Star of the event was entrepreneur, Lucie Trinco, who revealed the secrets behind her successful business, Il Tutto.

Walking into Sydney’s VIVO Cafe, I was warmly welcomed by Samantha Dybac, Head of the League’s NSW branch. I saw women enjoying themselves – networking over breakfast, discussing current affairs and exchanging business ideas.

Founded by young entrepreneurs, Sarah Riegelhuth and Sheryl Thai, in 2011, the League’s mission was to bring young women together in a friendly, welcoming space and to help them pursue their business ideas and goals – whether they’re experienced or budding entrepreneurs or just those aspiring to start a business in the future.

Every six weeks, the League hosts a breakfast meeting, featuring a successful businesswoman who shares the highs and lows of her entrepreneurial journey, and the most valuable lessons learned along the way.

Lucie Trinco of Il Tutto

Lucie Trinco, the entrepreneurial brains behind Il Tutto, was the key speaker at the League’s latest breakfast meeting.

With over 20 years of experience in designing handbags, Trinco spotted a gap in the Australian marketplace for luxury baby bags for style-conscious mothers.

After noticing a high demand for baby bags that are both stylish and practical, Trinco decided to design her own range.

Six years in business, Trinco has enjoyed remarkable success, both locally and internationally, with celebrities like Dannii Minogue, Miranda Kerr and Cate Blanchett being spotted carrying her designs.

She acknowledged that her work as Head of Design at Oroton opened many doors for her and helped make the start-up process easier.

Not only did she go into business with extensive knowledge of the retail industry, but also with ready access to supply chains.

But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. The biggest challenge she faces, even today, is managing cash flow.

With Il Tutto growing so rapidly, it has been a struggle for Trinco to cash flow that growth.

The reason for this, she said, was that retailers often send orders triple of what they forecasted, and that manufacturers want money in advance whereas retailers pay 30-60 days after delivering orders.

Trinco’s top tips for entrepreneurs:

1. Know your niche. 
   Clearly identify who your end customer is and how to communicate with them effectively. The consumer landscape is challenging, so developing the right strategy and delivering it in a tailored manner is crucial.
2. Know your competitors.
   Find out what your competitors do well, and find something that they don’t do so well and make that your point-of-difference.
3. Write a business plan and review it regularly.
   Make sure your business plan includes your mission statement and a breakdown of how you will reach your business goals – i.e. production, marketing, distribution, etc. Make sure to review your business plan and make updates.
4. Have your supply ready.
   You need to be proactive about your supply. There’s nothing worse than promising and failing to deliver.
5. Use your networks.
   Bloggers are an excellent resource for brand advocacy. They provide a more personal and relatable voice and are trusted by their audience.
6. Build relationships with the media.
   Engaging with media practitioners will help gain editorial coverage and increase brand awareness. This also means you need to have professional photos ready.
7. Ask for advice.
   Get experts to advise you on areas that aren’t your strengths – you don’t always need to figure it all out by yourself.
8. Use celebrity endorsements.
   Celebrities are style influencers. Consumers are more likely to try a product a celebrity uses.
9. Make sure your staff know about the brand and product.
   Big retailers often struggle to provide satisfactory customer service, so it’s important you use that to your advantage and make sure your staff are fully trained about the brand and product and know how to deliver quality customer service.
10. Be responsive to customers.
    Be attentive to complaints and make sure you are always vigilante in answering questions as quickly as possible.

To find out more about the League of Extraordinary Women, visit their website.

Thanks to the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) evolution, many employees are using three or more disparate devices in the workplace. That means valuable data isn’t just in one or two places; it is scattered across public and private clouds, servers and networks, which can be a nightmare for data protection, access, collaboration and backup.

So, if your company is playing “hide and seek” with valuable information, how do you make sure it is secure and accessible, no matter where it is hiding?

Laying out the Groundwork for the BYOD Trend 

The fact is, more employees are storing files on their personal devices than ever before, but most businesses have no protocols for making sure these files are securely backed up somewhere else. In the UK, for example, the Information Commissioner’s Office found that less than 30 percent of workers have been given any kind of guidelines on how to properly manage company data.

So, imagine that your company’s marketing manager has an Excel document with the company’s most loyal customers stored on his iPad. Now, what if that iPad suffers an untimely demise from a coffee spill? Well, that data could be lost for good. And, when it’s time to roll out a loyalty program, then what? If only IT knew where that data was residing and could have coordinated a backup plan.

If businesses are playing hide and seek with big data, there’s a big risk for data loss. As IT environments grow increasingly more complex and rely on physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure, knowing the exact location of every piece of data becomes that much more difficult, and important.

