Rightly so, too. We have a higher rate of property ownership than lots of other countries (more than one third of Australians have a mortgage) and the proprietors of many of our 2.1 million businesses either use a home loan, business loan and/or credit cards to help support their capital needs. It’s an especially heavy load when you are at the beck and call of two or more of these funding lines.

So what’s happening at the moment with rates?

The vast majority of economists and market commentators expected a cash rate cut this month but that hasn’t eventuated. The Reserve Bank decided our economic growth was moving along at a healthy pace (significantly boosted by the resources sector), inflation was no cause for concern and interest rates were appropriately positioned at their long-term average. Hmmm…

A growing number of economists and commentators were saying prior to this month’s cash rate announcement that it was likely lenders won’t pass on 100% of a cut – to either business or home loan customers.

And now there are loud rumours of lenders moving their interest rates regardless of the Reserve’s decision to hold the cash rate steady.

The reasoning for this was and still is:

1. The rising cost of long term wholesale funding that lenders source from overseas markets, which are fairly volatile and risk averse at the moment. Reports say the ‘Big Four’ banks need to raise approximately $100 billion this year;
2. The rising cost of local funding, which is happening due to greater competition between lenders to attract deposits from Australian savers (ie. they’re paying us higher interest rates); and
3. They’ve been advised that they need to raise a larger capital buffer for difficult times, to put it simply.

Deutsche Bank said recently, “Anecdotal evidence suggests banks are already re-pricing their business books, not only through higher lending rates but also via increased line fees.”

Great. Business loans already don’t receive the same ‘positive’ attention as home loans. The latest example of this occurred in December when one big bank neglected to echo the cash rate cut and reduce its rates for businesses.

So, keep your eye out for some lenders squeezing businesses by installing higher margins between the cash rate and their actual interest rates.

This lack of loving for Australian businesses is a huge shame, from each of our personal viewpoints as well as an economic and employment viewpoint. Did you know small businesses account for one third of our gross domestic product and employ around five million people here?

The most important thing you can do to help ensure you’re not being ripped off is to take action and shop around! There are close to 30 commercial lenders in this country, 100+ residential lenders and a ton of information sources focusing on loans – from experienced mortgage brokers through to financial services sections of newspapers, business owner forums and home loan comparison websites.

Make use of them and you could find yourself in a rosier financial situation.

Email has become the lifeblood of small business. More than any other means of communication and any business tool, electronic mail is relied upon by companies for running virtually every aspect of their enterprises. And for many businesses, regardless of their size, the use of email means the use of mailboxes stored on Microsoft Exchange Server.

From simple internal communications to vital sales calls to customers to invoicing and billing and high-level decision-making, email – and Microsoft Exchange Server – is involved at every level of business life. A company could not survive without email in the same way that it could not survive without telephones or electricity. And not only does email make employees and businesses more efficient, but it is also the most cost-effective means of communication as well.

Clearly, businesses are awash in email. And that email needs to be managed for business, regulatory, and legal reasons.

Business requirements are the primary factor driving the need for email management. The main reason for this is that many companies are storing email only on the server. Here at Kroll Ontrack we conducted a survey of 177 email administrators who each managed 250 or more mailboxes and found that 37 percent of companies have email stored only on the server. Because of this, storage space is at a premium and many companies are forced to set mailbox size limits.

Kroll Ontrack discovered that 72 percent of companies have established mailbox quotas and for 25 percent, deleting email is the only remedy for employees when they reach a full quota. These limits force employees into deleting a great deal of email, even email that is vital to their work. Because employees delete email that they may still need, they make a greater number of requests to the IT department to restore their email – and in many cases, that email exists only as a backup.

So while storing mail on the server and setting mailbox size limits may solve the storage management needs of IT, it creates a conflict with the business needs of employees, thereby increasing the frequency of requests for restoring email messages from a backup.

The need to archive and restore email is also driven by regulatory demands as well. A variety of regulations require that email be kept as a normal part of doing business. While the health care industry and the financial services industries are most affected by regulations, other industries are increasingly affected as well.

