Commerce Ballarat Weekly Bulletin 18 May - 24 May
Upcoming Events
Business Awards Workshops
Details: Quest Apartments
7 Dawson Street Nth Ballarat
These workshops will include assistance in addressing the criteria and information on what the judges are looking for. The workshops will focus on the following areas:
1. Planning and preparation - What to do before you start writing your application
2. Creating award winning answers - How to sell your business in a few words
3. Proofing, cutting, editing and adding value
4. 10 top tips
Past and first time entrants will benefit from these workshops.
Work shop 2 - 29 May at 2pm REGISTER HERE:
Work shop 3 - 3 June at 5.45pm REGISTER HERE:
Commerce Ballarat 505 Club
Date:13 Jun 2013
Non Members: $16.50
Members: Free
Details: Bank of Melbourne
Shop 27 Central Square Shopping Centre
5.30pm - 7.30pm
An evening of networking and fostering relationships to grow your business.
Drinks and Savouries provided
Members and Non-Members: REGISTER HERE
Members News
Business Day Out 2013
Why did everyone love the day!! view video>>>
CB Business Achievement Award - Members Time to Nominate
This award aims to recognise either an individual or a business who has contributed over many years to business and the whole of the Ballarat community. Previous winners Bill Flynn W.M. Flynn and Geoff Torney BJT have set a very high standard but we know that there are many unsung heroes in our city. Nominations will be open until 5pm June 14, members can email Jodie@commerceballarat.com.au
stating in 50 words or less why they believe their nominee should be considered. Criteria
CB Member Feedback Survey
Commerce Ballarat is committed to supporting our members, we would appreciate your feedback on our performance over the past year. Please visit this
link to give us your input.
Congratulations Volunteer Award Winners
Voice FM 99.9 - Community Organisation Award
A Community Radio Station broadcasting 24/7 run entirely by a team of volunteers. The station caters for the needs of those people who are not adequately served by existing media in Central Victoria. Their focus is always on finding ways for new volunteers to be a part of the team. The growth of Voice FM has been achieved through a constant emphasis on training and mentoring the volunteers, and to always be improving their skills.
Official Opening Invite
Members you are invited to attend the opening of Michelle Dunn Photography’s new premises Tuesday June 4 6pm - 8pm. More information
Articles
Retail urges govt to restore consumer confidence
Source: Business Spectator 24 May, 2013
The federal government needs to restore consumer confidence by securing jobs and ensuring less red tape, says Australia's peak retail group. The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) also called for cuts to taxes and a review of the GST to assist retailers who face a challenging operating environment in a pre-election submission released in Melbourne. ARA president Roger Gillespie called for better economic management from the federal government, saying the cost of doing business in Australia was prohibitive. "The main thing we would hope with any change in government is it's a government that will restore confidence in the hearts and mind of consumers," he told AAP.
"They (need to) feel comfortable their jobs will be intact and they can go out and spend and buy whatever they need." Mr Gillespie also called for more infrastructure to make the economy productive, to cut red tape, restrain wages and penalty rate increases, and for more transparent national retail tenancy laws. "The cost of doing business in Australia is horrifically high. A big part of that is wages. We want to see a restraint in wage increases," he said. "We'd (also ) like to see a review of the GST with an emphasis on broadening the GST, not increasing it."
Gen y: entitled or talented?
Source: The Age May 21, 2013
Whether you call it entrepreneurial flair or a restless spirit, many Generation Ys are planning on leaving their jobs to start their own show. This means if you employ younger people, research shows you're going to need to pull out all stops to keep their attention.
The Millennials and the Future of Work survey, commissioned by online workplace oDesk and Generation Y consulting firm Millennial Branding, interviewed more than 3000 freelance professionals worldwide about their attitude to work.
The research found that freedom and flexibility were the key motivators of the Generation Y workforce (defined as 19- to 30-year-olds); 92 per cent said they preferred freelance work so they could work wherever they liked, and 87 per cent said they wanted to work whenever they liked. More than half of the freelancers surveyed - many of them also in traditional 9-to-5 jobs - see themselves as entrepreneurs, and 72 per cent of those surveyed plan to leave their day jobs.
Adam Griffiths, 26, works full time as an engineer for a large company in Sydney and is also in the final stages of developing of his online business 1ad.com, which streamlines the process of writing and placing job advertisements.
Griffiths agrees with the survey findings that independence and the flexibility of choosing work hours are his primary motivations for creating a start-up. He hopes to leave his full-time job if 1ad.com takes off in the next year.
"Once I get $1000 profit a week, I will think about [leaving]. I always call my day job my back-up plan."
With experience both as an employee and an entrepreneur, Griffiths says he finds the traditional work structures frustrating.
"I'm sitting on both sides of the fence - I'm in a job which is as traditional as you can get and in the entrepreneurial and innovative space as lean as you can do it," he says.
"Looking at the hierarchies in my organisation, it just drives me crazy looking at the amounts of hoops you have to jump through and signatures you have to get up the tree."
Griffiths is looking forward to the change that will occur in traditional organisations as Generation X (31- to 48-year-olds) replace Baby Boomers in senior management roles.
"In big corporations things will really start to change. In my theory, everything in the world is technology-based now, whatever your company does. You might be in project management, but secondly you are a technology company. You really have to embrace technology if you want to be competitive."
Griffiths says if his start-up is a success, he will create a work culture that gives his employees and freelancers the type of flexibility he craves.
"I definitely would let them work from home a percentage of the time and I'd set up my business systems, which is critical, with metrics that allows you to track people's output, to assess whether they're doing work."
Peter James is a Baby Boomer and chairman at Ninefold, a provider of cloud-based virtual servers. He employs 35 full-time staff in its Sydney office and 90 per cent of them are Generation Y. He also employs about 12 freelancers around the world.
James says the best way to satisfy the restless spirit of Generation Y workers is to provide them with a workplace that has an entrepreneurial spirit.
"My aim is to give them not just a good work environment ... it's to give them really state-of-the-art creative work. As long as I can keep iterating and evolving the business I am able to attract good people," he says.
Although James describes his role managing Generation Ys as sometimes being like herding cats, he says he enjoys the vibrant attitude of this generation of employees.
"They're very honest people - they will speak their mind: they do that without fear or favour. That is refreshing as an employer. You have to be able to be prepared for that."
Other Generation Y attributes James lists are their resistance to layers of hierarchy, their need to contribute value, to be challenged and to have fun. Read more
Australian Bureau of Statistics
8165.0 Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits , Jun 2008 to Jun 2012
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8165.0?OpenDocument
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