Syncing, Security and Policy

To stop playing hide and seek with Big Data, businesses have to implement a streamlined process. The key is to make sure that employees know all company files — whether they’re on a work computer, tablet, personal laptop or smartphone — have to be synced to the network and then backed up in central locations… yes, locations… plural.

A dual-destination back up plan that eliminates single points of failure and optimises the use of the cloud, as well as physical storage, is crucial to making sure corporate data is safe and available when you need it. Nowadays, there are backup solutions that can sync files from any platform, be it Mac or PC, iPad or Android.

If you are playing hide and seek with data, consider ending the game today. With just a few policy tweaks, IT can guarantee that all company information is secure and accessible, not just the files that are already on the internal network.

Are you playing games with your data?

Online marketing is an ongoing process that requires regular time and effort, and fortunately you don’t need to be an SEO expert or have an enormous marketing budget to improve your website traffic. Here are a few low cost ways to encourage more traffic to your site:

Video clips

Short video footage can be a valuable asset to your website. Video is becoming increasingly popular as a marketing tool, and images are generally ranked higher than text by search engines. Try a short instructional or informational video clip, and slowly build up until you have a series.

Undertake link building activities

Building links with reputable sites can be a big boost to your search engine rankings. The search engines view links as votes for your site, and the more you have, the higher your site is likely to rank.

Make use of social media

Social media can be a great way to drive traffic to your site. Make sure you promote your blog posts via Facebook and twitter, and any other social media platforms you use to encourage people to visit your site and share your information with their friends.

Blog regularly

Regular blogging can help your search engine optimisation, as well as allow you a means to build up your credibility and engage with your customers. If you don’t have the time to blog, you can comment on other blogs, or guest blog to help get your name out there and build links to your site.

Use keywords on your website

If you aren’t familiar with search engine optimisation, using the right keywords on your site can give you a distinct advantage when it comes to attracting the right readers to your site. Once you have identified the keywords you want to use, make sure they are in your titles and in the website content. Adding them to your homepage title is also important if you want to increase your search engine rankings.

Increasing your website traffic does not have to be costly or complicated. With a few simple strategies, you can give your search engine rankings a boost, and engage with your customers more readily – which can lead to higher conversion rates and increased repeat business.

The spate of natural disasters, including the Brisbane floods, hit many businesses hard. While some had no back-up strategy at all, others had their back-up equipment and data stored in building basements that were the first to be taken out in the serious floods.

The impact of disasters on an SME’s business can be devastating. Customer orders, contact information, financial records, supplier contracts, correspondence and emails, stock records – what would you do if you lost it all?

Businesses without disaster recovery facilities need to be aware of the consequences should the unexpected happen and they lose their vital information and means of communications. Unfortunately, it’s only when they have a disaster that they give due consideration to outsourcing their systems, such as when the air conditioning goes out on a weekend, power goes down due to a storm, or worse.

If there is no additional air conditioning backup, machines will fry. Hard drives do crash, and they do lose data. It’s a bit like insuring a car. You don’t really think about it until you have a crash.

A couple of years ago, a well-known fresh food supplier had a fire rip through its hub, destroying its proprietary IT system which essentially ran the entire business from data storage to business intelligence, sales management, stock and its financial and accounting system. It took three months to get the business back to normal operations once new equipment and software had been put in place.

SMEs don’t really think about this. IT managers in SMEs have a lot on their plate these days. They are managing CRM, WAN, telephone, back-up, dealing with mobility, and adapting to new technologies. So it’s not surprising they probably haven’t thought about the impact to the business if the IT system went down.

SMEs who own and manage their own IT facilities need to be planning for a number of things: have they got an uninterrupted power supply; are the back-up capabilities sufficient; are the cooling systems within the building adequate to support the IT systems, and is there back-up air conditioning in the event of a cooling problem.

When you manage your own IT infrastructure, you need to worry about this and it adds another layer of complexity that business shouldn’t need to worry about.

A solution is putting your IT infrastructure in a safe, secure environment. Purpose-built, enterprise grad data centres offer a number of benefits business who are running mission-critical IT systems. These include 24/7 “smart hands”, redundant power, physical security, ability to easily scale-up infrastructure, reduced costs and greater flexibility, improved utilization of leased premise. And less worry.

7 tips for SMEs managing IT infrastructure

1. Have a back-up plan

Considering the IT systems you run in house now, what would happen if one of them fell over or worse, if they all fell over?  What would be the consequences of losing the data that sits on those systems?  Calculating the cost to your business of an IT disaster is an exercise that is well worth doing.

