KAREN Vloedmans had an important message for the Proserpine business community at the town's chamber of commerce meeting last night.

There are good news stories to be told post Cyclone Debbie and it's time to get them out.

Ms Vloedmans said there had been a lot of negativity around the damage to Proserpine and the number of businesses still shut.

But around the table were representatives from businesses already re-opening their doors.

"Yes, we need a true admission of what's taken place here and blind Freddy can see what's taken place, however for those that have continued to trade or have resumed trade or who want to trade and need to trade, we need to paint a much, much better picture," Ms Vloedmans said.

"We're not denying what's happening and I guess from a government perspective to a degree some of the bad news has obviously got to be out there - it helps attract funding, and it helps attract infrastructure.

"But for us to move forward we need to be singing from a much better hymn-sheet and celebrating the good news in the town - showing our resilience and our recovery and saying, 'we still are all these things (we were before Cyclone Debbie) and this is what we can offer right now."

Ms Vloedmans said she'd taken the time to look at members' websites and social media pages in the past couple of weeks and from this she had some good advice.

"Last week I rang a few people and said, 'hey I've had an observation, your last post is still the devastation of Cyclone Debbie with your place all over the shop. What's a good photo you could take?'

"Every one of the ones I approached, within the same day had uploaded something awesome and we all need to do that," she said.

Ms Vloedmans said while images of devastation were all people from southern locations saw, that was all they could be expected to think.

"I know one of the ladies at the museum contacted me a few weeks ago and said, 'we've just had a lady from down south who was surprised to find anything open in Proserpine'," she said.

"She thought the whole (town) had gone and there was nobody open and I said, 'well, you know what, if all down south sees is doom and gloom images then that's exactly what we are."

"I know these things are obviously not front of mind because everyone's dealing with devastation and just getting through each day and trying to function, so it's not a criticism, but it's just an awareness I guess - that we need to make sure together we are sending the right message, otherwise we can't expect anyone else to think anything else of us.

"People want to support us and (while) we are infrastructure poor, we need to be digitally strong."

Ms Vloedmans reminded local business owners that Whitsunday Regional Council's recovery groups and the Proserpine Chamber of Commerce were there to help.　

"If you're unfairly hitting road blocks (with respect to disaster relief funding) please let me know because that's where we can get things turned around and advocate for you," she said.

"That's the purpose of these groups."