For years, Australian entrepreneurs dreamed of riding the Chinese dragon. Now, at last, Aussie SMEs are too busy wheeling and dealing in China to waste time dreaming. China’s sudden rise in global economic hierarchy is on everyone’s lips. With double-digit economic growth levels for almost two decades, China’s global influence is a major chapter in…
Australia’s presence in Hollywood is world-famous. Now, a window has opened for Aussie tech companies to stage a similar assault on the uS advertising and media industry. But, as Brad Howarth argues, time is of the essence.
Rhodesian born Greg Wilkinson began adult life as a global wanderer. He eventually settled in Sydney and founded a small software publishing company called Reckon. After much sweat and a little luck, Reckon Software grew into an Australian powerhouse, with small business accounting software Quicken the jewel in its crown. After a dot-com dalliance, a…
SPONSORED EDITORIAL The digitisation of the entertainment industry is disrupting life for existing businesses but it is opening up a myriad of opportunities for new ones. A recent seminar and exhibition, staged by the Australian Technology Showcase, Stanford Association Australia and AIMIA, identified where some of the serious opportunities lie for businesses in the new…
Robot makes a clean sweep Automation is an integral part of modern life: machines answer phones, wash cars and dispense cash. But there’s one aspect of life where most of us would like to be even more hands off — cleaning the floors. Working in the industrial cleaning industry, Murray McDonald decided to find a…
The timing was bad, but the growth was fast. In March 2000, with many internet start-ups disappearing off the radar, 25-year-old Leigh Jasper quit his job at McKinsey & Company and threw his hat into the dot-com ring. With business partner Rob Phillpot, Jasper managed to raise capital for Aconex, an online information management solution…
Grant Writing Grant writing is a specialist art. Writing from the heart or what you think an assessor wants to hear is not usually the best approach. Here are our top tips for preparing a great application. Know the rules Constructing a grant application is not like constructing IKEA furniture. You must read the guidelines…
Champ acquires golding contractors In March CHAMP Private Equity, along with existing Golding Management, acquired Queensland-based mining and civil infrastructure services company Golding Contractors Pty Ltd. The acquisition price was undisclosed. However, total revenue will be over A$350 million per annum for Golding, with expected EBITDA of $50 million. The company specialises in…
Standard business philosophy states that there’s always something to learn from failure. Not so, according to Barry Moltz, author of Bounce! Failure, Resiliency, and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success. Moltz believes sometimes failure just sucks. However, he also acknowledges that businesses can continue to succeed if failures can be absorbed and managed. Bounce!…
Let’s face it, sex sells! That’s no great epiphany. But have you ever considered whether or not you have the attractor factor to bring together key support networks and clients? This vital element can be just the thing you need to tip your sales over the edge. And dare I say it, it has everything…
Storytelling is a really important skill for entrepreneurs or any start-up. Quite often ‘a story’ is the first thing we have (after our idea or business cards). A story to tell potential investors A story to tell potential customers A story to tell potential employees A story to tell… The truth about stories is that…
A major challenge for any business owner is how to get others to help run the business, so that it doesn’t completely take over your life. You can look over everybody’s shoulder all of the time, do most things yourself… or you can invest in systems to free yourself and make life easier for staff……
It’s hard enough getting found in Google without having to struggle against complete stuff-ups by your web developer. Ever wondered if web design might be part of your organic ranking woes? We constantly find ourselves fixing sites that treat Google with complete contempt. Don’t get me wrong, some of my best friends are web developers…….
Companies that value their own intellectual property (IP) and are aware of their competitors’ and the competitive IP landscape will routinely watch for the acceptance and/or grant of patents by competitor companies or related entities.
One of the traps that some business owners fall into is thinking that if they announce their underlying vision for their business repeatedly, it will somehow come to be, without any further action on their part. It is often difficult to ensure that your company is able to ‘walk the talk’ – to be precisely…
Consumers are overloaded with information, choices and marketing. If you want to ensure that your marketing efforts are being applied effectively, shift your marketing away from being product or campaign centric to a focus on the customer. Many marketing strategies are so product-focused that they forget the customer they are trying to reach. Others are…
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Interviewer: Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill magazine Interviewee: Scott Karp, CEO, Publish2 Interview conducted on 14 February, 2008 Paul Ryan: In your blog post launching Publish2 back in August 2007, you wrote: Standing on Digg’s shoulders, Publish2 solves the WHO problem by creating a platform for networking the one group of people who are…
The solemn burial of The Bulletin earlier this year sent even the most stoic media professional into a long, hard navel gaze. Things used to be so simple. Once, all the news you ever needed could be found in your local newspaper, supplemented by a smattering of high profile national magazines. But the internet changed…
Business plans don’t end with the final word being penned. They require constant re-assessment and tweaking. Never ignore the value of a regular SWOT analysis. The importance of small companies business doing their SWOT analysis – examining the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats facing their business – cannot be overstated, says PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Brisbane-based partner…
BI-GOODNESS is a bi-monthly column dedicated to the quirky, generally funny and often dangerously impractical inventions and business concepts that occasionally come our way. It is a tribute to the one-eyed entrepreneur, the nutty professor and dot-com jockey in each of us. If you’re like me, there’s a reasonably good chance you haven’t worn a…
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