Email dominates communication in today’s business environment. As a computer-based system, it has made this communication medium into a formal record, often containing vital pieces of information that may assist a company in tracking key events, employee behavior, and information exchanges. As electronically stored information (ESI), email messages can be valid legal documents and are governed by a variety of regulations and statutes requiring email retention. Email messages require secure storage and restoration, and often must be produced in the course of litigation.

In fact, more and more companies, have lost millions of dollars in court because they failed to adequately retain and produce email records when required to do so.

It is imperative that businesses understand and comply with the regulations pertaining to producing email as formal records versus simply restoring email for internal business purposes.

Email recovery can be a difficult and challenging task.  There are many software products that may assist in the recovery and production of email, but not all are compliant with the procedures required for securing email messages as documents worthy of withstanding the tests of trial.

Moving forward, ensure your company has a written policy for data retention and recovery. If your company already has a policy, then a periodic review is necessary to ensure it meets the challenges posed by new mobile devices and electronic mail systems. If your company does not have a written policy, you’re best advised to consult your IT and legal experts to have one drafted and put in place.

The Australian business world is anxiously awaiting news of how the global economy is expected to hold up for the year ahead. Retail businesses have slowed and many corporates and SMEs are cutting staff. The bottom line has never been more of a focal point for business owners and sales teams.

At Barrett, we believe that everybody lives by selling something. This rule is often forgotten or neglected by small business owners and staff when they have so many conflicting responsibilities. It’s a juggling act that never lets up. As business owners and leaders, remember that everyone in your organisation is selling your organisation – not just the sales teams. It’s a group effort and for this reason, emphasis needs to be placed on making sure everyone has access to the resources and skills needed to boost the bottom line results.

All too often selling is left to chance and businesses lack a robust sales process that works. I find this alarming because sales is crucial to business success. Without sales, there’s no business. So why is it that so many are happy to wing it?

We’ve has been mapping the knowledge, skills and insights needed for successful selling for over 17 years now and has developed three essential processes to guide successful selling. By following these essentials you can make sure your business is on the front foot for effective selling for the year ahead.

1. A Sales Planning process – to create an actionable Go-to-market sales plan
2. A Sales Prospecting process – to prospect successfully
3. A Sales Communication process – to have productive dialogues with clients and prospects

We’ve seen a dramatic shift in sales capability and performance from organisations that have employed our sales essentials. These processes lay the foundations for effective sales team which in turn results in a boosted bottom line.

The first essential step is to develop a ‘go to market’ sales action plan that clarifies who you need to be in front of, how you need to get in front of them and how often you need to do this to make it all worthwhile. Once the plan is ready get prospecting.

Prospecting is the first thing you need to do to make a sale. Make sure you and your sales team knows how to make an effective prospecting call. Better yet, make sure everyone in your organisation can make a prospecting call.

Daily prospecting when done correctly delivers sales results. Only 20 percent of sales people are effective at prospecting but it can be done well by anyone who practices. To get the ball rolling, offer your teams a sales script. Hundreds of thousands, if not, millions of sales people around the world use sales scripts. Here are the top five tips about using a sales script:

1. Work out why exactly you are calling someone before you pick up the phone;
2. Be human. Use simple language that the customer understands;
3. When writing your script, keep your customer in mind. It’s not all about you, it’s about them. Communicate with potential leads by asking people about their priorities, problems and aims before discussing your own.
4. Be brief. Don’t talk their ear off. Allow for questions.
5. What do you want from the call? Make sure you aim to achieve a result be it a meeting appointment, follow-up call, donation, purchase, etc.

The really good news is that prospecting fears can be unlearnt. Research indicates that productive sales teams are highly trained. Give your team access to prospecting skills training or invest in coaching. The results are worth it.

The last essential step is to communicate effectively by asking people about their priorities, problems and objectives before you talk about yourself and what you have to offer.

When you give people what they need they start to get traction and grow.  Do yourself a favour and make sure you and your sales people are well equipped with the three sales essentials.

