Tag: australia

A Newspoll survey, commissioned by Suncorp Life, has analysed what events are considered the most stressful for Australians. Having their house destroyed by natural disaster ranks in the first place, followed the by serious illness or injury. Curiously, many Australian men find marriage to be the most stressful event of their life.

Trying to run the whole business yourself is not only stressful for you, the business owner, but also for the staff, who feel inadequate and unchallenged. But how do you drive revenue and increase sales if you have a very tight budget and you really can’t afford to hire sales staff on a full or part time basis? In short, the business owner must get more creative. Here are seven different strategies any business owner can employ to not only increase sales but also systemise the sale process – and do more in less time.

If keeping tabs on the comings and goings of the weed-control world is your thing, then have we got news for you. Queensland-based vegetation and natural areas management company, Technigro, has developed a weed-control sprayer that corrals potentially dangerous chemicals in the area they were applied – not the atmosphere -- rendering the spray-and-pray approach *so* last season.

Appalogues (see what they did there?), created by Brisbane company Min-i-Mags, is a smartphone application that combines old-school catalogues with new mobile technology to create a product it hopes will replace shopping catalogues -- Australia’s third largest consumer-directed advertising medium (after newspapers and TV).

Sonja Bernhardt, ThoughtWare Australia's CEO, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia today for her contribution to the information technology industry.

Flood relief has officially gone 2.0. As 75% of Queensland braces itself for a ‘post-war scale’ clean-up in the wake of the recent devastating floods, online communities have rallied together on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to coordinate both donations and resources.

Compare Broadband, a broadband comparison site, recently conducted a poll which showed that 91% of Australians think that the use of complex jargon by internet services providing companies makes choosing a broadband plan difficult.

Business information analysts IBISWorld released a list of which Australian industries and sectors will rise and fall in the year of 2011. The organic farming industry is expected to be the number one growthe industry, while wired communications carriers are expected to make the biggest fall.

In business circles, Groupon will, for a long time, be known as the Chicago-based startup that scored itself a $1.35 billion valuation within a year of launch. For the rest of the world, it is a website that harnesses collective buying to get consumers cheap products and services. But for ambitious startups, the model could also be employed to sell their own goods and services (and never buy advertising again).

Nearly three out of four Australian businesswomen use social media as part of their marketing strategy, according to a survey released by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. Social media tools such as Twitter and LinkedIn are firmly established as an important component of a business’ marketing strategy, said Suzi Dafnis, community director of ABN, a training, mentoring and advocacy organisation with more than 20,000 members.

In an effort to inject new life into Queensland's economy, the Queensland State Government has partnered with Zernike Group to create the Brisbane Technology Park, part of the state government's Smart State Strategy.

According to internet broadband comparison site Compare Broadband, 75% of Australians would switch service providers should they elect to implement the Government's voluntary filter. This comes at a time when three of Australia's largest ISPs, iPrimus, Optus and Bigpond, have agreed to filter out child abuse and child pornography as part of the Government's system.

According to internet broadband comparison site Compare Broadband, 75% of Australians would switch service providers should they elect to implement the Government's voluntary filter. This comes at a time when three of Australia's largest ISPs, iPrimus, Optus and Bigpond, have agreed to filter out child abuse and child pornography as part of the Government's system.

In a development that's unlikely to be nearly as amusing as a toilet flush simulator, iPhone is losing ground to its competitors, likely to heighten rivalry between hardware and app developers alike. We've already seen how an almighty stink can arise over iPhone app developers. Take the case of Pull My Finger versus iFart.

In a development that's unlikely to be nearly as amusing as a toilet flush simulator, iPhone is losing ground to its competitors, likely to heighten rivalry between hardware and app developers alike. We've already seen how an almighty stink can arise over iPhone app developers. Take the case of Pull My Finger versus iFart.

Researchers in Australia and France will work together to fight Parkinson's disease and similar neurodegenerative maladies, using funds from a program managed by the nation's governments.

Researchers in Australia and France will work together to fight Parkinson's disease and similar neurodegenerative maladies, using funds from a program managed by the nation's governments.

RMIT economist Steve Kates talks about the economic issues in the election campaign. He says the latest ACCI investor survey shows that business performance has deteriorated sharply after a rebound and suggests that the next government will have to deal with a softer economy.

While enticing new customers has become second nature to Australia's online retailers, they don't do nearly enough to retain the ones they already have, according to new research.

Leon and Garry talk about Treasurer Wayne Swan’s announcement that the government is headed for a larger-than-expected surplus. They look at speculation that Australia’s biggest banks could be forced to raise interest rates independently of the Reserve Bank decision. But they won’t do it until after the federal election.