Announcements

1.	Register now for the MyBiz Expo

Links

2.	Why retailers SHOULD be showrooms for online stores
3.	The best of our blogs
4.	Carl Lewis explains how to lead a team
5.	My Business' favourite links for the week

Business News

6.	SMB profits, confidence, plunging
7.	Dad's didn't rescue Australia last Sunday
8.	Moody's says outlook for Australian corporate sector stable
9.	Billion dollar wind farm for Yorke Peninsula

Feature articles

10.	Split personality mobile phones are coming to change the way you work

Advertorial

11.	3 Ways Customers Find Your Business Online

Events

12.	Import Export Show feature: Getting in major retailers

Announcements

Register now for the MyBiz Expo

The program for the Sydney MyBiz Expo has been finalised, and you can download it here.

Some of the speakers at the Expo include:

• Dean McEvoy, CEO/Co-Founder, Spreets
• Matt Barrie, CEO, Freelancer.com
• Peter Irvine, Co-founder, Gloria Jean’s Coffees

The event is free - so why not register now?

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Links

Why retailers SHOULD be showrooms for online stores

You’re in a department store and spot an item you love … but you can’t find one in your size ;-(

You approach a sales assistant who looks up the item on the point of sale computer and informs you that while there are none in your size in stock, the store’s online shop has plenty.

Would you like to make an online purchase?

That kind of transaction is a vision described by Robbie Robertson, managing director and co-founder of “experiential design” company e2, who says “We are seeing an understanding and acceptance that online retailing is here to stay.”

“Larger brands are accepting it. They are turning their stores into the experience and then 'closing' the sale online. The next step is admitting that retailing is a showroom and that it should be a showroom, but knowing you have such a robust online store you can sell online in the shop.”

Doing so, he says, can even be more engaging for customers.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

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The best of our blogs

The My Business blogging team has been hard at it. Here are the fruits of last week’s labours.

Five reasons a simple business is a successful business
If you want a successful business, make it a simple business. Geoff Steer has five ways to get you there and a host of reasons why complexity is the enemy.

Why customer service is like dating
Successful retailers woo customers, making them comfortable and building trust to establish an enduring relationship. It's just like dating, says Nancy Georges.

Is sub-leasing office space a good idea? 13 pros and cautions to consider
Subleasing can seem a quick and simple way to find office space, or defray the cost of unused areas. But as property expert Nita Arora-Parkes explains, subleasing can also be frustratingly inflexible for landlord and lessee alike.

The first sale is the hardest one to make
Startup franchisor Tina Tower of Begin Bright has her first franchisees. The experience of signing them up has fuelled this column on why the hardest sale to make is the first.

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Carl Lewis explains how to lead a team

Nine-times Olympic champion Carl Lewis is one of the most revered athletes of all time, thanks to feats that included winning a Gold Medal for long jump at four successive Olympic Games. My Business editor Simon Sharwood heard him speak this week on how to perform at your best while serving your team.

In this short video captured at the VMworld 2011 technology conference, he spoke about how to lead a team to get it performing at it's best.

Click here to watch the two-minute, forty second video.

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My Business' favourite links for the week

We’ve been bookmarking furiously in our travels across the Net this week. Here are the results, including a debunking of some social media myths, a look at what makes a good conspiracy theory and an explanation of 'freemium' business models.

To find our links to the articles, click here.

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Business News

SMB profits, confidence, plunging

Small businesses are doing it tough, with profits at an all-time low according to the new Sensis Business Index.

Issued this morning at 6:45 AM, Report author Ms Christena Singh Index said “Half of small businesses experienced a decrease in profitability during the quarter, while just two in 10 experienced an increase.” Most small business also expect further profit falls in the next twelve months.

Singh said the Index’s current confidence indicators are the weakest in the quarterly study’s 18-year history.

A few other data points from the report include:

• Business confidence fell from 28 to 15 per cent, the third lowest result in the report’s history;
• Perceptions about the current state of the economy fell from negative seven per cent to negative 35 per cent;
• The sales indicator fell strongly, down eight percentage points to negative 22 per cent;
• Overall employment by small businesses fell one percentage point during the quarter;
• Support for the Federal Government’s policies fell seven percentage points during the quarter, taking the indicator to negative 48 per cent
• key reasons small businesses gave for not supporting the Federal Government’s policies include the proposed carbon tax, a view policies were affecting consumer confidence, no incentives for small businesses and too much bureaucracy.