Check out the Annual Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report to see what’s in store for your business in 2012. Click here to download it.

Last month we talked about your organisation’s cultural agenda for 2012. Growing and evolving your organisational culture in the right direction is everyone’s role and responsibility. This coupled with a common purpose and goals are imperative in order to mobilise and synchronise your workforce. So why do find we have employees who behave like they are part of the competition? Why do we have pockets of them within our organisation deliberately behaving like they are playing on a different team to the rest of us within the organisation?

I always thought the competition was on the outside of our organisation and not on the inside, but unfortunately that is not the case in some organisations. So why do some employees take pleasure in game-playing, undermining projects and basically compete head-to-head to make our life difficult? The answer resides somewhere between lack of skills/competence and megalomania or ‘tin god’ personas. The lack of talent of these individuals creates behavioural patterns that creates a diversion and deflects attention onto other people and areas.

I recently read an interesting book called ‘Infinite Talent’ written by Rob Clarke, CEO LearnX Foundation. Rob differentiates between finite and infinite talent. Infinite talent he describes as ‘a spontaneous, genuine experience and is a person’s purest expression of who he or she ultimately is’. This talent is within you; what you observe, how you act and interact.

People who have infinite talent are able to achieve extraordinary things. They have a number of qualities in common; namely:

1. Curiosity – seek to understand, then to be understood
2. Test knowledge through their experience/s
3. Change agent – a catalyst and driver of change
4. Take ownership
5. Deal with ambiguity
6. Be part of the solution

Applying these qualities in your work and personal life enhances your mental agility, positive attitude and ‘can do’ mindset. It enables you to be an authentic cog in the solution wheel. Your mental mindset is what makes you an infinite talent.

Be part of the solution and not the problem in your organisation. Live everyday with a can do attitude. So, the next time someone shares with you all the reasons why something can’t be done, try and turn their thinking around so they share with you ideas on how it can be done. Remember success comes in cans and not can nots.

I will leave you with a quote that resonated with me from Rob’s book and it is from President Barack Obama…’Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek’.

So what can you do to engender a new culture of thinking and behaving in your organisation in 2012?

However, if the platform is relevant to the business’ communications strategy, it is essential that they begin engaging within that medium.

Businesses need to push through their reluctance

Today, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most popular platforms used by businesses to engage with the target audience and build long lasting relationships. Many businesses are reluctant to add yet another medium to the mix of ever growing social media channels. However, there is another platform that has emerged that does seem to be worth a business’s time and effort.

The search engine giant Google jumped on the bandwagon in 2011 and created its own social media platform, Google+ – said to rival Facebook. Several months later Google launched Google+ Pages especially for businesses.

Although we have heard quite a bit from the experts about social media fatigue, the advantages that a Google+ Business Page offers may be enough for a business to push through their reluctance and create yet another fantastic way to engage, converse and bond with their target market.

What are the advantages to Google+ Business Pages?

Every business is different and so needs a different communications strategy. Not all businesses will be suited to the features and benefits that Google+ Business Pages offer, however some advantages of a Google+ Business Page include:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):
  SEO is all about using techniques to drive the right people to your website. These include keywords, back links and valuable content that will help search engines naturally find your site without paying for ads. As Google is one of the biggest search engines and therefore ranks Google+ very high in search results, it makes sense that SEO would be the top advantage for owning a Google+ Business Page.
• Google Services:
  By creating a Google+ Page, an organisation has direct access to all other Google services integrated into the system. Such services as Google Maps, search, YouTube, Android, Chrome and Gmail provide even greater exposure for a business.
• It helps build connections:
  Google+ pages don’t just interact with other pages; they interact with the entire Google+ world. Businesses can add people to circles, +1 comments and photos, add their own photos, edit their profile, host Hangouts and share things.
• Host hangouts:
  Google+ allows businesses to host their own Hangouts – live video chats with other users. Potentially a business could use these hangouts to have meetings with international clients, have expert discussions with potential clients, stream a live question and answer session. With live streaming businesses have even more of a reason to engage with their target audience.
• Circles:
  Circles are a feature on Google+ and Google+ Pages that allow the profile user to create groups of similar people or businesses. This makes it easier for businesses to send out targeted or tailored messages to each individual group.