2. Power can be expensive

A lot of power capacity can be expensive to deploy to a standard office building. Find out if there any limitations on power that can be delivered to your building as this could be critical to your growth path.

3. UPS is critical

Ensure you have the correctly sized UPS for your IT equipment to allow for an orderly shut-down of IT equipment in the event of a prolonged power outage.  In the event of primary power failure – could you get someone on site 24×7 before your backup UPS is exhausted?

4. Don’t risk cooking your equipment

Work out what cooling requirements you will need not just for your current technology infrastructure, but critically, for projected future requirements. Some IT infrastructure produces a lot more heat than others.

Hot IT equipment reduces IT efficiency as CPU clock speeds reduce, which increases power-draw as fans turn on. This can eventually lead to the shutting down of your IT equipment if the temperature gets too high.

5. Physical security

Ensure you have the correct security posture appropriate to your requirements as well as your clients. For example, having your company comply with security systems such as PCI DSS and ISO27001 could be important to your clients.

Physical security can mean having audit logs of all access to your infrastructure, CCTV footage stored and a granular access control system to ensure only authorised members of staff can access certain area. Remember, sabotage can come from within.

6. Property Leasing

Check whether your on-premise IT equipment will not affect future negotiations with your landlord. If you have made a sizable investment in infrastructure in your building, it can sometimes hinder future negotiations for leasing rates as landlords know how expensive it is to move a large amount of IT equipment.

7. Consider outsourcing your Infrastructure

As soon as your reliance on your IT infrastructure becomes mission critical, you’ve got a problem.   Relocating your IT assets into a data centre environment makes sense, both from a redundancy and back-up perspective, but also from a financial perspective.

As a business owner, I started down the podcasting journey this year and released my first podcast series with great results. Results varied from being able to build better engagement with listeners and readers, building up more fans and potential customers as well as building up my own profile as an industry leader.

Audio podcasting is one of the only forms of media that allows you to get directly into the ears of your potential customers and engage with them on a regular basis. No other medium captures the attention of a user like podcasting can. Like radio, audio podcasts can be digested while driving your car, commuting to work, washing the dishes or changing the baby’s nappies.

A blog post will capture a visitor’s attention for maybe, a few minutes at the most, a video on YouTube maybe the same amount of time but a podcast captures the attention of a listener’s attention anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour.

Capturing a potential customer, or lead’s attention for this amount of time is an amazing way of building up trust and a relationship with that listener making them want more from you and your podcast.

For a small business that is trying to engaging and build relationships with new customers, podcasting is a must and a highly recommended channel of communication. Coupled with social media, blog writing and video publishing, podcasting becomes a brilliant channel of communication to and untapped audience.

Big companies such as Discovery Channel, NASA, major radio stations such as NOVA, Today FM, BBC, ABC and many more are already creating engaging podcasts for their audiences.

A lot of modern cars manufacturers these days, including BMS, Holden and Ford, are coming out with inbuilt applications that can stream podcast audio from networks like Stitcher making the content even more accessible than ever.

You can’t ignore the reemergence of the podcast this year in 2013. So this year if you’re thinking about podcasting for your business, here are a few tips to help you get started with podcasting.

Five tips to start podcasting

1. Invest in some good equipment

Yes it is true that you can get into podcasting with whatever old microphone you may have around from the internal one that you have built into your laptop or the one built into the headset of your phone, but as it is a medium the relies on audio, it is so important to get the best quality recording. Therefore, a good inexpensive microphone is your first starting point.

Microphones vary from condenser microphones to dynamic ones. Your recording style and type of show may determine what microphone you choose for your podcast. Follow our guide to podcasting for a microphone selection for your podcast.

2. Stay focused

Like any business, make sure you stay focused on your topic and what your podcast is about. Listeners and subscribing and listening to your podcast because they are after something in particular that you offered via the iTunes store or your website. Make sure that your content in your podcast match that of what you aim to deliver. So often I’ve heard podcasts go way off topic from where it first started.

3. Have call to actions

Whether it is driving users to a Facebook page, Twitter account or to a website, make sure that you lead your listeners somewhere to capture the lead but also provide them with a benefit for taking action.

4. Get the right hosting for your podcast


Audio podcasts take up a lot of space. Especially when you’re saving and uploading your files in high quality to the internet, make sure you have plenty of space and plenty of bandwidth to deliver your podcast to your listeners

5. Just get out there and start one

It is so easy to just get started. So many smart phones have it all built into them and there are many applications that are out there already capable of recording and allowing you to start podcasting straight away.

We’ve also put together a guide on iOS apps that you can use to start podcasting with straight from your iOS or Android device. Our guide to podcasting apps will point you in the right direction.

