Diogo Mourato

Entrepreneurship at a Glance 2011 takes a look at OECD countries entrepreneurial activity and finds that the number of startups in Australia is returning to its 2007 levels.

The new Randstad Workmonitor index places the Australian workforce among the most optimistic in world with 81% of the respondents stating they were confident of finding a new job. The index also places the Australian workers among the most mobile with 21% of the respondents saying they changed jobs in the last six months. Could there be a correlation?

Harvey Norman profits are down by 17%, David Jones sales are down 2.7% and retail brands like Colorado are closing their doors – the future of traditional retail is uncertain while the growth of online shopping (growing 9.3% annually) is taking over. Here's five ways retail can fight back.

The insurance company designed with women in mind “Million Dollar Woman” is urging Australian business mums who stay at home to take care of their children to not neglect their superannuation contributions. The company has also launched three strategies to maximise their contributions.

When it comes to selling, the internet means that consumers are now more aware, than ever before, of the different options available. But while new information enhances the power to choose, it also increases the power to confuse.

The 2011 City of Sydney Business Awards are now open to nominations and votes across 22 business categories. The awards include restaurants, small bars and cafes, retail fashion and retail beauty, tourism, health and fitness, online business, the new ANZ Fast Starter Award, which recognises fast-growing businesses with a turnover greater than $5 million, the Small Business of the Year and the Business of the Year awards, among others.

It's that time of year again, when the Cannes Lions Advertising Awards shine a light on international advertising excellence. This year, eight Australian ads were chosen to enter the competition. But which of these ads do Australians think deserve the award and what makes a great ad? Firefly Millward Brown decided to look for an answer (and so did we).

In a new report, Stratatel Limited analyses the costs of mobile phones to companies and organisations and reveals that the inappropriate use of mobile phone by employees may have greater consequences than huge phone bills.

"There has been a shift in spending with more consumers searching for meaningfulness from their purchases,” said Melbourne-based social researcher Jeff Gilling. Small businesses should take the time to get to know their costumers individually and ask for their feedback, they should investigate how they can contribute to their local communities and should develop incentives to encourage customers to return.

Albert Einstein may have said “Imagination is more important than knowledge”, however, modern western society still tends to value what can actually be ‘seen’ (in the physical sense) more highly than ‘un-materialised’ ideas or visions alone. This raises a very important question: “How can we leverage the power of the ‘physical’ to raise our own or your product's perceived value, so you can sell more, charge more and ‘become’ a key influencer within your marketplace?”

The latest AVG Digital Diary report studied technology use among young Australian children and found out that 51% of Aussie kids use social networks to keep in contact with each other and that they spend more time online than the global average. Yet most parents (58%) still aren’t fully aware of their children’s social networking practices.

According to Ernst & Young, there is no entrepreneur gene. However, many do possess certain characteristics that have proven vital to their success. For its report titled Nature or Nurture: Decoding the Entrepreneur, business advisory behemoth Ernst & Young surveyed 685 entrepreneurs from all over the world and interviewed winners of its Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Cisco’s annual Visual Networking Index (VNI) foresees that internet traffic in Australia will grow at a rate of 41% per year until 2015, which means that current internet traffic volumes will grow six fold over the course of the next four years. By 2015, 10% of global traffic and 18% of internet video traffic will be consumed by Web-enabled TVs. Average global traffic in 2015 will be equivalent to 200 million people streaming an HD movie at the same time all day.

Entries for the Enterprize 2011, a national business plan competition coordinated by the University of Queensland (UQ), has opened for applications. Each application must consist of a business plan up to eight pages long and the chosen finalists will be provided with the opportunity to compete for the final prize of $100,000.

The world’s first laptop powered Chromium, Google’s operating system, has been released by Ruslan Kogan, beating competitors like Acer and Samsung. “We’ve been able to beat the rest of the world to bring the first commercially available laptop running Google’s Chromium OS,” Kogan said.

According to the BSI, retail registered the biggest fall of all the industry sectors in April with a loss of 1.4%. The BSI, which tracks spending in the Australian market, indicated that sales fell in April across all sectors by 0.2%. Curiously, if one doesn’t take retail sales account, the BSI found that sales have risen by 0.3%, which is the highest rise since November 2009.

Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, has announced that NICTA will receive $1.42 million to fund GiFi, a high-speed gigabit wireless transmission technology. These funds will be granted to Nitero, a company created by NICTA researchers, which will further develop GiFi and put in the market.

You’ve decided to offer equity in your company to investors in order to grow your business — but what’s the next step you need to take? In the third of this six-part series on raising capital, corporate advisor Dr Mark Rainbird discusses the avenues you have to distribute your offer to interested parties.

According to a new report, Australians will spend $5.8 billion in the digital gaming industry over the next four years. The study also reports the several short comings of the Australian gaming industry and gives advice to overcome them.

According to the latest BizExchange Index, the volume of businesses for sale is expected to increase in the future as many business owners seek retirement. However, younger generations seem unable to come to the party, already heavily in debt and are unable to access their superannuation.