Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics.

Dissecting the numbers on labour prices and inflation

RMIT economist Jonathan Boymal joins Leon and Garry to talk about the low wage price increases and cost of living increases.

Press play to listen.

Talking Business Podcasts on iTunes

Garry Barker and Leon Gettler both have established careers with ‘The Age’ newspaper, where Garry Barker is its Technology Editor, and Leon Gettler is a Senior Business Journalist. Gettler also works freelance on a number of other publications.

The decision whether to oblige or not wasn’t a hard one. The message was from Anthill’s Pitch Club partner in crime, Peter Christo. He said:

Channel nine contacted me yesterday about a special television event this November called The National IQ Test. The National IQ Test, is an interactive IQ Test and will be hosted by EDDIE MCGUIRE.

What happens on the night is that Eddie asks 36 IQ questions to six teams in the studio, as well as viewers at home. At the end of the night viewers, and the teams in the studio will have an ‘accurate’ guide to their IQ and will have had a lot of fun!

One of the teams will be ENTREPRENEURS, so I am inviting my, and Anthill’s network to nominate.

We thought the experience might be fun for the right person. Plus, it seemed like a good opportunity to raise awareness of ‘entrepreneurship’ as a valid career path.

The flip-side is that we don’t want contestants giving fellow business builders as a bad name.

As such, we created the linked expressions of interest form.

Want to hang with Eddie? Put your name forward:

We had observed a shift taking place in the structure of the Australian workforce.

As we explained in the aptly titled cover story of our December 2007 print edition, Shift Happens:

“According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the age with the most number of people in Australia is currently 34 years.

This corresponds to children born during the baby-boom ‘echo’ in the early 1970s and represents the peak of Generation X.

Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a shock that a similarly popular age is 58 (the parents of X).

What generally does come as a surprise is the stampede of 22 year-olds, who are about to give this hour-glass population breakdown a good shake-up, concluding with a very heavy bottom end.

Yes, within ten years the structure of the working population could look, simply, pear-shaped, with Generation Y representing close to half the workforce. The peak age groups will be 32, 44 and 68, in that order.”

By this time in the evolution of Anthill, our Cool Company Awards had already developed into a popular program for recognising and promoting entrepreneurial companies. And since then, we have added the SMART 100 Index, as a program for recognising and promoting Australian innovations.

The goal of the 30under30 awards was to recognise and promote innovative and entrepreneurial people.

Get ‘em when they’re young

Our aim was a bold one, fuelled by the wonderful naivety of… you guessed it… youth.

As a team of largely 20-somethings, we wanted to give the culture of Australia a personality overhaul. We wanted to make Australians aspire to become global leaders, rather than global followers. We wanted to help Australians appreciate our lack of internationally recognised brands and aspire to change this embarrassing state of affairs. We wanted to make Australia less dependent on primary industries and imported technologies. We wanted to make Australia more than a farm and mine for the world.

These are pursuits that we still hold dear. And, few could argue, that the most sensible way to achieve any bold goal is to target the next generation of influencers.

In short, by creating champions, our plan was to help develop a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among young Australians (something that our formal education system generally lacks). We hoped to make entrepreneurship infectious.

And, in that sense, the program has proved highly successful.

In 2010, the 30under30 awards entered its third year. Past winners are building companies, creating industries and inspiring their peers to… build companies, create industries and inspire their peers. Each year, past winners refer new winners, creating a growing alumni of young Australian entrepreneurs (many of whom are now extremely well-known and respected within Australian business communities).

However, not all our readers have been enamoured with the program

The main criticism (perhaps the only criticism) that has been consistently levelled at the 30under30 Awards, year after year, has been its focus on the young.

Youth is a state of mind

It’s been rightly pointed out to us that youth is a state of mind. It has been equally accurately brought to our attention that the program is ageist.