Farms also in a fug

The rural sector is also less-than-happy at present, according to the quarterly Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey.

In a press release issued yesterday the bank said “35 per cent of farmers expected conditions to worsen in the coming year, a significant increase from the 12 per cent with that view in the previous quarter. Only 18 per cent of farmers expected the agricultural economy to improve (down from 42 per cent previously), while 42 per cent expected conditions to stay the same.”

The fall in confidence has little to do with conditions on the land, as rain has been adequate and most farmers expect a decent or better harvest.

Rabobank’s General Manager for Rural Australia, Peter Knoblanche, said factors beyond farmers’ control are the reason for the unease.

“Inside the farm-gate, from a production point of view, things are shaping up for an overall good season,” Knoblanche said. “That said, farmers are not only affected by what is happening in their paddocks, but also what’s happening in the local and international economy.”

“The survey highlighted farmer concerns and uncertainty around issues including the proposed carbon tax, the suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia and the impact of coal seam gas exploration and mining on agriculture,” Knoblanche added. “Threat to live export was also top of mind for farmers, particularly cattle and sheep farmers at the time of the survey – however the two private member bills to ban live export have since failed to win support from the government or opposition.”

Most of the farmers surveyed, (52 per cent) viewed coal seam gas exploration as a threat to agriculture

Of those farmers surveyed who expected conditions to improve over the next 12 months, 52 per cent cited rising commodity prices as the major driver and 46 per cent nominated favourable seasonal conditions.

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Dad's didn't rescue Australia last Sunday

Last Sunday the Dads of Australia got to stretch out and ignore the mess in the shed, the length of the lawn and the filthy barbeque. They even had the chance to watch a footy game on TV without being harassed, thanks to Fathers’ day.

But one thing Dads didn't do last Sunday, according to business information research firm IBISWorld, was pat themselves on the back for giving the economy a pickup on their special day. Indeed, the firm predicts Fathers’ Day spending will be up just 1.72% compared to last year’s celebration, with the $647.6 million to be splashed on dads probably less than last year’s effort if you look at the inflation rate.

IBISWorld’s General Manager Karen Dobie says the reason for the very small growth is nervousness among consumers, thanks to “bad news in the global markets.”

Dobie says that in good times “we tend to buy a gift for Dad and treat him to a meal out as well.” In these uncertain times, “buyers are expected to choose one or the other – with eating out likely to come out on top.”

That means the news was not all bad, as cafes and restaurants could look forward to a busy Sunday. Cashflow mavens at hardware chains are also probably celebrating today- IBISWorld says gift cards were likely to account for 10% of Fathers’ Day spendingwhile also predicting hardware and electrical sepnding would rise by 4.71% to $141.8 million.

But book & music plus music retailers didn't have a good day, as families hit cafes instead of buying new media for dad. Books & music were set to shed 5.81% of sales, reducing revenue to $30.2million compared to 2010’s $32million. Clothingfor Dad was expected to bring in $65.4 million, a fall of 5.6%.

Overall, IBISWorld says each Dad had $28.10 lavished on them.

That’s 13% less than is spent on the average Mothers’ Day present.

Maybe Dad needs to get off the couch more often?

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Moody's says outlook for Australian corporate sector stable

(September 01, 2011) - Moody's Investors Service says the outlook for Australia's corporate sector is stable and reflects the expectations for the fundamental credit conditions of the sector's major rated issuers over the next 12 to 18 months.

"We expect revenue and earnings growth to prevail, helped by the demand for commodities, and a high employment rate," says Ian Lewis, a Moody's Vice President and Senior Credit Officer.

"However, uncertainties in the global macro-environment due to renewed signs of weakness are likely to make Australian firms more cautious until the clear emergence of a recovery," he adds.

Lewis was speaking on the release of Moody's outlook on Australia's corporate sector. The report focuses on major rated companies in the real estate, telecom, retail and consumer, airlines, metals and mining, oil and gas, and building materials sectors.

