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But wait there's more - Tim Shaw's business insights
Tim Shaw carved out a reputation as a super-salesman on the back of a long series of infomercials for Demtel.
In this video interview with My Business Editor Simon Sharwood, he explains why he thinks you need to stop thinking of yourself as a small business and start regarding yourself as business worthy of top-notch advisors.
You'll also get some of Shaw's best catch phrases and, because we couldn't resist, a SECOND video at NO CHARGE to you that includes A FREE SET OF STEAK KNIVES!
Click now and if you're one of the first 30 clickers .... we should probably stop this now, shouldn't we?
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Digital disruptors dominate 2011 ActionCOACH My Business awards
The winners of the 2011 ActionCOACH My Business awards have been decided!
You can read about the winners here, but in case you want a taste of this year's victors we can reveal that eight of the ten categories went to businesses with a decidedly digital flavour. Judges were impressed by the innovative nature of these online businesses.
We'll profile winner each in the November issue of My Business, which hits the streets in the first issue of that month.
To the winners: congratulations. To finalists: your efforts were extraordinary but we couldn't quite get you over the line.
And a big round of thanks is also due to our judges, many of whom worked very long and hard to judge their entries.
And let's not forget the sponsors without whom this doesn't happen: so a big thanks to ActionCOACH, GIO, Radio 2UE, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Industry Jobs Board, Travelscene Corporate, British Airways, Inscriptions Media and the SME Association of Australia.
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Online classifieds expert Simon Baker on how to build a booming online business
Simon Baker founded realestate.com.au and is now regarded as one of the leading thinkers about online business.
In this interview with Alex Pirouz of AIDC Advisory, Simon shares his advice on how to make your online business hum.
Click here to read Alex's interview with Simon Baker.
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Negative online feedback can come from customers - and others too
By now you probably know about the online furore that has erupted around the “customer service” offered by fashion retailer GASP, which dismissed an email from a dissatisfied customer on the grounds that she was incapable of comprehending its brand values and therefore deserved the poor service she received. GASP also excused the rudeness of a staff member as a sensible tactic to rid the store of a time-wasting customer unlikely to make a purchase.
We've explained the incident and also come up with two others that show it's not only your customers that can cause online grief - your staff or even a spurned business partner can bite back too.
Click here to learn how negative feedback doesn't only come from customers.
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Business News
Businesses happy with group buying
Story by Andrew Girvan
The majority of businesses that have used group buying services would do so again, according to a new study run by independent research group Telsyte. The study surveyed 359 businesses that had used group buying and found 95% were happy with the promotion. 85% indicated they would run another group buying campaign.
The findings will please an industry that, while growing at an astounding 72% in the last quarter alone, has also led some businesses to overcapitalise on equipment or stock without being able to convert business won through group buying into loyal customers.
Consumers also complain that companies running group buying deals sometimes treat them as second class citizens.
Sydney shopper Michael Piercey, purchased a Scuba Diving course through group buying website Spreets, “The deal was exceptional value but when it came to booking into a course the dive company treated me like I was wasting their time,” he said.
John Butterworth, CEO of the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA), believes overall customer satisfaction is reflected by the huge growth in the area, "Group buying is clearly a major hit with Australian consumers and the dramatic growth in the industry demonstrates how digital channels and the rise of social commerce are underpinning significant shifts in consumer behaviour.”
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MYOB outlines 2012 plans
MYOB is heading for the clouds, revealing a plan to create a new “MYOB Business Platform” that will allow customers to “migrate their current MYOB solutions to the cloud, and then connect to their accountant, bank data and small business website.”
MYOB detailed the plan last week at an event where CEO Tim Reed “will give our one million SME customers a choice of solution that best suits their business structure.”
“Typically, the first generation of cloud-based business solutions offered a wholly web-browser based experience, trading off usability and functionality for mobility and access,” Reed added, saying that this approach does not work for every business. MYOB will therefore aim to offer choice between conventional applications, software-as-a-service and new mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
The new offerings are currently undergoing what Reed called “technical preview” and the first commercial versions will arrive in early 2012.
Products that will form part of Business Platform include a new version of MYOB AccountRight suite that the company says will be easier to customise.
Reed also emphasises the company’s robust financial performance – EDITDA grew 20% during FY 2010 - after a bidding war saw Bain Capital acquire the company.
“What all of the investors saw as incredibly exciting, is MYOB’s potential to build on our proven record of innovation and the investment we have made in new product development, to deliver next generation cloud solutions, tailored for the needs of Aussie and Kiwi business,” Reed said.
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Further push for cap on non-resident resource workers
Building sustainable mining communities is becoming untenable with the current increase in non-resident workers, according to councils in Queensland’s resource regions.
The councils warned at the annual conference of the Local Government Association of Queensland that some communities would become unsustainable unless a cap was placed on the number of non-resident workers associated with the resource industry.
Isaac Regional Council Mayor, Cedric Marshall, told the conference that the fly-in, fly-out workforce was contributing little to communities apart from extra pressure on their services.
Cr Marshall said if mining companies continued to engage non-resident workers rather than provide for growing and sustainable communities, Isaac and other resource centres would reflect an imbalance to the point where communities would become unsustainable.
Conference delegates called for legislative change to require a buffer zone around towns to stop mining activities encroaching on communities.
Also at the conference, Indigenous mayors and chief executive officers called on the Qld Government to reconsider the way it spends money on servicing Indigenous communities. Indigenous mayors revealed several cases where they said state-supplied funds were being misdirected or wasted due to ignorance or a failure to heed the advice of councils about local circumstances.