However, we have always felt quite justified pointing out that:

1. Our goal has always been to change culture by targeting the young (an approach that is hard to fault when aspiring to change the views of a nation for the long-term)
2. Anthill already hosts other programs to recognise entrepreneurs that have successfully built companies (something that generally requires experience and the passage of time)
3. It’s almost impossible to measure the achievements of a 26 year-old entrepreneur against those of a 56 year-old (simply because one party has had more decades to ‘get it right’)

I hope that these three bullet points will answer those critics once and for all.

But, on one important point, we were wrong.

The other half of the equation

The 30under30 program only operates to address part of the problem.

The statistics cited above relate to the working population (as then perceived) and not the living population. It’s now well understood that the Australian population is ageing and this state of affairs is likely to place a greater and greater burden on younger Australia’s to produce the wealth needed to cover the cost.

This also works to support programs like the 30under30. But what it doesn’t do is recognise and promote the boom in Australian startups fuelled by the other half of the equation.

Rise of the silver surfer

Many baby-boomers might be nearing retirement but most are far from retired.

Many members of this very driven (and notoriously outspoken) generation are embracing the freedom of an empty nest, turning their backs on once stable corporate careers and employing wisdom earned to serve their own ends.

They are surfing away from careers built around the expectations of the generation that came before (their parents) and into new opportunities that weren’t previously available, unless they had deep wallets and “connections”.

This observation naturally forces the question, why enable the young to support an ageing population when many of these over-50s ‘upstarts’ are more than capable of enabling themselves?

It’s a big question and one without a simple answer. But it did influence our thinking (that and all the lobbying), which is why, this year, we decided to launch the 5over50.

Why only five? What are the rules?

We know what you’re thinking.

Why not recognise 50 entrepreneurs over the age of 50?

Well, to be frank, we simply don’t have the resources to embark on such a grand undertaking in the program’s inaugural year. Will we change the game next year? Only time will tell.

What’s to stop this turning into another back-slapping exercise for the same small set?

When pulling together the rules, we were certain of one thing. This program would not be designed to recognised ‘captains of industry’.

Rather, the goal is to identify startup entrepreneurs — individuals with less than five years spent in the rough and tumble world of new business creation.

Will there be categories and criteria?

We haven’t yet devised individual categories, such as New Media, Retail, Manufacturing etcetera. We’re keen to first observe the types of people who enter and then make those types of decisions.

In terms of criteria, we’ll be applying the same measures that we apply to the ‘youngens’.

The evolution of awards

Like all Anthill initiatives, the 5over50 will operate as an ever-evolving experiment.

We welcome your feedback and hope that you will support us as we recognise an irrepressible set of game-changers, who have escaped the rat-race to create companies, jobs and challenge the status quo.

To nominate a deserving entrepreneur, click the button or follow the link.

It was developed to encourage and promote game-changing (and often life changing) behaviours by recognising Australian business builders who are over the age of 50 and have started a new business in the past five years.

Why this? Why now?
Dates & Deadlines
Eligibility & Criteria
Process & Procedure

Nominate yourself or a deserving entrepreneur

Click get started or complete the form below.

Dates & Deadlines

Nominations open: Wednesday 1 September 2010
Applications open: Friday 16 September 2010
Applications close: Thursday 30 September 2010
Winners announced: The week beginning 11 October

Eligibility & Criteria

5over50 is built around a program of self-selection/application. While a third party can ‘nominate’ a worthy entrepreneur, the onus lies on the applicant to complete an online application form, asking the applicant to ‘sell’ his/her entrepreneurial qualities.

To be eligible for the 2010 program, the entrepreneur must be over 50 years of age and must be an Australian citizen at the date of nomination. The entrepreneur must also be new to the ‘rough and tumble’ world of business creation. His or her commercial entity must to less than five years since acquiring an ABN to qualify.

What makes a person entrepreneurial?

An entrepreneur is generally thought of as someone who organises a business venture and assumes the risk for it. However, being entrepreneurial also requires a range of personal traits and qualities:

Creativity
Innovative Thinking
Marketing/Product Development Flair
Personal Branding

Perseverance
Survival Skills
‘Out of Square’ Thinking
‘Luck’ Exploitation
Opportunity Identification

Skills of Persuasion
Team Building
Management
Capital Raising
Sales Skills

Process & Procedure

Stage 1: Nominations open

This is your chance to self-nominate or nominate another entrepreneur. Simply follow the links below and above, then follow the prompts. You will be asked to insert the name and contact details of the nominee in the fields provided and your own details if you are nominating a third party and wish to be acknowledged.

