Since Federation, Australian agriculture has received less Federal Government support than manufacturing

Since Federation, the level of Federal Government assistance given to the agriculture industry has been far less than the manufacturing sector, according to a study by two University of Melbourne economists.

Via: Business Regulation RSS Feed from 891 ABC Adelaide

All government boards to be abolished by South Australian Government

All government boards and committees in South Australia are to be abolished and only those which can prove their worth will be reinstated. The SA Government has put 440 boards on notice, with the axe will swing at the end of October. Parole and economic development boards will survive the chop and be reinstated, but some agricultural, health and other advisory committees could be gone.

Via: Business Regulation RSS Feed from 891 ABC Adelaide

Cost burden on business leads to suspension of new building safety codes

Three health-and-safety codes of practice are being suspended in South Australia because of the cost burden on business.

Via: Business Regulation RSS Feed from 891 ABC Adelaide

Consumer office defends planned trade licence changes

Acting commissioner for Consumer and Business Services Dini Soulio said his office can take submissions from trade associations if they have worries about proposed licence changes.

Via: Business Regulation RSS Feed from 891 ABC Adelaide

News Ltd boss ready for regulation fight

News Limited chief executive Kim Williams has threatened a High Court challenge if the Federal Government pushes ahead with recommendations from the Finklestein inquiry.

Via: Business Regulation RSS Feed from 891 ABC Adelaide

Bizot and Croser - a marriage made in the vineyard

Xavier Bizot knew enough about corporate law that he wanted to become a vigneron so he and his family packed their bags, bid Paris a fond adieu and headed for the Adelaide Hills Down Under.

Via: News Articles - Primary Industries

Pacific Brands' Sheridan leaving South Australia for Queensland distribution base

Homewares company Sheridan is shifting operations to from SA to Queensland, with the promise of improved efficiency and customer service, but dozens of Adelaide jobs are going.

Via: Economic Trends RSS Feed from 891 ABC Adelaide

Homebuyers 'unprotected' from bankrupt real estate agent Shane Snellgrove, commissioner warns

Homebuyers and sellers are being warned not to deal with a bankrupt real estate agent operating in South Australia.

Via: Small Business RSS Feed from 891 ABC Adelaide

How About 54% More Leads?

Fast fact:  Practicing inbound marketing results in 54% more leads than outbound marketing, according to HubSpot. But what exactly is inbound marketing, and how does it differ from the way most small businesses market themselves?

If you’ve ever been to one of those networking events where small business owners mingle and make contacts, you’ll probably know this guy: the “pusher.” The pusher shoves his business card in your hand, makes idle small talk that somehow revolves entirely about him, and disappears only when he detects a new victim he can push his card to.

Luckily, this type of event also happens to be the natural habitat of the “puller,” the one who earns your attention by taking an actual interest in your business. She offers tips and advice to overcome your challenges, and volunteers to send you some useful info if you give her your email address.

Those two characters, ladies and gentlemen, are the best examples of outbound marketing and inbound marketing. The first refers to traditional marketing that’s based on pushing and “interrupting” consumers via cold calling, flyers, and emails (as well as billboards and TV/radio spots for big companies). Problem is, studies show that consumers are becoming more and more resilient to that type of marketing: They throw away flyers, ignore mails, and even worse, don’t even see banners anymore, let alone click them.

So what does affect consumers these days? Well, according to a study published last year, 81% of customers go online and read before they make purchases. That’s where inbound marketing comes into play.

Inbound is all about pulling (instead of pushing) current and prospective customers with valuable online content they are already on the lookout for. This content could be text-based like a blog post, or visual like a video or infographic. The basic goals you’ll want to keep in mind are providing quality info to the consumer and finding the right way to connect to your product through that content.

For example, when you think about marketing ideas for restaurants, coupons and print ads usually come to mind. But why not use the best types of content these businesses can offer? For instance, recipes are some of the most popular online attractions, so it’s only natural for a restaurant owner to open a blog with unique recipes—and then use that blog to encourage readers to visit their restaurant. A beauty salon owner, on the other hand, can easily create helpful videos that teach viewers how to create certain hairstyles. That way, when a potential customer searches online for a specific look, they are more likely to discover the video star’s beauty salon—especially if the video is particularly popular.

