News

Attending the COSBOA National Small Business Summit earlier this month, I had the opportunity to hear both major political parties address small business owners and supporters.

I had the fabulous honour of presenting the MYOB Small Business Award at the Telstra Business Awards in Queensland last week. To try and describe the atmosphere and excitement in the room would take up too much of this post. So I will sum it up to say it was truly inspiring to say the least!

Woolworths Limited has topped expectations, growing sales by 4.2 percent on last year, or 4.8 percent excluding Woolworth’s volatile petrol division.

Australia’s small businesses can use exceptional customer service to attract customers away from big businesses, a new survey has found

iiNet, Australia’s third largest ISP has announced support for bonded DSL, which can double broadband speeds compared to a standard ADSL2+ connection.

Australian businesses are keen to adopt cloud computing applications and technologies but are overlooking the need for back-up internet connections, a new survey has found

Delays are expected at Sydney Airport today as Transport Workers Union members at Airport Fuel Services strike over a proposed pay deal with the company.

David Jones has continued its store consolidation process, announcing the termination of the Toombul Queensland store, with the lease to be taken up by Target in the Centro shopping centre.

Vodafone Hutchinson Australia will upgrade the backbone of it’s Australian mobile network with new equipment supplied by Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson.

Regulation of the housing market is seen as the “next logical step” by Australian Securities and Investments Commission chief economist Alex Erskine as the watchdog claws for power.

Merchandise imports for June were up 4 percent to $17,911 million, an increase of $621 million on May, but is unlikely to impact the RBA’s decision on rates in August.

This week we won our 6th rugby game for the season! It was great to get back into the winners circle after getting belted by Eastwood last week. Honestly, it has been a tough season for us with season ending injuries and quite simply players who are physically smaller.

The Australian Labor Party is rolling out spending announcements in the lead up to the Federal election, committing $2.4 million over the next six months for small business initiatives.

Twitter can now be integrated into your contact centre, with new software from IPscape allowing tweets to be responded to by your customer service representatives in a timely fashion.

Nick Heywood-Smith, director of health services company Wellness and Lifestyles, has been named the Ernst & Young Central Region Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Westpac have announced a series of initiatives to help to support Australia’s small business community, focusing on a new and revitalised online BusinessIQ.

New Zealand’s services sector continues to grow for its 8th consecutive month, according to the June BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).

The National Australia Bank and AXA Asia Pacific Holdings have agreed to extend the period for NAB to address merger concerns raised by the ACCC to August 31.

Adelaide based national broadband company Internode has called on the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) to end Telstra’s “price squeeze” due to its anti-competitive broadband pricing.

Darwin retailer City Ceramics has once again been declared the Telstra Northern Territory Business of the Year following the awards ceremony on Friday evening.