As LinkedIn continues to develop, it is still undervalued when compared to Facebook. For professionals, however, it is a powerful platform and the social network of choice. It allows the opportunity to connect with colleagues, peers and other business professionals and to build your brand.

This means when you create a profile you need to be active and continuously update it. Here are 5 ways to get the most benefit from LinkedIn.

1. Profile

Make sure your profile is complete, has your professional title, employment title and most importantly a professional looking photograph. The profile must reflect all your other online bios, such as your company profile. Focus on your personal brand and what you can do for the potential customer, employer or partner.

2. Building Contacts

Once your profile is complete, it is important to start building your contact list. LinkedIn does suggest contacts and this is beneficial. Besides colleagues, clients and business partners, there are many other ways to build your contacts. At networking events, seminars or conferences where business cards are exchanged, connect with these individuals so they can become part of your network.

3. Post Status Updates

If you have an inactive LinkedIn account, you might as well not have an account. Use your status update on the ‘home’ page to share insights, information, articles or ideas. These updates will appear on your profile but will also appear on the homepages of those in your network. So it is a great way to promote your expertise by sharing content which is relevant to what you do professionally.

4. Join and be Active in the Right Groups

There are thousands of groups to join on LinkedIn to connect with like-minded professionals. It is important to join industry specific groups where you can promote your industry knowledge. Ask and answer questions, post information and participate in discussions. It raises your profile and allows you to contact anyone in the group directly.

5. Recommendations

People do business with those they know, like and trust. So it is essential to get recommendations with those that you have done business with. Start with old colleagues, bosses and clients and then build up to current contacts that you are connected with. Recommendations are similar to references on a hard copy CV and vital to promoting your expertise and integrity so get a balanced mix. People can see and read these and it adds to your credibility. You can also give recommendations.

LinkedIn provides an opportunity for individuals to be proactive in their careers. Professionals connect because they want to associate with other like-minded professionals. This can be quite powerful so be certain to make the most of LinkedIn by utilising effectively all that it offers.

And this engagement pattern is accelerating. Morgan Stanley estimates that by 2015 the smartphone will become the most popular way to access web-based services. To grow and prosper, smaller businesses need to offer the same type of flexible, real time customer service availability.

How can SMEs compete on service with large companies?

In response to this challenge larger companies are more likely to have the capital to invest in technology systems capable of handling large volumes of customer inquiries through multiple communication channels.

SMEs with a limited cash flow often aren’t in a position to cough up for what has, traditionally, been expensive technology. Now, cloud software means that superior customer service delivery using multiple channels and sophisticated systems is in reach of all companies, regardless of size – without the huge upfront costs or long term contracts.

This levels the playing field for SMEs and allows them to improve customer service and compete with larger companies.

Cloud can save you money

For businesses of any size, one of the main benefits of cloud technology is the impact on the bottom line. Cloud software will help SMEs save money and become more efficient by operating with a leaner IT environment which scales in line with business growth. So SMEs can consume and pay for cloud technology how and when they need it.

Cloud can accelerate growth

Whilst traditional customer service software is advanced it is also expensive, has significant upfront cost, locks you into a defined contract and takes months to implement. In contrast cloud does not lock you into a contract and can be implemented in days. The lack of upfront infrastructure costs also save SMEs money in the crucial start-up phase while setting them up for exponential growth in the future.

Cloud can scale with customer demand

Software As-A Service (SaaS) describes the delivery model most commonly used with cloud software: – when usage is metered rather than paid for outright. Software usage is scaled up or down, based on demand.

For example, in the lead up to Christmas, an online retail business needs be agile and increase the capacity in its contact centre or sales team from 5 to 10 people to cope with the higher volume of calls. Following the peak Christmas period, the company can reduce the capacity back down to 5 people, only ever paying for what was used.

So how are SMEs embracing cloud?

A Sydney-based SME insurance company quadrupled in size within a year by using cloud software to grow quickly and service customer needs more effectively. Twelve months after launching their business, they took the decision to move their contact centre in-house, and set up its sales team with cloud-based contact centre technology.

The decision to deploy a cloud-based platform was made on the usage-based pricing model, which involves minimal upfront costs and boasts features such as reporting, voice recording and the ability to make real time changes to the system within minutes in response to customer activity.

The company can now create performance reports and dashboards with full visibility of daily performance, which is a key advantage in the highly competitive insurance market.

In twelve months the company’s sales team has grown from 10 to 40 agents with a rapid increase in both inbound and outbound sales, and customer service calls. The company can now load new campaigns every day and make real time changes to their call centre support in response to campaign performance. The increase in contact centre capacity results in shorter waiting time for customers.

