can also connect businesses with Trade and Investment Queensland when they need help preparing for export markets.
“The Hub is being built to put experience within reach, through mentoring, workshops and programs shaped around what local business owners and the community tell us they need rather than what we assume. On capital, we’ve started Capricorn Angels, partnering with Angel Loop to bring regular pitch opportunities to the region, so founders can put their business in front of investors both locally and across the state as well as bringing investment opportunities to the region. On markets, we’re not doing it all ourselves. We connect people to organisations already doing the work, including Trade and Investment Queensland for export readiness.”
This approach places Rockhampton businesses within wider investment and market networks while keeping local needs central to the hub’s work.
What To Look For Next?
With the hub still taking shape, early participants can influence which programs and business groups are created. Services will be guided by what local owners and the wider community say they need.
Varrall encouraged people at every business stage to start a conversation, including those unsure whether the hub suited them.
“We’re building this now, so the people who turn up first get a real say in what it becomes. If there’s a program or a group you wish existed here, tell us, because right now we can build it. Not sure that you are a fit? Come and talk to us, our remit runs from idea generation through to exit, and when a business grows past what we’re set up for, we work with the Chamber and other agencies to hand people on. We’re not competing with anyone, we’re part of a larger support network to help as many people as we can.”
More information about programs and ways to participate is available through the Capricorn Business Hub.