Stage 2: Applications open

Nominees will be alerted via email (and post if appropriate) that the application stage has opened. This stage requires the nominee/applicant to complete an online survey. The information in this online survey will be used to determine the nominee/applicant’s eligibility and shortlist Finalists.

Stage 3: Judging

Finalists will be contacted should the judging panel require further information. The absence of contact does not necessarily indicate that a nominee/applicant has or has not been selected as a Finalist. Contact also does not necessarily indicate that a nominee/applicant has or has not been selected as a Finalist.

Stage 4: The Winner’s Announcement

Finalists and Winners will be announcement in mid-October 2010, published on the AnthillOnline.com. Five entrepreneurs will be identified (Finalists). The organisers reserve the right to eliminate or add award categories to reflect the quality and background of applications.

Nominate Right Now

Stay informed…

Want to be informed when applications open? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

If you’re a business owner, a marketing professional or even a web-developer, here are six questions to ask yourself.

• Does online marketing get you confused?
• Do you pretend to know more than you do?
• Are you properly exploiting social media?
• Do you understand search engine optimisation?
• Is your website delivering you enough business?
• Are you wasting money on meaningless marketing?

If you answered Yes to any of these questions, it might be time to get some help. We think we can help!

At this full-day Masterclass, you will learn from Anthill founder James Tuckerman, and guests, as he shares Anthill’s four principles of website development and online marketing.

Start getting a return from your online marketing efforts. It’s time to take action.

This is NOT a ridiculously priced event for “spectators”

Every month, a new online marketing or new media conference is held somewhere in Australia. These events charge thousands of dollar for attendees to passively endure an almost endless parade self-promoting, self-proclaimed online media gurus, talking about their services.

• This Masterclass is about making a difference to your business.
• It is a practical hands-on course.
• It is about getting results.
• You will be provided with valuable information, in a structured format.
• You will be given personalised guidance.

This event is NOT for spectators. It is for people with a desire to roll up their sleeves and radically improve their online marketing outcomes.

That’s why we have a discount for team members.

We LOVE giving discounts Bring a friend and save!

Stop wasting your money on “meaningless” marketing

We’re sick of meaningless marketing. We’re sick of watching companies both large and small waste their time and money on ill-planned, ill-conceived, ill-fated online marketing activities.

We’re sick of watching otherwise savvy business builders confuse a website with a brochure and neglect to apply the fundamentals of business to new media.

How much money have you and your clients already wasted?

At this full-day, practical and hands-on workshop, you will learn and apply the four rules that Anthill employed to radically grow its own business.

You will learn how to do more for less and spend less to get more.

Don’t waste any more money. Spend less to get more!

What you will learn at this Masterclass

We have found that four themes guide all forms of successful online marketing. At this event you will learn the foundations, discover the rules and apply the tactics.

MEASURABLE
The ‘commercial’ function of online marketing
Brand versus ROI – Measurement tools and metrics
Explore your reasons for online marketing – beyond brand considerations. Learn goal setting concepts and acquire the tools to develop measurable and trackable campaigns.

FINDABLE
An introduction to SEO
Getting found — SEO for the time-poor
Learn how Google thinks and acquire the steps to making SEO part of your ongoing online marketring strategy. Discover why you don’t need a technical degree to master SEO.

SHARABLE
Social Media for Business
Why use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other applications
Gain an understanding of the social networking tools available to grow a business – from Twitter to LinkedIn – and how to commercially exploit these tools for genuine commercial reasons.

MEASURABLE
Making it happen! Making it last!
Bringing these techniques into your business
The best intentions will remain just that without systems and processes. Learn how to apply the rules presented in this event to your business in ways that will last.

This is an intense, full day event, starting at 9am and ending at 4pm (drinks to follow).