Considering 50 per cent of internet searches are conducted via a mobile device, and by 2014 mobile internet should take over desktop internet usage – it’s important to make it easy for your customers to get information and buy from you.

Many consumers are now multi-device users, switching between smartphones, tablets, PCs and TV multiple times throughout the day or simultaneously. It’s no longer effective for businesses to just be across one or two of these mediums. A mix is paramount for effective and sustainable customer communication.

Despite the growing need to go mobile, many businesses are still unsure on whether to invest in a mobile website (m-site) or an app. When thinking about which suits your marketing objectives, the first place to start are the features.

Features of a mobile site

• Streamlined version of a traditional website
• Able to adapt to different devices
• Always online
• Can be an economical option
• Easy to update and edit

Features of a mobile app

• Offers high levels of interaction and a richer experience
• Can be used with or without an internet connection
• Must be developed for a specific operation system (eg, Apple iOS)
• Customers download from an app store straight to the device
• Loads faster
• Can handle complex calculations and actions

Deciding on whether to create a mobile website or mobile app essentially comes down to a number of key considerations:

Objective

What you are trying to achieve will in most cases steer your decision between m-site or app. For instance if you want to make it easy for customers to find you when they are on the go, a mobile site might be the best option.

Whereas if you want your customer to have a deeper experience and come back to you regularly, an app can work well in driving loyalty.

In addition, native apps are also good for businesses that are providing reporting or calculations such as mobile banking or commerce sites or are creating and promoting games. A native app is able to deliver greater security than a mobile site because it is clearly identified who the developer is when purchasing the app.

Audience

Knowing your audience, the devices they use and how they are likely to interact with your brand is also critical in deciding between a mobile site or app. For instance if you find your target audience is accessing your page via a variety of different browsers and platforms then a m-Site may be a better option as they have greater compatibility with different browsers and devices.

Apps tend to work better for things people like to do frequently like check Facebook or look through job ads. However, a native app is generally only a good option if a customer is going to care enough about your brand/product or service to spend the time to download the app.

Budget

When it comes to cost, a native app will always be more expensive as they require a higher development cost – especially if there are multiple apps being created for multiple devices.

A mobile site generally requires a lower budget. Businesses considering a responsive website as an alternative to a dedicated mobile site, will need to keep in mind a responsive webpage can potentially be more expensive to create than an mobile site as it requires heavy coding.

When it comes to deciding between a m-site and an app, the best option is to do your research, weigh up the pros and cons of each option, and choose the one that will be of most benefit to your business.

Website design, like most other forms of design, has its own fashions and trends – and nothing says ‘behind the times’ to your potential customers like a slow and out-of-date website.

Here are some emerging trends in website design that you might want to consider, to help keep your website current and modern:

Compatibility with smart phones

With the widespread popularity of smart phones and tablets, it is no longer enough to have a site which looks good and works well on desk top and laptop computers, it also needs to be quick to load and is easy to use on mobile devices and tablets.

As an increasing number of web searches are made while people are on the move, therefore there is a good chance that not having a site that is optimised for mobiles and tablets could mean missing out on valuable business.

If your site is not currently smart phone and tablet friendly, it will likely need to be in the near future – so you might as well get on with it sooner rather than later.

Sites that are not compatible can cause frustration for mobile phone and tablet users, and can easily turn them click to the next site.

More precise text and bigger images

Having to scroll down to find information is becoming a thing of the past. Websites are becoming increasingly lighter on text, and are beginning to rely on eye-catching images and bigger fonts for more visual impact.

Having all the necessary information visible on the one page makes it easier for readers to take a quick glance and find what they need, without having to fiddle about with sidebars and scrolling down.

In addition to the reduction in text, new websites are being designed to have bigger and more interactive images, logos and icons. The single picture surrounded by text layout will soon be a thing of the past as the image, and the impression it leaves on consumers, takes centre stage.

Creative fonts

Fonts are getting more interesting and there are more tools like Type Kit, which make using them easy. Website designers are also beginning to be more creative with slogans and headlines, including combining different fonts and using larger typefaces.

All things social

With digital marketing being one of the top marketing priorities in 2013, it is absolutely critical that links to your social media pages are in a prominent position in your website design.

Social media icons can be tweaked to match your brand to ensure they fit into the overall design.

Take a look at your site – is it up to the minute or could it use a revamp? Remember, your website is often the first impression your future customers will have of your business – make sure it is a true reflection of your brand and is as up-to-date as possible.