If you’re not from a technical background, attempting to understand “cloud computing” could be both confusing and somewhat daunting. But it needn’t be. Put simply, cloud computing is a way to access products and services securely through an internet connection anywhere in the world.

It has been around for years. Whether you’re accessing Facebook, Amazon, Hotmail, YouTube, you’re using cloud computing. You tap in to huge banks of data through some very complex programs, each of which are hosted on various forms of physical hardware, located elsewhere and sometimes in other parts of the world.

The term “cloud computing” incorporates all of the clever networking, languages, programs and environments that allow us to do this. It refers to our ability to link to computer technologies globally through a modest internet connection.

Why the big fuss?

Whilst types of cloud computing have been around for years, the ability to link to these technologies has only recently started to mature. IT investment is expected to focus on this area in the coming years. Where certain technologies were once out of reach for particular businesses, they are now accessible.

Take software, for example. Traditionally, it came on a disc and you loaded it on to your hard drive. In a larger business it was stored on local servers, where the IT department would have needed to buy and install the software, as well as set up and maintain the servers it ran on.

More recently, however, software that we access through our web browser has become more popular. This can be referred to as ‘software as a service’ (SaaS), and is one of three components classified within cloud computing. Sage CRM.com Cloud is an example of software we host and provide using cloud computing. You pay a subscription for the service and have access to it in a Public Cloud environment. The provider (in this case Sage) is responsible for maintaining that service for you. You may choose to access through a Private Cloud environment. This means you are still accessing through a browser however, your programs and data are located in a Private Cloud environment. A Private Cloud can be referred to as ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS).

‘I’ve heard of Saas, but what else is involved with cloud computing?’

I’ve introduced you to the first component of cloud computing, SaaS. There are two more. The second component is ‘platform as a service’ (PaaS). While SaaS allows access to software through a browser, PaaS offers much more than just buying and installing the software. It allows an organisation’s IT department or IT supplier to:

(i)            Source or build and maintain the platform for the users to work from.

(ii)           Customise the software to fit the organisation’s processes.

(iii)          Develop software for its users.

This can be a complex process. PaaS providers allow their customers to build software and make changes to it using a simple internet connection in an environment they have built, support and manage.

The third component is ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS). Data, hardware, servers and networking components require ongoing maintenance. Providers offer to host products in a central location and provide access to them through a secure internet connection. Huge buildings full of hardware exist worldwide (also known as Data Centres), with masses of virtual and real-life security. They are there to ensure that no one can access those servers but the customers using their internet connection thousands of miles away in some cases. This service is IaaS.

Cloud computing gives IT buyers access to technologies, without the constraints of large upfront fixed costs, space, power or extensive setup times. As technology continues to improve and develop, the ability to access the best products and services from anywhere in the world is also improving and evolving.

If you’d like to get practical, email me Charles.Pludthura@sage.com

Starting a new business can be so exciting you might forget about the many processes and procedures that need to be followed. With the amount of incorrect information floating around you could end up being misled, so make sure you talk to a professional right from the get-go.

When a business kicks off, funds can be tight and many of us try to stick to a shoe string budget. This could be your first mistake. I’ve always maintained a business owner should get their SMB structure correct from the start. It might seem expensive, but I assure you that trying to change the structure of an established business is much more expensive, and oftem includes added payments as a result of stamp duty and capital gains tax.

Finding the right advice in the thick cloud of misinformation can be overwhelming. Think about it this way – you wouldn’t ask your electrician next door neighbour how to fix a leaking tap, would you? No, you’d accept you need to spend the money and contact a professional. If you need business or financial advice, you seek it from an accountant. That way you’re not just getting advice on the structure of your business, but also on cashflow, marketing, KPI and record keeping.