Each lesson is priceless. But you’ll get the full day for $895. Or use the Coupon code to pay $495! Bring a team mate. Save more!

Use the Coupon code LOVE and Save!

Whether your passionate, indifferent or even fear it, by the end of this day you will LOVE online marketing! This is because you’ll be able to see how it’s done properly and apply the rules.

• Improve the effectiveness of your website, as a tool to build brand awareness, attract leads, generate sales and help you get a positive ROI from this important marketing tool.
• Apply search engine optimisation strategies to your online activities without requiring a doctorate in coding and without sending you insane.
• Discover how you too can exploit social media for genuine commercial purposes — sure, it’s fun to have a Twitter account but is it helping your business?
• Learn how Anthill transformed a $900 blog into one of Australia’s Top 50 Business & Finance websites, beating much larger and better funded news organisation.
• Apply the advice and skills learned in this masterclass to your business, your website and your online marketing campaigns. Roll-up your sleeves on the day!

To pay only $495 (get your $400 discount), click the button below and insert the Coupon code LOVE when prompted. We just LOVE offering discounts.

Normally $895 Register now! Pay only $495! Coupon code: LOVE Save $400!

Is this event right for you?

The Anthill Online Marketing Masterclass is held no more than three times a year. It has proven a highly valuable — and eye-opening — workshop for:

Business owners…

Do you have a desire to generate better returns from web marketing? This is your chance to get the foundations right. Avoid wasteful marketing, do more for less and spend less to get more. Transform your website from a cost centre to a profit centre and master social media.

Marketers…

Do you want to make a real difference where you work? Do you want get your boss excited? Do you want to start delivery measurable returns for your marketing spend that will make jaws drop? Do you need to win support for your grand ideas? We’ll teach you how to talk the talk and walk the walk.

Web developers…

Do you want to better understand your clients? Do you want to meet their needs? Do you want to win more projects by simply being able to provide a service that gets results? Help your clients achieve the best possible results from online marketing and they will reward you from their wallets.

When and where…

This event is happening for one day only in Melbourne, Victoria.

Come for the day. Stay for the weekend.

When: Friday 1 October, 2010
Time: 9am — 4pm (followed by drinks)
Where: Melbourne, Victoria

ONE DAY ONLY.
SPACES ARE LIMITED.
THIS EVENT WILL SELL OUT.

Normally $895 Register now! Pay only $495! Coupon code: LOVE Save $400!

The program provides recognition to 30 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 for their outstanding entrepreneurial endeavours.

Full winners list 2009
Full winners list 2008

Dates & Deadlines
Eligibility & Criteria
Process & Procedure

Introducing: 5over50

Nominate yourself or a deserving entrepreneur

Click get started or complete the form below.

Dates & Deadlines

Nominations open: Wednesday 1 September 2010
Applications open: Friday 16 September 2010
Applications close: Thursday 30 September 2010
Winners announced: The week beginning 11 October

Eligibility & Criteria

30under30 is built around a program of self-selection/application. While a third party can ‘nominate’ a worthy entrepreneur, the onus lies on the applicant to complete an online application form, asking the applicant to ‘sell’ his/her entrepreneurial qualities.

To be eligible for the 2010 program, the entrepreneur must be under 30 years of age and must be an Australian citizen at the date of nomination.

What makes a person entrepreneurial?

An entrepreneur is generally thought of as someone who organises a business venture and assumes the risk for it. However, being entrepreneurial also requires a range of personal traits and qualities:

Creativity
Innovative Thinking
Marketing/Product Development Flair
Personal Branding

Perseverance
Survival Skills
‘Out of Square’ Thinking
‘Luck’ Exploitation
Opportunity Identification

Skills of Persuasion
Team Building
Management
Capital Raising
Sales Skills

Process & Procedure

Stage 1: Nominations open

This is your chance to self-nominate or nominate another entrepreneur. Simply follow the links below and above, then follow the prompts. You will be asked to insert the name and contact details of the nominee in the fields provided and your own details if you are nominating a third party and wish to be acknowledged.