Representatives of Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire Council claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in state-funded water reticulation infrastructure had to be replaced by council because of the government's refusal to delay work to allow it to better integrate with other council projects.
Hope Vale Chief Executive, Lee Robertson, said QBuild officials justified their decision to go ahead with the project by saying they needed to spend the money in this year's budget.
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Increased education and training opportunities for regional centres
A $500 million fund opened by the Federal Government will ensure regional students have better quality education and training opportunities.
The special Regional Priorities Round of the Education Investment Fund will provide a major boost to higher education institutions and vocational education and training (VET) providers across regional Australia. The investment will contribute to economic growth and development in regional Australia by addressing the skills needs of regional communities.
Under the Regional Priorities Round, $480 million will be allocated to higher education institutions and VET providers in a competitive round, while $20 million will be provided as seed funding for a multi-partner campus on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.
The round will involve a two-stage application process – initial Expressions of Interest close on 4 November, 2011. Applicants successful at the Expression of Interest stage will be invited to submit a full application in 2012. Guidelines for the Regional Priorities Round of the Education Investment Fund can be found at www.deewr.gov.au/eifrpr.
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New modelling on impact of carbon tax
Updated modelling on the impact of a carbon price confirms Australia's economy will continue to grow strongly while pollution is reduced, according to the Federal Government.
The modelling shows the impact of a carbon price starting at $23, and includes elements of the Steel Transformation Plan and Jobs and Competitiveness Program that were not included in the initial report released in July.
The updated modelling shows an extra 5 million tonnes in domestic abatement over the first three years because of the higher starting price. It also shows manufacturing grows slightly faster over the period to 2020 because of refinements to the Jobs and Competitiveness Program.
Treasurer, Wayne Swan, says the modelling shows the government measure to apply an effective carbon price to fuel used by heavy on-road vehicles from 1 July 2014 will cut annual domestic emissions by a further 20 million tonnes in 2050. He says the measure will also make it cheaper to meet Australia's pollution reduction targets, adding around 0.1 per cent to gross national income in 2050.
The updated modelling covers the main impacts of the Clean Energy Future package on the Australian economy, but Mr Swan says including all elements of the plan was not feasible.
He says, for example, the updated modelling does not include policies that provide investment and innovation grants, such as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, because the details of these programs are not yet finalised and cannot be quantified.
The Treasurer says generally, these policies will lead to more investment and lower domestic emissions. The updated modelling, which is available here, also shows:
- the economy continues to grow strongly under a carbon price, with real gross national income per person growing at an average rate of 1.1 per cent to 2050;
- jobs grow strongly under a carbon price, with national employment expected to increase by 1.6 million jobs to 2020; and
- Australia's domestic emissions under carbon pricing will fall to nearly half of what they would be without carbon pricing by 2050.
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Feature articles
Don't just make a website - become an online evangelist and information hub
Story by Andrea O'Driscoll
When Anita Lincolne-Lomax founded Babes in Arms back in 2005, she wanted the brand to be so much more than an online retailer. “The aim was to position ourselves as industry experts. The site also acts as an information hub and as a resource for healthcare professionals,” she says.
It has proved to be a very effective strategy. By positioning the brand as an educator and advocate of ‘babywearing’, she is able to drive more traffic to her site from multiple sources and build the kind of community that keeps her customers coming back for more. And that in turn means she sells more baby slings.
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Anita with her son |
“It’s about providing a multi-layered way of accessing the information that underlies the products. This layering adds depth to the way people communicate with the brand,” she explains.
So what are some of these layers? There’s a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, a database of searchable articles, regular competitions, affiliations with charities, links to parenting sites, resource materials for healthcare professionals to pass on to parents, information sheets, academic research into the benefits of babywearing, video reviews, and more.
The amount of activity this generates means the site is now so well search-engine optimized that Anita has been able to do away with Google AdWords altogether.
It also means that Anita is able to maintain a dialogue with her customers. Not only are visitors to the site encouraged to engage with it, they are rewarded for doing so. ‘Like’ the Facebook page and you could win a baby sling. Help spread the news of ‘Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week’ and you could win some baby leg warmers.
“It’s so important to be responsive. You don’t want to be one of those sites where the lights are on but no one’s home,” says Anita.
The site also carries content that has been submitted by its users - YouTube clips of its customers using their baby slings, product reviews, and testimonials. One of the most recent examples is a home video showing a man carrying all four of his children at once in four separate slings.
Including user-generated content on your site does mean that you have to relinquish a certain amount of control, but according to Anita she’s had very few problems with bad feedback. “Everything goes to an email account for review by our Social Media Coordinator before it makes it on to the site. We always try to be honest, so we don’t necessarily edit out negative comments. Our biggest problem is spam rather than negative feedback.”
Of course, all of this is only possible if you have a site that can support it. Like so many first-time internet entrepreneurs, Anita and her partner Ralph put the focus firmly on graphics when developing their first site back in 2005. “Coming from an architectural background, we were both very graphics focussed rather than worrying about the site’s user-friendliness or the back-end stuff,” says Anita. “The result was a site that was beautiful to look at but really clunky to update.”
Anita went on to employ Tasmanian-based web agency Ionata and it was their repeated calls for a rebuild that finally caused her to relent. “You know what it’s like. You’re so busy in your business and a full site rebuild is so off-putting, but Ionata kept on at us to update and I have to say we’re delighted with the results.”
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