Small Business
A friend of mine once confessed: “I’d like to run my own business, but I don’t like lying to people.” It’s a telling indictment on the state of free enterprise in the 21st century. Everyone seems to have an experience of being let down by the system. Whether it’s believing an ad only to find […]
A key challenge faced by employees in 2018 is the delineation of boundaries between work and personal lives, brought about by technological mobility. We now have the ability to access work servers from a park bench and have email in our pockets, granting access to our working lives at all times. Social media now provides […]
The challenges SMBs inevitably encounter as they outgrow their original technological infrastructure can become compounded if they’re experiencing rapid expansion and find themselves overseeing a national workforce. Social entrepreneurs Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett, named the 2016 young Australians of the year, know this all too well. Editor’s note: Just as Cisco Start is helping their […]
The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Kate Carnell, has released a position paper identifying ways to reduce the complexity of the workplace relations system for small businesses. “We have had significant consultations with small businesses over the last two years and the overwhelming view is the legislation is far too complicated for the […]
It’s no secret that millennials have developed a bad reputation, particularly when it comes to the workplace. Baby Boomers and Gen Xs tend to have a not so complimentary view or the younger generation – but could these millennials have more potential than first meets the eye? [Related: How to transform franchisees into entrepreneurs] Typically […]
The pace of change is set to become even faster during 2018. Technology, globalisation and shifting workforce demographics are completely altering the way business is conducted. According to business consulting firm McKinsey and Co[1], every occupation that exists today has the potential to be at least partially automated, and the firm estimates half of all […]
In my previous article, Oops… my business made a pricing mistake, I outlined pricing mistakes businesses commonly make. Knowing the mistakes should help you identify and avoid making the same mistakes but what do you do after you discover you’ve made on? Fix 1 – Know your target customer or customers A really useful strategy in […]
There is no doubt the big banks remain major players in the SME lending market however, there has been a steady rise in the number of non-bank lenders offering fast and flexible lending options in this space. They are able to move much faster than the traditional banker with their unique ‘fintech’ approach, giving small […]
Greg Scileppi, President of International Staffing Operations at Robert Half International, looks at how to deal with changes in the workforce and create a more flexible way of working. The traditional workplace is changing rapidly. We have reached a point where the combination of generations and demographics has resulted in often diverging expectations of work […]
It’s a sobering exercise to consider where Australia ranks when it comes to global productivity levels. When the OECD compares countries by GDP generated per hour worked, Australia scrapes in at just 14th in the world.[1] We’re lagging the likes of Ireland, Germany, France and the United States. So, what’s the reason for this lacklustre […]
As business owners, we sure do have a lot on our plates. Balancing the day-to-day of running a business with high-level strategic and growth activities can be enough of a challenge by itself. However, things can go completely off kilter if something goes wrong, and you don’t have the proper protections in place. A dispute […]
Today is Youth Homelessness Matters Day. Homelessness is often seen as a challenge for governments and charities to solve, but the private sector can play a part too – beyond throwing money at the issue. Youth homelessness is growing at an epidemic rate, and SMEs should take notice. These young people are future job candidates […]
The impact of undertaking dodgy SEO shouldn’t be underestimated – it could cripple your business. Adopting what’s known as ‘black hat’ tactics may claim to offer your business short-term gains, but in actual fact run the risk of harming your business in the long-term. Website success today means following good ethical SEO practices, based on […]
Hearing directly from those who have succeeded – and keep succeeding – in an increasingly competitive and rapidly changing business environment is an invaluable learning experience for small businesses, says Sharon Williams, CEO of Taurus Marketing. “There are many skills needed to run a business, and advisers, mentors, industry events and management events are a […]
If you’re a small business, here’s an interesting question for you… what does your gut tell you about your business performance? For many Australian SMEs, the answer would likely be: not much. According to research by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, almost 62 per cent of SMBs lack any form of reliable data strategy, preferring […]
In my recent article, How to work out what price to charge, I discussed how pricing is one of the most crucial decisions business owners and managers must make, while touching on the eight rules for pricing effectively… But what happens when you get pricing wrong and how do you recover from pricing mistakes? In this […]
We know that small businesses employ around 40% of Australia’s workforce, but they also play more than their fair share of taking on interns for work experience. Most interns that I speak to are getting their work experience at a small business, usually a place with fewer than 10 employees. With an increasing number of […]
A parliamentary committee chaired by ex-Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has made six recommendations to the Federal Government to help small businesses compete against overseas, internet-based firms marketing to Australian consumers. In its report into the impact of global, internet-based competition on local businesses, the Innovation, Industry, Science and Resources Committee recommended the creation of a […]
In recent years, disruptive forces have transformed how we think about entire industries. Spotify with music. Uber or Lyft with transport. Netflix with television programmes and films. Technology has changed the way that we think about things that we used to take for granted. Slowly but surely the way in which we think about offices, […]
Everyone loves a present, especially when it is a good quality gift that arrives unexpectedly. And while we have been exchanging gifts personally for generations, these days more and more companies are wising up to the benefits of giving gifts to customers, business partners and employees. Corporate gifts have evolved from coffee mugs with the company […]