Stage 2: Applications open

Nominees will be alerted via email (and post if appropriate) that the application stage has opened. This stage requires the nominee/applicant to complete an online survey. The information in this online survey will be used to determine the nominee/applicant’s eligibility and shortlist Finalists.

Stage 3: Judging

Finalists will be contacted should the judging panel require further information. The absence of contact does not necessarily indicate that a nominee/applicant has or has not been selected as a Finalist. Contact also does not necessarily indicate that a nominee/applicant has or has not been selected as a Finalist.

Stage 4: The Winner’s Announcement

Finalists and Winners will be announcement in mid-October 2010, published on the AnthillOnline.com. Thirty entrepreneurs will be identified (Finalists). The organisers reserve the right to eliminate or add award categories to reflect the quality and background of applications.

Nominate Right Now

Stay informed…

Want to be informed when applications open? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Corridor combat: when two people who are not getting on well at work – pass each other in the corridor – each smiles at the other while muttering silently “F… you”.

George works in an office and he makes and receives many phone calls daily. He finds it easier to wear a headset. Desiree works for George and often cannot tell whether George is on a call. Daily she will walk over to George to ask him a question – only to find George frown at her, point to his headset and shake his head.

Off the phone or not, George and Desiree rarely talk to each other. Desiree rarely gets her questions answered – so she makes errors which George points out to her without providing any assistance – “At this level you’re expected to get it right”.

Frustrated, Desiree makes her phone calls on speakerphone and plays her radio loudly.

Corridor combat is ineffective. George and Desiree are making some poor decisions about the way they behave towards each other. Their friction is a source of office gossip although none of their colleagues is willing to help out with an office relationship which is getting out of control.

In most companies, when negative behaviour happens, people just don’t know how to address it. They are afraid of confrontation. They aren’t sure what their responsibilities are as individuals, and they aren’t sure what words to choose.

Even when employees and managers do work up the nerve to address unhelpful behaviour, they often employ tactics that cause greater anxiety and misunderstanding. Without meaning to, people take actions that can feel like an attack, spinning the confronted individual into defensive behaviours – denial and resentment.

Corridor combat is an almost daily occurrence inside of most large organisations, and smaller organisations are far from immune. Educating managers and employees to listen actively and speak constructively can help save millions of dollars, hours of productivity, and lots of headaches.

Here are six basic communications tactics to use when you’re dealing with charged situations in your workplace:

1. Don’t react in anger.

Express your feelings in a clear and non-threatening way. Creating an open, receptive environment reduces the chances of escalating the conflict.

2. Be specific when describing the offending situation.

Just say what you saw or what you heard. But don’t state any assumptions about intention. This limits the odds of the person responding defensively.

3. Explain how the situation has affected you.

Often people don’t ask or even consider about how others are affected by their behaviour, so addressing this directly can help people see some of the consequences of their behaviour.

4. Ask what they were thinking at the time of the offending action and how the situation makes them feel.

Aim for direct answers. Get clarification if needed. Understanding their point of view is the best way to learn how to work with them.

5. Acknowledge your contribution to the situation.

Accepting your share of the responsibility takes away the blame and establishes an even ground.

6. Invite the other person to work with you to improve the situation.

This takes the individual off the hot seat, and gives them the power to make a change for the better.

Joe Moore is managing director of ProActive ReSolutions, which specialises in building more respectful workplace behaviour between people.

Cool Companies manage to stay one step ahead of the rest. They breed leaders who are rule-makers and rule-breakers. They are organisations that aspire to be admired. They are trend-setters in attitude and action. Quite simply, they are… cool!

Cool Company Award Winners 2009
Cool Company Award Winners 2008

To watch highlights from the 2009 awards ceremony, click the video below:

Applications for 2010 opening soon.

Want to be informed when applications open? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

The ‘Jesus tablet’ has been microwaved and coated in chocolate and it continues to be praised by profit-conscious media executives intent on maximising income streams.

But does the iPad really have what it takes to slow the inexorable profit slide at newspapers and magazines?