While the operating conditions for most corporates in the country are benign, a persistently strong Australian dollar could weaken, and increase volatility in, earnings. But, Moody's believes most issuers are well positioned to manage the impact.

"For the retail sector we expect bouts of weakness as consumers remain concerned about economic developments offshore, however overall we expect retail sales to continue to hold up and grow at around GDP, but not much faster," says Lewis.

Moody's also expects liquidity for the corporate sector to remain solid. To view full announcement please click here.

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Billion dollar wind farm for Yorke Peninsula

A $1.3 billion wind farm to be built on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula will generate up to 600 megawatts of electricity a day, about 25% of the state's daily consumption.

The wind farm, to be located near Ardrossan, will provide enough power for 225,000 homes a year and an undersea cable will link the farm's 180 turbines with the main power grid in Adelaide.

The Indian-based Suzlon Group is developing the wind farm which is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. It will create 500 jobs during construction.

The project will also incorporates a pilot power plant that will convert biomass into energy – energy that be fed into the state’s power supply. The biomass will be sourced from municipal solid waste, dead trees and clippings, which can be used to generate electricity or produce heat.

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Feature articles

Split personality mobile phones are coming to change the way you work

Four big technology trends are converging in your mobile phone, where they might just change the way you work.

The first trend is cloud computing, which as you probably know involves applications and data living in a data centre somewhere in the world. Cloud computing sees you use applications through a web browser, instead of installing software on your hard disk. Plenty of cloud applications have become business mainstays – the likes of Dropbox, Google Apps, and Salesforce.com are standard issue at more and more businesses.

The second trend is “the consumerisation of IT” and refers to the fact that consumers’ technology choices now fuel business innovation. A decade ago, the best computer most people used was the one in the office. Since then computers have become so cheap that many people’s home computer is better than the one at work. Consumers have also adopted smartphones at a fantastic rate and often bring them to work and ask why they can’t get email on their handsets, rather than being forced to make do with less-functional phones that are standard corporate issue. This means the consumer tail is wagging the business dog, because business has to figure out how to tune it’s IT to reach people using consumer technology devices to work and play.

The third trend has been called “BYO IT” and it follows on from consumerisation by suggesting that business should let workers chose the device they work on in the office. Today, if your office uses PCs instead of Macs, you force Mac-lovers to use a PC. BYO IT theory says you should just let your Mac-loving staff have a Mac. If they want a laptop – the preferred computer for younger people - you should let them bring it to work and use it there. If they want a new laptop you should even consider chipping in to help them to buy it, because they’ll be happier and more productive than if you force them to use a stodgy office PC. You’ll also get flexibility – if you staff take their computer home with them, they’re more likely to help out after hours.

The fourth big trend is called “the post-PC era.” This trend is partly hype – Apple and others doing well with non-PC devices want to stick it to Microsoft – and part reality, because the proliferation of smartphones means the majority of devices connected to the Internet aren’t computers. Instead, all sorts of different tablets and smartphones now dominate the Internet.

Trends converge in the phone

What have these four trends got to do with your mobile phone?

Software company VMware has this week, at its VMworld 2011 conference, outlined a way to take the applications and data you use around the office – be they conventional or cloud apps – and bundle them all up into a special, walled-off area in your mobile. Within that walled-off area it’s as if you are logged in to your office. All the stuff on ‘your’ phone (games, music, Facebook and so on) cannot be accessed.

When you want to go back to doing that personal stuff, you’ll close the walled-off environment and cannot pollute the walled-off work environment.

You get to work on your phone, which thanks to the consumerisation of IT is something you really want to do. Your employer gets a highly-mobile worker who won’t complain about being forced to use a device they don’t like. You both get cloud apps, because cloud really makes sense on mobile devices.

At VMworld 2011 Vmware announced that Samsung and LG have signed a deal that will mean their mobile phones are ready to do this kind of thing.

We’ve seen demos that even included running Windows on the small screen of a smartphone.

VMware has also told us that it is talking to carriers around the world about this kind of service, so that they can host the reasonably-hefty IT that is required to set it all up. All you’ll do is click on a few screens and determine which apps and information sources are allowed onto your teams phones. They’ll download a single app onto their phones and the rest will happen ‘automagically’ as they say in the computer industry.

