Business & enterprise [view: normal]

Compared with Norway, where the Government has mandated that listed company boards have a composition of at least 40 per cent women, the number of female directors on ASX 200 company boards is quite shocking, at just 8.3 per cent. And in what we hope is not the beginning of a downwards trend, the figure has dropped from last year’s 8.7 per cent.

Australia also rates poorly compared with other Wes...

Businesses, government and community organisations are encouraged to apply for the 2009-10 National Work-Life Balance Awards (the Awards) ahead of the closing date on COB Friday, 18 September 2009.

The Awards will acknowledge leaders in various industry sectors who excel in offering work, life and family initiatives. There will be 13 award category winners and one overall national winner.

In response to a common question being asked at the moment, the ATO has advised as follows:

The tax office definition of a small business is: an individual, partnership, trust or company with aggregated turnover less than $2 million. An aggregated turnover is your annual turnover of any businesses you are connected or affiliated with.

If your previous year’s aggregated turnover (gross income not ...

The Federal Government has released its issues paper on the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace legislation and called for public comment.

Submissions close on 16 October 2009 and instructions on how to make submissions are included in the paper.

Women in the workforce have undeniably come a long way since the days of blatant discrimination and sexism in the 70s.

But in her media release ...

The Assistant Treasurer has warned taxpayers of a door-to-door scam operated by people claiming to be consultants from the Tax Office.

Senator Nick Sherry said the bogus consultants ask people to sign up to a supposed Government program promising financial incentives, including a reduction in taxes. The offer is a fraud and under no circumstances, should anyone give personal information includ...

In a long overdue move, the Federal Government has finally taken steps to simplify the onerous burden of small business reporting requirements.

It has released new Standard Business Reporting (SBR) taxonomy and tools, so that software developers can begin building programs for their business and accounting systems.

In practical terms, this means that when the system’s up and running, instead of ...

Shadow Tourism Minister Steven Ciobo has advised herVoice of an issue of serious concern to Australia’stourism industry, which has already been hard hit by the economic downturn. Tourism Australia’s CEO left in June - and $40,000 of taxpayers’ money has already been paid over the past nine months to global consultancy Spencer Stuart to locate his replacement.

A quick search of Hansard by herVoi...

Opposition launches campaign for nominations.

Small business owners are being urged to nominate the worst, most idiotic, piece of red tape they have experienced as part of a campaign launched this week by the Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull, and Shadow Small Business Minister Steven Ciobo.

As part of its target to reduce red tape in Australia to the lowest level of all developed economie...

Inc magazine’s The Best Industries to Start a Business Right Now -lists 18 industries poised for growth.

herVoice is proud that so many ABN members have already identified those opportunities and are growing successful businesses in those areas!

Seeing what these entrepreneurial women have achieved with little or no government assistance at all, leads herVoice to wonder what Australia’s SME sector...

A new resource for small business owners facing a life-
threatening illness

Developed by the Victorian Government, the Illness and Business Management Plan offers practical support to small business owners,  in the form of information sheets, checklists, contacts and case studies.

It helps business owners plan for the day-to-day running and long-term future of their businses, while they come to te...

Reading this article in today’s Daily Telegraph has brought on a reflective mood to herVoice.

By necessity, herVoice was a full-time working sole parent for many years. Her over-riding memories of those years are the daily feeling of heartache and guilt she lived with at having to choose between her child and her work.

But at least herVoice had choices which gave her the opportunity to do what ...

Last month, serviced office provider Servcorp asked 7,500 international businesspeople from more than 24 nations to identity which countries they believe are surviving the crisis best.

Both international and Australian businesspeople voted Australia first, followed by China and Singapore.

The top concerns of Australian businesspeople during the economic downturn were reported as being low morale i...

herVoice has just been advised by our friends in Canberra that the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, Chris Bowen,  released a public consultation paper last week entitled The Australian Consumer Law – Consultation on draft provisions on unfair contract terms

Interested parties are invited to comment on the draft provisions.