“Nah. I don’t think so at all,” I was told by Geoffrey Handley from The Hyperfactory, a global ad agency that specialises in developing campaigns for mobile devices.

“Apple has been fairly revolutionary in making the noise about stuff but their devices haven’t – in my opinion – shaped our industry or anything,” he said about a week after the iPad’s release.

“What Steve Jobs has always been great at doing is building hype and building brand. So his app store was nothing different – sure it might have had better usability because that’s what he’s good at, he’s good at design, usability, making a lot of noise – but in terms of a turning point in reality, no.”

“A real game changer” – but who’s playing?

It seems that media executives are banking on the hype, however. News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch calls the iPad “a real game changer in the presentation of news” and anticipates younger readers subscribing in droves to his company’s masthead apps.

But reality can be perverse.

In its first month on sale, says News Corp, 8,500 people subscribed to The Australian’s iPad app. The newspaper has reported that “subscriber numbers had declined the following month” as competitors’ apps came on sale.

Expectations are high but even in the week following the iPad’s release, when the app had 4,500 subscribers at $5 a pop, some experts were dismissive.

“I don’t think that’s a terribly big figure,” Marcus O’Donnell, journalism program coordinator at the University of Wollongong, told me.

“When I bought my iPad, I immediately bought it purely for that reason, even though if there had been a multiple range of choices I may not have bought it,” said O’Donnell.

He calls it “a shocking app”.

“It’s almost totally devoid of pictures, which misreads what the iPad is all about,” he said. “The iPad is a sensual medium, it’s about ease of access, touching, visuality. And it’s also a very kind of pared-down version of [the web] – it’s not full content.”

From Sociology to ‘Motiology’: Studying mobile consumers

Ralph Simon, chairman emeritus and founder of Mobile Entertainment Forum and co-founder of Zomba Music Group, told me a week after the launch that he thought news companies have to concentrate more on doing something different, that they’re not doing elsewhere, in order to secure the numbers for their apps.

“I think that you have to come up with a more interesting kind of appeal or at least focus on that mobile user so that you are editorially doing something that is appropriate to that medium,” he said.

But Simon said he thinks it’s too early to make a call on how the iPad is performing.

“I think the impact of this, and particularly when you see other iPad-like devices coming out, is certainly going to accelerate the process,” he said.

Handley told me that he thinks that with a plethora of new devices emerging, media companies need to develop a different strategy for tablet devices.

“I think it’s more about taking into account your strategy from day one and understanding consumer behaviour as opposed to ‘Oh, there’s going to be this device, we need to just replicate what we’ve got on our web and stick it on here and then let’s stick a price tag’,” he said. “Why would anyone do that? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Simon agreed, pointing to what he called the economic and commercial elements of “motioeconomics”.

“What is definitely happening is we’re living in a much, much more mobile society and I look very much at this whole, new word that’s getting quite a lot of currency – the impact of mobile on people’s lives and lifestyles – it’s not the sociology of mobile lifestyles. It’s called ‘motiology’.”

“I think it’s about convenience and I think it’s about aesthetics, I really do,” said O’Donnell. “I don’t think you’re actually going to get anything on an iPad that you can’t deliver on the net. I think the experience of getting it on the iPad will be the deal-breaker for people. It’s a very easy, nice experience, reading on the iPad and having three columns and having a page. That sounds terribly old-fashioned, I know. But it is. And the apps that are doing that well, like The Times [of London] app and the [National Public Radio] app, are providing multimedia, they’re providing ease of navigation, and they’re doing it well in design terms.”

With change beckoning, the industry may be up for grabs

Robert Tercek, president of digital media at the Oprah Winfrey Network, told me that he thinks that big companies have a hard time making the necessary adjustments.

“Their skill set is managing the existing business, the traditional business, not adapting rapidly to new conditions. So that’s not something big companies are well adapted to, that sort of massive change that we’re experiencing right now. But the second thing is that traditional companies always have a difficult choice. They’ve gotta make a decision between going for the new thing and protecting their old traditional business. They almost always choose to defend. The choice they always make is to stick with what they know. I can’t really blame them because those are big businesses.”