Of course, if you have a mobile app, inbound marketing is a great way to get people to download it. When consumers read your useful content and then want to stay in touch, it can help to suggest that they download your app to access even more quality content. You can also add content channels like a newsfeed, Facebook, and Instagram to practice inbound marketing within your app.

Now that you understand the value and meaning of inbound marketing, here are eight simple steps you can take to start off on the right foot:

  DEFINE 
As many successful entrepreneurs will tell you, the key to success in life starts with defining what you want to achieve. Answer the following questions:

• “What is my goal? Do I want to raise sales, get more app downloads, or get more reviews?”
• “Who is my target audience? What are their age, gender, and hobbies?”
• “What types of content are they looking for online? What content will bring them actual value?”
• “What sort of content can I provide to offer that information to them? Should I write a guide, shoot a short video, or publish a blog post?”

Have a pen handy? Go ahead and write your answers to all those questions now!

  CREATEOnce you’ve defined your goals, your audience, and the topics they’ll be interested in, you can start producing valuable content! A great way to start is by creating your own blog, as blogs are often considered to be at the heart of inbound marketing. You may want to use WordPress, a free do-it-yourself tool that allows you to create a blog, embed it in your existing website, and even get stats and data about your blog readers. If you don’t feel you have the skills to pull off strong written content, consider alternatives that show your expertise, such as instructional videos and product reviews.

  SHOWIf you choose blogging as a core part of your inbound strategy, keep in mind that too much text could become tiresome for the average consumer. Use interesting and relevant images to spice up your post and make it much more attractive. If you’re a good photographer, you can use images you took yourself, but you can also use free images from sites like Wikimedia Commons (just remember to give credit where needed).

  CONNECTOne of the biggest challenges businesses face is not creating the inbound content itself, but figuring out how to convert readers into paying customers. The key is offering an effective call to action (CTA)—that short sentence that directs your readers to click, sign up, purchase, or otherwise act on the content they’ve just read. To make your CTA successful, keep these two factors in mind:

• Style: Your CTA should be actionable and answer the consumer’s eternal question: “What’s in it for me?” For instance, if you’re writing a product review and your goal is to increase your app downloads, you could end with a message like, “For more professional product reviews that save you time and money, click and download our app,” followed by a hyperlink.

• Position: Your CTA should be placed in a logical place within your content. For example, let’s take a health food shop owner who set out to increase orders through his website. He decides to write a post about the best types of food for energy throughout the day, including relevant products from his shop. At the end of the post, after reviewing the products, it’s only natural for him to close with, “For all the products listed here and many more that’ll give you an energy boost, click here.”

  SPREAD
Now that you’ve created your content, your major mission is to spread it to your customers.Remember your social media channels? Now is the perfect time to post your content on Facebook and Twitter. Not only will you reach your fans directly, but you’ll also supply them with valuable information they long for, the stuff social media marketing gold is made off. Make sure to ask your fans to share the content posted in your updates and tweets.

Got a newsletter or a mailing list? Take this opportunity to grab your customers’ interest by offering them useful content in their inboxes!

  NURTUREInbound marketing is a lot like parenting: It takes time, care, and learning from mistakes to make the best of it. Just like a parent wouldn’t expect their child to start running in their first month, you shouldn’t expect to see significant results immediately. Sure, some of the customers will click your CTA, but most customers will come, read, and go—and that’s OK. Inbound marketing is about creating long-term relationships. Even if they haven’t bought your product on their first visit, if they now know you supply quality content, ultimately they will be more inclined to read your next piece. Provide useful content, and you are bound to see the results on your platform’s statistics page.

  PERSISTInstead of getting discouraged if the statistics say certain types of content do not click with your customers, take it as a learning experience and continue to experiment. Choose a different topic, place the images in another location, or make subtle changes in the CTA. In the end, you’ll find the perfect formula that suits your clients.

  COMBINEInbound marketing is an amazing tool, but that doesn’t mean you should rely solely on it. Instead, combine outbound and inbound techniques to create a killer strategy that customers won’t be able to resist. For instance, send an email with a free how-to blog post and a promotional discount to help drive sales. The key is to always offer actual value and then top it off with a tempting promotion.

