Latest News
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Money talk: shopping for a business loan
Jacqui Colwell | August 30, 2011
Coming to grips with your cash flow peaks and troughs is essential to determine your ability to repay a business loan.
Below are my top business-lending tips. -
Have your say: Tax Reform
Helen Hull | August 30, 2011
The Federal Government will hold a forum on tax reform in October to help identify priorities and directions for the future of taxation in Australia.
I’d like to invite First 5000 members to share their views on the way forward by presenting their ideas as blogs on our site ahead of the forum. -
Have your say: Digital Local Government
Helen Hull | August 29, 2011The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has called for stakeholder comments on draft guidelines for the Digital Local Government program.
Comments from First 5000 members will help to develop the final guidelines, which will determine how the program is implemented.
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Interest rate forecast: what’s ahead?
NAB - Business View | August 24, 2011To set interest rates, inflation takes centre stage. The Reserve Bank (RBA) primarily focuses on inflationary pressures. Then, to a lesser extent, it focuses on asset prices and forward indicators of inflation, such as labour costs and the strength of activity and labour markets.
“The RBA is particularly concerned that the labour market is tightening and will result in higher wages,” explains NAB’s Chief Economist, Alan Oster. “Also, it expects a strong bounce in activity as Queensland recovers [from natural disasters] and the mining boom kicks in.”
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Corporate Express challenges Aussie businesses to go green
Jennifer Levasseur | August 23, 2011
When it comes to the environment, everyone can make a difference. No matter how big or small the steps you take it all counts and at Corporate Express we want to help.
Corporate Express’ Go Green Guide – for a Greener Workspace aims to encourage and facilitate sustainable procurement for Australian businesses. The guide includes tangible advice and simple ‘how to’ steps for businesses of all sizes, as well as almost 1,500 EarthSaver -classified products to help businesses make the right purchasing choices.
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What is our economy to become: The future of manufacturing requires us to plan
Matthew Tukaki | August 22, 2011It is a dilemma that many businesses across Australia in some of our most traditional sectors are grappling with at the moment – and that is the future.
The recent announcement by Bluescope Steel to close its Western Port hot strip mill at Hastings and its No.6 blast furnace at Port Kembla, near Wollongong are not only blows for the more than 1,000 workers and contractors it means a significant loss for the local communities where those plants reside.
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The brains of Australian retailers…
Geoffrey McDonald Bowll | August 16, 2011For god’s sake, get the point. We can now buy overseas stuff for half the cost that’s the same frickin brand or better. Retail buck up and get with on-line retail. We consumers are sick of big retail treating us like we know they treat their suppliers; dirt. What goes around comes around.
When do you want to learn? How long does a downturn have to run before you start realising it’s the new normal and change your strategy, rather than hoping it will go back to good old business as usual?
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Why Brands Matter
Simon Rowell | August 15, 2011
Over the past decade or so there have been sporadic attacks against the idea of brands and branding. This is mainly when branding gets thrown together with the idea of globalisation, reaching an early crescendo with the publication of “No Logo” by Canadian author Naomi Klein in 2000.
Perhaps due to the fact that brand advocates tend towards an almost religious belief in the virtues of branding, or because they believe that people who subscribe to anti-branding rhetoric are arguably just a disaffected rabble who live off the benefits from the capitalism that they condemn, the people who should fight the fight on behalf of brands are generally fairly passive in its defence. -
Challenges confront Australian retail industry
Les Pickett | August 9, 2011
Workplace flexibility, trading hours, enterprise bargaining, productivity measures, regulatory restrictions, online retailing and exemptions from GST are all included in the Australian Government Productivity Commission draft report on the Economic Structure and Performance of the Australian Retail Industry.
Australia’s 140,000 retail businesses employ around 10.7 per cent of our workforce and accounts for 4.2 per cent of our GDP. -
US credit downgrade is not the end of the world
Les Pickett | August 7, 2011Given all the sensational stuff in the media, the following point of view might give a bit of balance.
US credit downgrade is not the end of world. Standard & Poor’s AA rating indicates a very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.
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Nokia offers entrepreneurs $10,000
Helen Hull | August 7, 2011
Time is running out for First 5000 members to submit their business ideas for the chance to win $10,000 grant from Nokia.
The competition is set to close on the 14th August 2011.
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Shopping online from a Fair Trading perspective
Anthony Roberts | August 1, 2011For consumers, shopping online offers ease, convenience, variety and the potential for considerable savings.
For retailers, selling online is an opportunity to expand their market, reduce costs and increase turnover.
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Have your say: energy efficiency standards
Helen Hull | August 1, 2011Would you like to be involved in the development of government policy?
The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency is coordinating consultation on the draft Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards Bill 2011 (GEM) and invites written submissions regarding the GEMS consultation paper by Thursday 18 August 2011.
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Are you more Optimistic than your team?
Charlotte Park | July 26, 2011
The higher up you go in an organisation the more resilience and optimism you will find, because it is these traits that get people promoted in the first place.
All roles have a minimum level of experience, skills and education needed to adequately perform the role, but once that minimum is there, higher levels of those factors don’t differentiate people’s performance – it is resilience that makes the difference. -
How to lease or buy an office
Greg Russell | July 25, 2011Whether a tenant is looking for 100sqm or 1,000sqm office the considerations are often the same – finding a space that provides staff with a comfortable working environment to come to every day.
To most businesses, the influencing factors in finding a new office space will include: how many staff they are looking to accommodate; how they will get to work and once they are there; and the efficiency of the space they are in.