Gotham Chopra, co-founder of Liquid Comic, talked about “a culture where attention spans are short”.

“I think where I’m coming from is that the art of storytelling, whether again it’s in the fictional space or the non-fictional space, needs to be continued to be nurtured. Expecting this new distribution platform to solve all the problems in the media world, I don’t think is necessarily a good idea.”

“In fact, it’s a time of great change,” Tercek told me. “It’s time to change and a terrific time for entrepreneurs. Traditional businesses have a very difficult time coping with massive change, change on a massive scale.”

“What’s happening now is that both ends of the equation, on the creative side and on the consumer side, are starting to fragment so much that big media’s grip is starting to loosen and that creates all kinds of niche opportunities for startup companies, for feisty start-ups,” continued Tercek. “So it’s a terrific time to get started. And sometimes those niches will turn out to be quite lucrative and thereby a small company can become a big one.”

Matthew da Silva writes feature stories to fulfil a dream after working in communications and technical writing roles for two decades. He grew up in Sydney, lived in Japan for nine years and now lives on the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland. He blogs daily at Happy Antipodean.

Image by blakespot

Confidence in the federal government’s polices hit its lowest point since August 2008 in the latest Sensis Business Index quarterly survey. What will the hung Parliament resulting from the election do to that already shaky confidence? The mind boggles.

This most recent Sensis survey pulled from a sample of 1,800 businesses nationwide. Interviews took place between July 22 and Aug. 11. Read the latest report here.

Report author Christena Singh said business confidence improved slightly after freefalling the previous quarter. Overall confidence remains substantially below last year’s levels, she said.

“On a positive note, small businesses are cautiously optimistic about the future direction of the Australian economy,” Singh said. “They also are expecting business conditions to improve over the next 12 months.”

Those small-business owners who expressed confidence about their prospects generally said they were chipper because their business was well-established and their customer relations strong.

In addition, access to financing, a powerful engine for growth and capital expenditure, tightened up in the quarter, the report said.

“We have seen a marginal improvement in trading conditions this quarter, with sales, employment and capital expenditure rising,” Singh said. “However, the key profitability indicator continued to decline during this quarter.”

Ms. Gillard and Mr. Abbott would have loved to comment on that profitability indicator, but they’re tied up at the moment.

Image by MystifyMe Concert Photography

Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics.

Why the bad news on unemployment isn’t so bad after all

In this podcast, economist Sinclair Davidson looks at the latest unemployment figures. He says the rise to 5.3% is not as bad as it seems because it shows the job market is picking up with more people looking for work.

Press play to listen.

Talking Business Podcasts on iTunes

Garry Barker and Leon Gettler both have established careers with ‘The Age’ newspaper, where Garry Barker is its Technology Editor, and Leon Gettler is a Senior Business Journalist. Gettler also works freelance on a number of other publications.

The product developers describe the innovation as “the snazzy way to sleep while you travel”. What they don’t explain is how this innovation hasn’t yet caused race riots in a country already irrationally fearful of similar headware and community centres.

Snazzy Napper — Another brainless consumer product?

One Melbourne company is combining that dynamic with customer databases to create a business service it describes as an Australian first.

My Customer Testimonals interviews people chosen from a business’ clientele, and turns those interviews into audio clips and transcripts that the business can use for marketing and advertising.

My Customer Testimonials will simply hand over the clips and transcripts to the client business or, for a higher fee, package the testimonials on an MCT-hosted web page customised with the client’s business information.

Darren Bourke, the company’s founder and director, said in his launch media release that testimonials offer a quicker conversion of prospects to customers.

“While print advertising is a one-off form of marketing, testimonials can be used as many times as you like in many forms of marketing collateral,” Bourke said.

The interviews are conducted by phone. The MCT interviewer asks for the customer’s consent to record, then rolls through a set of questions. The result is a set of responses that feel honest and unvarnished, even if the audio can’t avoid but sound low-tech because of the phone connection.