Small business owners need to understand that getting into good habits of record keeping can help guide you through a financial fog. You need up-to-date records showing your financial position to allow you to know exactly where you are at any point in time. To help with your record-keeping, there’s a large selection of accounting software to choose from and you can always ask for help from a professional, like your accountant.

Some accountants offer bookkeeping services that are price-matched to suit bookkeeping businesses, which means that for the same price or slightly higher you can have your accountant as your bookkeeper. Instead of fumbling through your accounts and making a mistake only to have to pay your accountant to fix it, isn’t it better to have your accountant do the bookkeeping or pay your accountant to show you how to use the specific software?

The days of shoeboxes and shopping bags are long gone, these only cost you more money in the end!

According to the October 2011 Sensis e-Business Report, SMEs are responding slowly to the online environment. Although 67 percent of SMEs have a website, a staggering 81 percent lack a digital strategy despite the increasing number of Australians under the age of 40 who buy goods online.

As technology improves, it is not only the internet that businesses must contend with. Increasingly, it is mobile technologies and social media platforms that must be integrated into an online strategy. Thus, businesses must incorporate all online aspects into an approach to capture the market effectively. Those who don’t will be left behind.

Most SMEs have failed to grasp that modern technologies don’t just represent new ways to attract new customers; they are part of a much larger cultural change. By failing to recognise that a cultural as well as an economic and technological shift is occurring, SMEs are failing to appreciate the transformation in the mindset of the consumer.

The retail industry and their battle to have GST apply to imported goods under $1,000 is a prime example. Although the retail industry has legitimate issues in their industry, by making GST the issue, they miss entirely the cultural change that is occurring. We now live a globalised economy where consumers have more choice about when, what and how they buy. Too many businesses have been slow to recognise this.

There is no doubt that keeping up with modern technology can be confusing. Trying to figure out what best suits your particular business can be overwhelming considering the number of issues SMEs have to deal with. However, it is the current reality of the modern world and SMEs must adapt. Moving forward, businesses must accept that things are moving at an incredibly fast pace and it is essential to be proactive.

Business needs to be active in the online environment to utilise the space more productively. Here are some key points to take into account:

• Have an online strategy that includes social media and mobile technologies. Implementation does not need to occur immediately but it must be included in your long-term strategy.
• Having a website is no longer an online brochure; it must be managed to engage in a two-way conversation.
• The content of your website is more important than the design. Focus on this by providing information for potential customers.
• Social media is developing faster than other online tools. Experiment with this. There is no right or wrong, just find what suits your business.
• Having a blog can enhance traffic to your website as well as provide valuable information to potential customers and promote your expertise.
• It still surprises me how many businesses use their personal email accounts to conduct business. This is unprofessional and sloppy. If you have registered your URL, then use the email address for that domain for all business correspondence.
• Stop “outbound marketing” – it is old marketing and very disrupting.  The key is to engage, not to sell.

The online environment will only develop and strengthen. Businesses that aren’t proactive and fail to engage customers will miss out on opportunities, as they are neglecting the seismic shift that is taking place.

Winging it works, sometimes. But setting intentions and creating a definite focus can deliver the exact results you are craving. And that would be pretty cool, right?

So how do you create the focus that delivers the results you want? Have you set an annual revenue target that you want to achieve this year? Have you broken that target down so you know how much it is for each month, week or day? What about setting a profit target; if you know your business and your numbers you should be able to develop a profit target from your revenue targets as well.

The fabulous thing about focusing on both revenue and profit targets means you are also focusing on keeping costs to a minimum. Focusing on these targets can help to develop a “financial performance” mindset. Having this mindset means you are focused on improving the financial performance of your business.

Once you have developed a financial performance mindset your decision making becomes so much easier. From then on, every time you make a decision you will ask yourself, “what affect does this have on my revenue and profit targets?” I’m not suggesting you start madly cost cutting or getting rid of employees, because expenses are a necessary part of generating revenue. However changing your mindset means you will start cutting unnecessary expenses and finding more opportunities to increase revenue to help you achieve your targets.

