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According to a new report, the Australian private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) industries generated attractive returns over a one, three and five year period, as of June 2010, in comparison to traditional stock indexes.

Small is indeed beautiful when it comes to business structures. Economists who have for long trumpeted the virtues of being small should be able to pat themselves in the back one more time as small enterprises show great resilience, not to mention optimism, despite fears of a global economic crisis. A survey by American Express reveals that a majority of the nation’s small businesses are quickly adapting to the adverse economic conditions and a third expect to increase profits despite from a slowing, and fragile, global economy.

Founded by web-developers Scott Handsaker and Andrew Edwards in November 2009, Eventarc has turned over AUS$4million in transactions in the past 13 months. That's approximately $300,000 per month. Becoming quickly revenue positive has proven to be an important factor when picking investments for the Future Capital Development Fund (FCDF), according to Domenic Carosa.

The Australian Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI) has launched the Women in Business Poll to gather the views of Australian business women. According to AWCCI CEO Yolanda Vega, the 700,000-odd lady-folk small business owners are long overdue some attention.

Everyone Counts (E1C), the Australian-developed electronic voting technology company that we've covered in the past (here and here), had a big win recently when, together with the City and County of Honolulu, it staged the successful completion of the world’s first all-digital Universal Access binding government election.

Marketing survey puts emphasis on raising awareness of a product by word of mouth and says Apple got the most positive buzz among chit-chatting Australians.

For those of you who’ve not had the pleasure, Innovation Bay’s Angel Dinners bring together angels and entrepreneurs. To date, the organisation has assisted entrepreneurs raise over $10 million in seed investment as a result of these dinners. (Heard of Spreets? Yup? Innovation Bay kick started the group buying behemoths capital raising endeavours.) If you're an entrepreneur in the high-tech space and fancy a bit of funding, you may wish to apply.

Over 500 electricians from all over Australia have joined the National Electric and Communications Association in a effort to help inspect more than 30,000 homes and businesses that were affected by the floods in Queensland.

Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, has announced, together with Premier Lara Giddings, CSIRO’s CEO Dr Megan Clark and Member for Denison Andrew Wilkie, that the Tasmanian ICT Centre will receive a $50 million package over the next five years to help Tasmanian’s development of information and communications technologies.

A new, nefarious twist on cybercrime is turning innocent jobs seekers into unwitting money-launderers. "The bad guys monitor legitimate job boards and recruitment websites, such as LinkedIn, and harvest personal information from job posts or resumes."

We’re big fans of the new video project by 9x9 Web Thinkers. Not only does is look the business, it’s also got the smarts to back it up. If there is one fault we have with the concept, it is that the HTML5, while eye-popping and cool, is inherently unsharable. We would have liked to have shared a snippet with you here -- a teaser to whet your appetite -- but nay.

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.

Much of the discussion about business innovation and commercialisation in this country focuses on technology transfer and public R&D. However, it’s worth reminding ourselves that agriculture and primary industries still constitute a large proportion of Australia’s GDP. And these sectors are crying out for innovation reform too. Brian Ramsay explains the significance of the upcoming Productivity Commission inquiry into rural R&D corporations.

Travelex has issued a a word of caution to Australian importers and SMBs so they be careful with their purchasing practices in a moment when the $AUD is strong.

According to a new report from the ARC Centre for Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology, Australians spent $17 billion in the entertainment industry in 2009, with each Australian over fifteen years old spending an average $756. That ranks us fifth among the world’s biggest entertainment spenders, right behind the United States, Japan, United Kingdom and Germany.

Let’s take a leaf from the pages of Old Media History. If you own a television set, TV networks can’t stop you watching their programming. There is no ‘block’ button on the control panel at your local TV station. Yet the demographic composition of a TV audience is essential to the success of a television when courting advertisers.

Businesses operating in the creative field will be able to discuss their challenges in a free one-hour session with senior consultants in a new service beginning this month. The CIIC Biztro, an initiative of the Creative Industries Innovation Centre (CIIC), will be available in five cities.

The NSW government is set to earn serious brownie points with aspiring business folk. It’s launched an online resource for entrepreneurs to facilitate high growth. Serial angel investor Dr Tom McKaskill joined forces with Industry & Investment NSW and the Australian Technology Showcase to develop the High Growth Diagnostic, currently in beta.

A few months ago, when her partner was having trouble finding work, Jasmine Costello encouraged him to learn chess as a way to take his mind off the job rejections. Rich loved the game so much that it led to an entrepreneurial brainstorm that recently earned the couple the 2010 Commander Business Grant. They call it Chess-Nuts.

After Amazon's announcement last May that it is now selling more kindle books than print books, CAL (Copyright Agency Limited) decided to determine if Australian publishers and authors are ready for the digital revolution. In a survey, it found that, while many see the digital revolution as a significant opportunity, only a small percentage has a defined digital strategy.