“Potential customers are more likely to trust the word of a third party — similar to editorial in the media — than a pure, traditional form of advertising,” Bourke said.

My Customer Testimonials’ package start at $595 for three interviews — audio in MP3 form and transcripts in PDF and Microsoft Word. For $895, MCT will conduct and package six interviews, and host them on a customized website. For $1,245, the client gets nine interviews and the hosted website.

Image by Rachael Voorhees

I can’t believe how many times lately that I’ve spoken to business owners who claim that their product or service is one of the best in their field. And I believe them. I have absolutely no doubt that they are right.

But then when I ask them how they position their pricing, they tell me they choose to set their pricing level in the middle of the market range.

Why?

To be competitive.

To me, that just doesn’t make sense. If the product is one of the best in the market, it obviously has more value than the average product. Yet, if the price is about average, the perception that gives the market is that the product must be average.

If you set your price as average, you lose all the benefit of having a product that is well above average. Even if you try to sell people on why your product is one of the best, but then tell them about your average or low price, you confuse people and they will end up not believing your claims.

You see, most people actually still believe that you get what you pay for. You really need to charge what you are worth, not only so you don’t confuse your customers, but so that you maximise your opportunities for sales and profits.

My experience with clients is that fear of competition is the main reason for not wanting to charge what they think they are worth. The fear is that if they increase their prices, they will lose customers.

The reality is that people place far greater importance on the extra value they receive from your better product or higher quality service than you may think.

Have you ever thought about the value of your reliability or the additional usage customers get from your product lasting longer? Have you ever calculated the added value your customers get from your faster delivery times or your lower return rate? You need to know these numbers so that you can use them to justify your higher prices.

That’s right. Charging average prices actually makes your ability to compete worse than if you charge higher prices.

It is actually easy to command higher prices if you also communicate the reasons your prices are higher and you appropriately justify the extra expense your customer should make now, for the savings or added value they get from their investment. You see, the problem is not a competition problem, but a marketing problem.

Most business owners are great at producing their product or service, but lack skills when it comes to marketing. The reason customers query your price compared to your competitors’ is that you haven’t actually communicated the added value they will get from you. When you give customers no other criteria to compare options, they can only resort to price comparisons.

I often find clients locked into a view that their market is highly competitive and that if they increased their prices they would lose too many valuable customers. My experience is that if any customers are lost by a price increase, it is normally the ones that are the most difficult to deal with and that you are better off without anyway.

The customers that value the extra quality or service you provide have typically been wondering why your prices are so low and have actually been expecting you to put them up the the level that charges what you are worth.

In almost every market I can think of, there are always a number of player that compete on price. Yet there are also some in that same industry or trade that charge much higher prices than the norm. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that the ones that charge higher prices are also the most successful in their field. That should tell you something.

Pricing is one of the most critical elements of profitability for any business. Yet very few operate at a strategic level in this area.

If you are trying to win work or sales by pricing competitively, it could be time to rethink your approach. You are just making business and your life harder than it needs to be. It’s time to start thinking more strategically about how you can charge what you are really worth and how you can effectively justify and communicate your extra value to your market.

Believe me, the effort will be well rewarded. The difference between what you charge now and what you are really worth, is all lost profit. Shouldn’t that be in your bank account rather than your customers’?

Greg Roworth is an business consultant and author of the book, Put Your Business on Autopilot. Discover how to create, in 7 steps, a business that really works at www.businessflightpath.com.

Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics.

Craig Scroggie of Symantec discusses cyber security

This week’s episode of Talking Business features an interview with Craig Scroggie, vice-president and managing director for the Pacific of Symantec, the world’s largest data security company. Mr Scroggie talks about the changes that technology has wrought on the world, the opportunities it has brought for business, education, healthcare, entertainment and individuals and the growing criminal practices – fraud, identity theft and more – that lurk in its darker corners and threaten us all.

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Garry Barker and Leon Gettler both have established careers with ‘The Age’ newspaper, where Garry Barker is its Technology Editor, and Leon Gettler is a Senior Business Journalist. Gettler also works freelance on a number of other publications.