Those stats get even more impressive when we look around the globe as Google reports:

• 9 of 10 phones sold are smartphones
• iPad or tablet purchases grew 400 percent in 2011
• More Android devices (around 700,000) are activated each day than babies are born
• 89 percent of people use their mobile devices to access the web every day in Spain, 93 percent in the UK, 90 percent in France and 85 percent in Germany

It is expected that by the close of 2013 more people will access the web through a mobile device than through a computer. So why is it that only around 15 percent of Australian companies have a digital business strategy?

When it comes to a mobile friendly web presence you have two options to consider – a responsive website or a dedicated, separate site for mobile devices. Now with both options there are advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of before you make your choice.

Advantages of Responsive Websites

Converting your existing website to a responsive site means that it will adjust and work across many different mobile devices and you will only have just the one main site to update. The annoying scrolling left and right to see the full content will be a thing of the past as the site will re-size to fit whatever screen its being viewed on. As technology trends change your site will self-adjust to resolution sizes and it will be more search engine friendly as Google will see just the one site instead of two different platforms.

Disadvantages of Responsive Websites

You won’t be able to customise content just for mobile users as this will remain the same as your main website and if your current site is image or word heavy this may present some challenges for the smaller mobile screens.

Advantages of mobile websites

With a separate mobile site you have the ability to customise content and appearance to suit a mobile users including an instant ‘call to action’ button that allows them to contact you directly from their smartphone. Streamlining images and content to suit the smaller mobile screens will also make the site less cluttered and faster loading than if they accessed your full site. You will also be offering the visitor the choice of viewing either the mobile site or the full website.

Disadvantages of Mobile Websites

The advantage of having a separate dedicated mobile site also has a downside as now you have two sites to update content on. As smartphone technology changes you may also have to update your mobile design to support new resolutions.

So here you have it, some of the major differences between a responsive and mobile website platform – but what one’s really best for your business? Generally if you have the budget a responsive website doesn’t come with many limitations and it’s easy to update as you only have the one site to add content too.

If however you want to create a mobile experience that requires quick decisions and instant ‘call to action’ then a separate mobile site may be a better option. A mobile site also requires lower development costs as compared to responsive design sites – which involve more sophisticated coding.

In today’s hectic, digital world having more opportunities to interact with your clients and show-off your brand across multiple devices is the key to becoming the market leader in your field.

An astounding 80 percent of the country’s five million working professionals are on LinkedIn.

According to LinkedIn, senior executives and entrepreneurs are leveraging the LinkedIn platform to boost their professional brand.

Not in any order:

1. Matt Barrie - CEO & chairman of Freelancer.com

Freelancer.com is a website that connects small businesses and individuals with freelancers around the globe. Over four million projects have been outsourced through Freelancer.com

2. Clifford Rosenberg – S.E. Asia & Australia NZ managing director of LinkedIn

According to a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal, 41 percent of small-business owners said that LinkedIn was the social media tool with the greatest potential to help their firms.

3. Kate Vale – Australia & NZ managing director of Spotify

Spotify makes ease of the process of listening and downloading music. By the end of December 2012, Spotify recorded a total of 20 million active users.

4. Sally-Anne Newson – Australia country manager of ASOS.com

ASOS.com is one of UK’s largest online fashion and beauty store. It opened its first international office in Sydney in 2012.

5. Sharon Melamed – managing director of Matchboard.com.au

Matchboard.com.au is a free web based sourcing service specialising in the supply chain around sales, customer service and back office.

6. David Rohrsheim – general manager of Uber Austalia

Taxi in style. Uber is a start-up that created an app which connects passengers with drivers of luxury cars for hire.

7. Mick Liubinskas – co-founder of Pollenizer

Pollenizer is an online venture builder that builds startups and share learning experiences with the new generation of entrepreneurs.

8. John Anstey – founder & CEO of Elcom

Elcom is a software company providing web content management solutions into any organisation. They gave more than 1000 successful customer implementations around the world with clients such as Hyundai, Kia, Target, Austrade, and many more.

9. Mark Randall – Australia & NZ country manager of Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace is an enterprise level hosting service to any type of business around the world. There are almost 5,000 Australian customers.

oDesk is an online workplace service that allows business owners to list contract jobs and manage contractors to work remotely.

While this system might seem like it applies only to tech positions, many companies are now outsourcing other office admin necessities such as HR, legal advice and marketing. This allows small businesses to free up their internal space and staff salary requirements in order to grow.

Here’s what Gary Swart had to say:

What workers and industries are using your services?