Closing date is this Friday, 2...

Despite his spin doctors’ trumpeting about parental leave, increased pensions and the other warm and fuzzy feel-goods in yesterday’s Federal Budget, Treasurer Swan finally came clean in his post-Budget address to the National Press Club yesterday.

Amongst other dire predictions, he told his audience that “more small businesses will have gone under” before things improve.   He then spoke about th...

You’ve no doubt heard the highlights of the 2009 Budget brought down last Tuesday. But, what does it mean for your small business? Ask your questions here and we’ll help point you in the right direction to find answers. In the meantime here are a couple of resources: Dyamic Business and Smart Company have both covered the main issues that impact small business.

I do have a question for you though:...

Australia remains one of the easiest nations for entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, winning ninth place on an annual index of 122 countries, according to Los Angeles-based independent economic think tank the Milken Institute. 

But it’s not all good news. 

The picture drawn in the MiIken Institute’s report is in fact a damning and very concerning one.  In the one area that is most control...

herVoice just found a great free resource on the ACCC’s website - “The Little Black Book of Scams - your guide to scams, swindles, rorts and rip-offs“.   You can download a copy, or the ACCC will mail you a printed copy.  Typical scams targeted at small business are on page  34....

In our current (and now it’s official) recessionary environment, herVoice is appalled that Australia’s federal politicians have accepted the “Discretionary Electorate Allowance” of just under $5,000 pa granted to them earlier this week.

The key word is “discretionary”. If our pollies decide not to spend the allowance, they can keep it as taxable income. So for those parliamentarians who choose not...

Bank exit fees in the firing line

The Federal Government is considering banning bank ‘exit fees’ to help borrowers frustrated by the failure of lenders to pass on interest-rate cuts.

Cabinet sources report that the Government is furious at the banks’ refusal to pass on the most recent 0.25 per cent cut in full, accusing them of ‘hijacking’ monetary policy as the Reserve Bank tries to free up cash ...

The Australian Government has announced the introduction of the Fresh Ideas for Work and Family grants program to support Australian small businesses to implement practices that help employees balance their work and family obligations as well as improve employee retention and productivity.

The program provides grants of $5,000 to $15,000 (GST inclusive) to small businesses to help meet the set-up ...

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research recently updated the ABN on the progress of the Small Business and General Business Tax Break announced on 3 February.

We were interested to note the example provided by Sen Carr of a tradesperson who purchases a $30,000 utility before the end of the financial year being able to claim an additional $9,000 deduction in their 2008-09 tax re...

PAID parental leave would cost taxpayers half as much as the Government’s key economic adviser says; and would create an extra 8900 jobs by stimulating the economy.

In a paper to be released today, the Australia Institute has challenged the Productivity Commission’s costings for a publicly funded parental leave scheme and warned of the economic costs of stalling on the measure.

The Australia Insti...

THE global recession has helped to make history in Australia with the number of working women in full-time and part-time jobs surpassing the number of men in full-time jobs for the first time on record last month.

The gender gap in favour of women is small on paper: just 5000 jobs.  But just a year ago, the advantage to full-time men over all working women was a still respectable 123,000.

Recent s...

Today’s media has triumphantly and repetitively trumpeted the fact that forty-something “Dancing with the Stars” host Sonia Kruger has “admitted” to using Botox and having her teeth cosmetically enhanced. 

This is news?

It makes me wonder what we’ve come to as a society, where a middle aged woman’s right to privacy is ignored in the interests of commercialism.  Yes, if we believe what we read...

The Autumn edition of the herVoice newsletter highlights an issue that affects all of us – the impact of the global economic climate on Australian business.

herVoice | Autumn 2009

In the feature article, ABN Board member and business strategist, Susan Wareham McGrath writes about the current situation and provides plenty of practical tips and tools to assist your business in surviving the rec...