If the past couple of years are any indication (and I think they are), inbound is only going to become a more powerful force in online marketing—increasing profits, boosting app downloads, and creating customer relationships. For those businesses still living in the outbound-dominated past, now is the time to start using inbound techniques to better reach customers.

What are your inbound marketing tips? Share them—or any questions—in the comments below

Mobile Business Is Booming—Miss it and Miss Out! - POSTED BY INNA KUBOVSKI IN SMALL BUSINESS MATTERS

For anyone still dubious about mixing mobile with business, it’s time to get used to the new reality: Mobile is no longer the future. It’s the present. Everywhere you look, the signs point to more and more growth for mobile—and we haven’t even seen the wearable device movement take off yet. The numbers speak for themselves:

• According to The New York Times, the mobile industry is now valued at more than $1.6 trillion. It’s expected to spike to a multi-trillion dollar industry in the next ten years.

• Almost a billion smartphones were shipped in 2013, according to Business Insider.

• On average, we spend one hour each day on our smartphones.

• Perhaps most important of all, mobile devices are the only media devices growing with regards to how much time we spend using them. Time spent on mobiles increased another 8% in 2013, while time spent on desktop, radio, and print all decreased. Amazingly, over a fifth of all Internet traffic is now happening via mobile devices.

And we’re not just using mobiles for fun and games anymore. Mobile devices now account for about 25% of e-commerce traffic and 13% of e-commerce sales. PayPal witnessed $30 billion in mobile transactions in 2013, while Starbucks saw a billion dollars. Apple, meanwhile, earned $10 billion in app revenue last year.

Let’s also remember that the great mobile boom is changing small businesses just as much as big ones—if not more so. A recent survey commissioned by AT&T and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship (SBE) Council found that small business owners save some $67.5 billion a year by using mobile apps, tablets, and smartphones in their day-to-day business activities. “Apps offer small businesses a means to increase revenues and visibility, as well as enhance the customer experience,” Marla Tabaka explains in Inc. “Whether you own a restaurant, offer a service, write a blog, run events, or manage a DIY platform, you can grow your business just by adding an app.”

The revenue is expected to just keep coming. In her recent State of the Internet talk, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers partner Mary Meeker predicted use of mobiles will keep growing. Meeker sees a $30 billion opportunity in U.S. mobile advertising alone, as consumers spend more and more time on the channel.

Those in the marketing industry take note: Mobile app revenue now accounts for 68% of mobile monetization, making it the biggest opportunity for marketers. What’s more, Gartner predicts that global revenue from app stores will further increase 62% this year to $25 billion.

One vertical that will especially benefit from the mobile boom is the travel industry, with PhoCusWright estimating that by 2015 mobile will make up a quarter of U.S. online travel sales and a fifth of bookings in Europe. This is up from 2% of U.S. online bookings in 2011.

With this kind of growth, it’s no wonder that the Mobile World Congress trade show is such a huge event—this February there were a record 72,000 attendees. As the Times puts it, the event has “evolved from a networking event for industry insiders to a convention where companies from all corners gather to introduce new gear, services, and partnerships to gain attention in an increasingly crowded market.”

It comes down to this: Mobile has become a key channel for reaching customers and sparking sales, whether or not those sales actually occur on a phone. If you’re running a business—big or small—and mobile is not a central part of your strategy, you’re missing out. Big time.

Do you agree? How do you see mobile impacting your business? Share your thoughts!

 - POSTED BY INNA KUBOVSKI IN SMALL BUSINESS MATTERS

Rates and The Election

The Effects of the Upcoming Election on Interest Rates

Prime Minister Julia Gillard caught both the financial and political community by surprise by calling for elections on 14 September 2013. 

Many analysts believe that the reason underlying her announcement is the increased criticism her minority Labor government faces about their abandonment of the pledge to deliver a budget surplus in 2013. 

When Treasurer Wayne Swan initially presented the 2013 budget in July 2012, it included a forecast of $1.5 billion. In October, he announced the surplus would only be $1 billion. 

Unfortunately, this trend has continued and the now a $10 billion deficit is forecast for 2013.