Traditionally we started with mostly technical work. Things like web development, iOS, and web design, but we’re getting aggressively pulled into all categories of work. Things like administrative, even finance and legal jobs. And what we’ve noticed, as shown in our survey results, is that Australians are among the savviest businesses growing into other categories, the non-tech categories, compared to the rest of the world.

What are the leading categories that Australians are using oDesk for?

Australians are not too dissimilar from the rest of the network. We have about 60 percent of the work being in tech. The top categories in 2012 were web programming, web design and the like. But blogging, article writing, graphic design and marketing skills like search engine optimisation were leading categories in the non-tech area. The growing categories are things like technical writing, video production, translation and search engine optimisation.

You’ve recently conducted new research in Australia, what led you to do the research in the first place?

We’ve been growing quite aggressively here in Australia since 2009. The amount of work done on oDesk from Australian clients has increased more than eight fold. So when we saw such growth, we decided we wanted to get to know the market a little bit and see what was driving this aggressive growth.

What were the key findings?

They were pretty interesting. We found that 85 percent of businesses are mostly SMBs with a trend towards SMEs. But 85 percent said that oDesk makes their businesses more competitive. 89 percent said that now that they’ve worked this way, they’ll continue this way. Traditional hiring methods were painful but businesses need talent. They need access and they’re struggling to find good people within commuting distance from their offices. 70 percent said traditional hiring methods weren’t working. These small businesses needed a better way to get work done. So 85 percent of the clients in Australia that turned to online work said their businesses are now more competitive. And 73 percent say they’ll spend more in 2013 on online work than they did in 2012.

Was research conducted only among oDesk users?

It was. We surveyed more than 3000 users. An independent third party conducted the research.

Talking about SMBs, what do the findings means for other SMBs that might not be using the service at the moment?

Well, we had dinner with one of our clients and he said without oDesk, he wouldn’t have a business. Because he’s been able to leverage the internet to bring the work to the workers, as opposed to the worker to the work. It’s particularly a challenge for him because he’s in Darwin.

First and foremost, one thing we learnt was that it’s hard to find talent. It takes a lot of time. Our survey noted that it takes more than 23 days to hire an on premise employee versus three days online. It’s expensive, it’s hard to find talent and it takes time.

What about access to the contractors themselves? Can the SMBs determine where the contractor is based?

Well what’s interesting is that our clients tell us they want quality workers, and the internet enables us to work together regardless of where we’re located. So clients want access to the best talent regardless where it exists in the world. They are able to make decisions based on the feedback, the reputation and the verifiable work history of those workers, so geography isn’t the issue.

Is there a system to hire the person in a full-time, part-time capacity? Or just contract work?

It’s contract work but it tends to be time based in nature and long term. The idea is you find a good worker and maybe the demands are not high right now but they may ramp up, whether it be week to week or month to month. And so you might work together for the next 6 months 12 months or 18 months, but they just happen to do their work from another location. Once businesses have tried it, it really becomes a part of their long-term strategy, and we’ve noticed that happening in Australia which is why 89 percent say it is part of their long term strategy and they’ll continue to work this way.

Are you also seeing microbusinesses take up this service?

Absolutely. One client of ours actually has a full time job but has a web business on the side. He is able to work on this website but needs designers, copywriters and editing.

How does the oDesk system work?

Generally, a client who needs work done will simply post their job, and that’s free. We don’t charge a client for posting a job and we don’t charge the talent for bidding on a job. Then the talent can apply or the client can invite people from the database who they think have the skills that match what they’re trying to get done. We give you tools to manage the work, and then oDesk facilitates all the payments. So payments are just like time. You log an hour and get paid for an hour. Our team confirms that an hour billed is actually an hour worked. So you know you’re getting what you paid for.

In this article, we’ll look at some reasons why you may want to upgrade your hosting package. We’ll also look at some of the alternative measures you could try before you part with any more money.

Do you need more control?

For many businesses and individuals, low-cost shared web hosting is perfectly adequate. On a shared web hosting package, you’ll benefit from a range of features and tools to get your website up and running, without the need to learn highly specialised skills.

Over time, your business website may outgrow the resources shared hosting can offer. As your website is expanded and improved, your web designer may need more control over the operating system and resources on the server. For example, on a VPS plan, you can control the amount of memory available to your site, and also monitor the CPU usage in fine detail. To get this kind of access, you’ll need to upgrade.

Alternatives

• Ask your host whether they can tweak the necessary settings on your shared hosting account. If your needs are relatively straightforward, you may not need to upgrade your package at all.
• Do you need to see how the server is performing? Analytics packages can harvest basic performance data, so unless you need to see in-depth process usage, you can probably get by with an external solution.

Is your site sluggish?

