SME Inspiration

Gen Z Australians are starting side-hustles or small businesses, according to research released by GoDaddy

Australians pay $23 more than Americans, $9 more than the British, and $4 more than Canadians for every $1,000 transferred.

“Out of a global pandemic came an unusual opportunity and we took it.”

Here are three steps to building your dream business: shifting your mindset, aligning your goals and implementing simple strategies. Read on…

Founding one of the world’s fastest growing travel websites, Luxury Escapes, Adam Schwab is an award winning entrepreneur with over 15 year’s experience in business and journalism. His passion for travel combined with knowledge of business allowed him to build one of Australia’s most profitable e-commerce companies in just five years without any external funding. With offices already […]

When Peta Shulam was only 25 when she came up with the simple concept of sampling health foods. Her passion for finding these products led to her creating the largest health food sampling service in Australia, GoodnessMe Box, where for just $25 her clients can sample 7-10 full sized products, allowing those products to be […]

With the federal budget announcement later today and an election on the horizon, a national survey reveals clear expectations of what the government should prioritise for the small to medium business sector. SME Growth Index research released yesterday shows the priorities of SMEs in regards to what the new Federal Parliament should focus on –  and company tax cuts was the top response. […]

Automation is a driving force behind a changing workforce in which mundane tasks are no longer part of most job descriptions and workers are freed up to contribute strategically and creatively to the organisation. This makes it imperative for businesses to understand and embrace automation, and to comprehend how the future workforce will evolve. By […]

How can SMEs turn this enthusiasm into true innovative action?

Starting a business with my wife and sister-in-law has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Contrary to popular belief, working alongside your loved ones can in fact be a very beneficial experience that nurtures both your personal and professional relationships, while also providing the opportunity to grow your business. Aside from […]

“Repeat business is both an honour that confirms you’re doing something right, and a reminder to push yourself to keep serving the people who love what you’re doing,” says entrepreneur Kyla Kirkpatrick. Here, she shares her secrets to earning repeat business. It has been 10 years since I started The Champagne Dame and I am […]

Marriage and fatherhood fuelled the desire of Intact Group MD, Scot Pittaway, to ensure his building maintenance services company isn’t the last frontier for women. [Related: Entrepreneur Kate Middleton on rescuing a company in free fall, shaking up the status quo] Pittaway recently took home the Leader in Gender Diversity in Industry Award at the Facility […]

What does ‘culture’ in a corporate context really mean anyway? We all throw the term around with the assumption there is a common understanding of what it actually means, but I feel in its over use its lost its meaning and worth defining to set the scene. Most people would agree corporate or organisational culture […]

Although it’s been one week since World Kindness Day (13 Nov), it’s important for CEOs to realise that being kind should be an ongoing commitment and obligation.  Introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement, a coalition of over 25 non-government organisations across the world, World Kindness Day serves as a reminder to be purposeful […]

The following is adapted from a graduation speech delivered earlier this spring to Macquarie University Business School Class of 2017. Where I come from (New York, the US) graduations are referred to as ‘commencements’. However, applying the term commencement to a graduation used to confuse me because commencement means “the beginning of something” whereas a graduation, […]

When I was growing up, helping others was part of what was expected as a decent human being. You were discreet and perhaps even private about such activities. It was almost unseemly to be helping out and then talking about it. Over the years things have changed and while for some of us discretion is […]

Innovation is an underappreciated word in the world of business. Small and medium enterprises are only considered innovators when they bring something new to the market. This parochial appreciation for the meaning of innovation often means SMEs overlook opportunities to innovate. For whilst ‘innovate’ means to introduce something new, it also means to make changes […]

Personal narratives are as old as time and they continue to command attention – just look at Hollywood’s continued obsession with biopics and the abundance of best-selling biographies on bookstands. Simply put, people love good stories and they need to know what your story is. When people judge the merit of a business’s product or service, they invariably do so in reference […]

With holiday season upon us, there’s no better time than now to get stuck into a few books. To see you through Christmas, and leave you ready to take on 2017, I’ve rounded up some of my favourite books. Not all of these books are strictly business-related, but all are instructive in their own way. Without further ado… 1)      Connect by John Browne. Drawing from […]

Does your business have a culture in which innovation thrives? Are people challenging the status quo and being encouraged by leaders to take risks in pursuit of innovation? Or is the opposite true, whereby people don’t take time to listen to new ideas and suggestions? Building a culture of innovation is hard work. However, the […]