While Paul Bloxham of HBSC Australia sees this is a significant improvement over the 2012 deficit of $44 billion, those in the opposition parties have not been as generous in their assessment.

How Labor Got It Wrong

Much of the Labor budget depends upon generating revenue from taxes on the mining industry. As China's economy has begun to cool somewhat, the demand for raw materials has dropped, especially for iron ore. As a result, investors are pulling back from the mining industry, which was spurred by announcements by Rio Pinto and BHP Billiton of their plans to slow expansion and cut jobs. This slowdown in the mining industry has revealed the flaws in Labor's scheme to rely on taxes from the mining industry.

Both Parties have lost the electorates trust in the past

The Liberal Alternative

The opposition Liberal party advocates for cuts in government spending to close the budget deficit in a manner similar to the austerity schemes of the governments in Europe and the UK.
Given that the Australian economic growth has slowed to about 3 per cent and unemployment as risen to 5.5 per cent, which is the highest it has been in the past three years, the wisdom of government spending cuts has been brought into question. 

In October 2012, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Olivier Blanchard, discussed his observation that the austerity measures enacted in the European Union have done more harm than good by choking  economic recoveries by withdrawing the lifeblood of government stimulus spending that makes up for reduced consumer demand.

RBA Interest Rate Trends

The Reserve Bank of Australia's interest reduction cycle seems to support the viewpoint that the Australian economy needs some stimulus in order to stimulate continued economic growth.
With its 0.25-point cut of interest rates to 2 per cent in December 2012, the rates have reached lows not seen since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

While the global economy has shown some optimistic signs of late, Westpac's Bill Evens does not think they are sufficient to support growth in demand.

Bottom Line: Interest Rates and the Elections

The forecasts from analysts for the election and interest rates are as different as the parties themselves.

Norma Martin Whetton, an interest rate strategist, thinks that a lengthy election campaign will put a damper on consumer confidence.

Normally interest rate drops favour the incumbent, but if the RBA drops interest rates as a result of the slow growth and high unemployment, the advantage goes to the opposition.

ANZ's Andrew Salter thinks that the call for early elections suggests a change in government, and this will affect the interests rates as business investment planners make their assessments of how austerity measures will affect the overall economy.

Overall, investors can expect to see broad swings in interest rates during the next several months in reaction to the developments in the election campaigns

" China's latest announcement just pricked Australia's property bubble.

News for the Australian Property Market raises concerns as China announces a new energy conserving policy that will cut demand of coal dramatically after 2015.

Speaking about the Chinese Government Energy Conservation plan Mr Jiang Kejun, as spokesperson for the Chinese Government told the media ''Coal consumption will peak below 4 billion tonnes,'' by 2015.

Over last 12 years demand for coal from china has increased 2.4 billion tonnes, or 163 per cent, the news from China makes it clear that future demand will a return to much more moderate levels.

Commenting on the news, Mr Antonio Santolo, CEO of The Property Advocacy Group of Australia and founder of the popular free advocacy website mypropertycoach.com.au states “that this news will send shock waves throughout our mining regions” indicating a lot of smaller players and start up  projects will struggle to find demand for their product at a price that will make it viable to dig the stuff out of the ground” Santolo further explains how there is already strong evidence of a more balanced property market in the regions, “the money was made in these areas over the last 5 or so years, the people that had the foresight or the luck to hold property at that time done very well, however like any Real Estate purchase the profit is in the buying, so everyone that saw the rise and jumped on the band wagon most likely brought at prices that were not fundamentally sustainable. This is going to leave a lot of people in financial stress if markets start returning to the more sustainable areas”

Santolo predicts a large decrease in demand for long term Rental accommodation with a shift to portable accommodation in regional areas over the next 2 -5 years with miners looking for a flexible workforce, Santolo explains “When guys like Gerry Harvey are getting involved in temporary mining accommodation units there is a reason why, They obviously feel the money is to be made in supplying the accommodation as a business and are not relying on the local market to dictate prices”

Santolo recommends anyone who is holding property as an investment in these areas needs to speak to an independent advisor now, “like any problem, tackling it head on will make the outcome a lot better that sticking your head in the sand”

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