This may all sound like a big investment for a small business, but it is worth keeping an eye on this development for two reasons.

One is that smartphones get more sophisticated every week. Plenty can already connect to a monitor and keyboard, so you could plug them in and enjoy an experience that is not a million miles away from using a PC. Another is that all the work that goes into delivering this stuff on a smartphone can also simplify conventional PCs and make them cheaper to run. So mobilising your office in a split-personality phone will also cut costs in your office.

Today this is all pretty geeky stuff. But the winds of change are getting stronger and before long operating a conventional PC with software you install on a hard drive will look archaic, expensive and inflexible. Instead, VMware believes, we’ll all spend more time on tablets and our data and apps will be in the cloud.

For now, the split personality phones we’ll see soon from LG and Samsung will mean you can let your team have the phones they want without worrying about security. That’s a win all by itself.

VMware is also working to make this same arrangement possible on tablet computers and, indeed, just about any type of device you can imagine. It is doing so because its management feels it might just be the harbinger of a new type of work. Today, the company says, we work in ways that revolve around documents because PCs were developed to streamline processes that revolved around shuffling bits of paper around a business. While no-one is sure just how we’ll work in the future, VMware feels that by making it possible to access data anywhere, instead of worrying about which device you use, it can help us all to become more productive.

Simon Sharwood travelled to VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas as a guest of VMware.

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Advertorial

3 Ways Customers Find Your Business Online

By Manica Cortezano, ReachLocal Marketing Manager

The internet has revolutionised the way consumers communicate, entertain, seek and find information. To ensure that your business is found by consumers on the internet, you need to understand their online behaviour.

There are 3 ways that consumers behave online.

1. Search - Consumers search for a product/service on search engines, listings and directories. Typically, they search for local businesses, which appear on the first page of the Search Results.

2. Surf – Consumers who are actively browsing webpages of interest and are exposed to multiple display banners. This is a cost-effective tool to use for building brand awareness for your business.

3. Social– These are consumers speaking to other consumers, who share information and their experiences (good or bad) on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It is a great tool to use for spreading the good word about your business.

A lot of time, effort and expertise are involved in making sure your business is in front of the right consumers, at the right time, and sharing information about your business in the right light. ReachLocal can help simplify the world of online marketing for you, measure your campaign success and ensure that your business is found when your customers search, surf and socialise online.

Exclusive Offer: Mention this article and ReachLocal will waive setup fees on your first online marketing campaign. Call ReachLocal - Google’s Global Strategic Partneron 1300 162 539 to get your business found online.

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Events

Import Export Show feature: Getting in major retailers

The Import Export Show, Australia’s only major exhibition and learning event for small and medium-sized importers and exporters, will be returning on Thursday & Friday, 15 & 16 September at the Rosehill Gardens Event Centre (NSW).

As part of the learning program Best Practice in International Trade, the Import Export Show will feature a range of speakers including successful entrepreneur and multiple award winner Vanessa Garrard, Founder and Director of E3.

Vanessa will discuss ‘How to get your products into the major retailers’, providing advice from production requirements and buying cycles to maintaining good relationships with retailers.

Vanessa started E3 in March 2006 with no money and no clients. But within the first 12 months of operations, she had negotiated trading terms and signed with every major retailer in Australia. Today, one in four Australians owns an E3 product and the business is on track to exceed $23 million in 2011/12. E3 also sells products to Italy, UK, US, Russia and South Africa.

In addition to its series of seminars, workshops and roundtables, the Import Export Show will also bring together a spectrum of suppliers of international trade services, government agencies, associations and chambers for two days of business engagement, education and networking.

The inaugural Import Export Industry Awards, which recognise supplier excellence, will also be presented at an entertaining networking event on the evening of 15 September at the Rosehill Gardens Event Centre.

The Show, which is free to attend, expects to attract 2,000 visitors and 50 exhibitors this year. It will be held on 15 & 16 September 2011 in The Grand Pavilion, Level 2, Rosehill Gardens Event Centre at Rosehill in Sydney’s west.

For more information and to view the full learning program, visit www.importexportshow.com.au.

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