In the same way we often need a goal to work towards to keep us motivated when exercising, the same applies to business. Existing in “just surviving” mode is the quickest way to your demise, but a planned intention outlining what will be achieved each week, month and year is the track to success. Athletes set incremental targets to ensure they get to the Olympics, and so too do successful business owners to ensure they grow their business each year. I know, because I have witnessed business owners tapping into a “financial performance” mindset and reaping the rewards. Once they set the intention, their business grows on purpose.

Try it out. Set annual revenue and profit targets for your business. Break them down to monthly and weekly targets. Measure your results weekly and monthly to keep yourself accountable. You may be surprised at how much you learn to love you numbers by improving your financial mindset.

What targets will you set?

There are many parallels in life. Our experiences in one area of our life can often assist other areas. Being part of a sports team brings experiences and lessons that can be readily applied to the business world.

Here are three essential qualities that have been highlighted to me through my involvement with dragon boat racing. Does your team demonstrate these three qualities?

1.  Stay focused

Our coaches often say to us to focus to the front of the boat rather than in the boat. By focusing our energy in the direction that we want to head in we’re able to work together as a team. If we lose our focus and look elsewhere then the power in the boat is diminished.

Remaining focused ensures that the team makes it to the finish line in the shortest possible time – something that’s definitely desired in a race against other teams.

How does this work in a business environment?

In a business environment it’s important to be clear as to the goals that need to be achieved and focus as a team to achieve those goals. If the team loses focus then there’s less chance of meeting targets and making it to the ‘finish line’.

High performing teams are clear as to their goals and remain focused to achieve those goals.

2.  Have a positive, ‘can do’ mindset

Having a positive, ‘can do’ mindset can be the difference between achieving your goals and losing direction.

It’s easy to doubt ourselves. We’re often our own worst enemies and self-criticism can have an effect on what we believe we can achieve. If we believe we can, we usually can. If we believe we can’t, then that’s true too.

In a boat race, the adrenalin is pumping through the body and the physical side of making it to the finish line in the least possible time is exhausting. Breaking through the mental barriers and pain associated with the race can be the difference between succeeding and giving up.

Each person in the boat has a specific role. The coaches have placed each person in their seat according to what they believe that person can contribute to the team in the race. It’s important that each person also believes that they can fulfil their role.

How a mindset can affect a work team

In a work team each member has a specific role in order for that team to perform at its best. No matter what the project is that you’re undertaking as a team, you need to believe that you can achieve the requirements of your role.

If you feel that you don’t have the necessary skills then find ways of learning those skills – ask for assistance, coaching, mentoring or undertake a program in a specific area to improve your skill set – so that you can meet your team’s goals.

The end result is that you’ll achieve those goals as well as increase your own confidence by stepping up to the challenge that was placed before you.

To quote Emily Guay: ‘Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable.’

Imagine being part of an unstoppable team!

3.  Encourage and support each other

Before we begin a race we pat each other on the back to wish each other the best for a great race.

At the end of the race, as we’re gasping for air after giving our all, we congratulate each other on our efforts (no matter where we’ve come in the race) as well as acknowledge the other teams. It’s all part of good sportsmanship.

Good sportsmanship in the workplace

In a work environment it’s important to have open communication so that each member of the team feels supported. If a task seems too difficult, a simple word of encouragement can often be the difference between feeling disheartened or giving up on finding a solution to a problem.

Working together with encouragement and support makes for a pleasant work environment which in turn ensures that team goals are met. If people enjoy being in their work environment then they’re more likely to step up to any challenges given to them.

What do you notice about people who enjoy where they work? They have a positive attitude to their work. Absenteeism is low and morale is high.

In turn, a high-performing team provides exceptional service to their clients.  Satisfied clients and team members who enjoy their work ensure that the company’s goals are met.

Encouraging and supporting each other has long term benefits for your team.

How does your team measure up to these three qualities?