Shared hosting is a great, low-cost solution for many small businesses, but the main disadvantage of the shared model is the potential for bottlenecks. Each host places multiple websites on the same server, and if one website is misbehaving and sucking resources from the server, the others will suffer.

Note that reseller hosting normally uses the same service model as regular hosting. If you’re a reseller, you’re probably going to be exposed to the same risks.

Google Webmaster Tools can give you a broad overview of your site’s speed. Using this data, you’ll be in a better position to decide whether to upgrade your hosting package. Providing you’re comfortable working with technical data, you can also review the processes that are running on your box to tweak and improve your site’s performance.

Alternatives

• Try a caching plugin. WordPress users can install WP Super Cache or WP Total Cache. Don’t install more than one caching plugin, and test your site thoroughly to ensure it’s still working as expected.
• Ask your host if they offer a CDN service, such as CloudFlare. A CDN delivers content to end users more quickly, spreading the load over multiple servers. Basic CDN services are free.

Have you been scolded and suspended?

If your site is using an excessive amount of resources, your host may suspend it without warning. Every host has its own rules about ‘excessive’ use; HostGator allows customers on shared or reseller accounts to use a maximum of 25 percent of CPU for no longer than 90 seconds, for example.

Even if your shared web hosting plan offers ‘unlimited’ resources, your host may still shut your site down if it believes your resource usage is excessive. Shared hosting is really only suitable for sites that don’t need huge amounts of CPU power.

If you’re sure your site is power-hungry for good reason – in other words, your social media campaigns are picking up, or your marketing campaigns are resulting in traffic spikes – your best bet is an upgrade dedicated server. Not only can you use all of the dedicated server’s resources, but you’ll also be allowed to play around with the server configuration for better performance.

Alternatives

• The most common reason for shared hosting account suspension is a badly optimised script or plugin that hogs server CPU. Many customers feel they should upgrade to a VPS, but this is equivalent to sticking a Band-Aid over the real problem. Instead, invest in a specialist web developer who can get to the bottom of your resource usage problems or ask your host for advice.

Here are five tips for creating and maintaining a successful website at an affordable cost:

1. Make sure the website reflects the core values of the brand

As a business you need to identify the company’s core brand values before attempting to design the website. It is vital that these values are reflected in your online presence while at the same time ensuring the website meets the needs of your target audience. Everything you do or say sends a message: what you write and how you interact with clients influences the user, so you need to make sure your website mirrors your brand and its key messages.

2. Use engaging and quirky methods such as video and music to create different dimensions

As a business owner you need to make sure that your website keeps your audience engaged. By introducing more visual media such as video and music, users are more likely to spend longer on the site.

The use of video breeds increased customer engagement and can grab the audience’s attention. By implementing video, your company is able to tell a story or showcase work in an effective manner.

Online video is simple and inexpensive to develop yet it is still considered by many as high-tech and so is an easy way to make your website look more professional while gaining an edge on your competitors.

3. Choose the right images that are simple and yet create maximum impact

Selecting an image from a collection of millions is understandably difficult. Try a service like iStockphoto. When deciding which images to use there is five things to consider:

-       Purpose: what is the image for?

-       Tone: it’s not what you say it’s how you say it

-       Audience relevance: does your audience relate to the image?

-       Timeliness: how new is new?

-       Uniqueness: is your image one of a kind?

The issue of image rights is an important one here. One of the most common misconceptions about photography copyright is a tendency to believe that if a photo is published online it is part of the public domain. However, no matter where they are posted, images remain bound by copyright. To use photos that can be found online, you need to have consent of either the author of the image, or – when the licence agreement of the social network allows it – the administrator of the website. More information on this can be found at www.stockphotorights.com.

4. Make sure the website is easy to use and doesn’t look too cluttered

Images need to be kept simple but clear and highlight what you want to say. Packing out your website with visuals makes it harder for the user to read the important facts. As a result, they can obscure your message rather than supporting it. Images need to be there for at-a-glance comprehension.

If the website is cluttered it can reflect badly on the company so you need to prioritise messages accordingly. The key points – whether in text, image or video format – should be made prominent on the page, while at the same time you should look at creating room between elements and scatter images throughout. This may all seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many websites are hard to navigate because the owner has tried to put too much on one page.

5. Update the site regularly to show that the brand is active

In the online world, content is key. Creating quality content on a regular basis is the most effective way to attract and retain website traffic. By providing new information on existing web pages customers will be more willing to spend time reading your content. Furthermore, an active website boosts your search rankings. Search engines such as Google look much more favourably on websites with up-to-date and relevant content, so this is imperative to get onto the all-important first page of the Google results.

One of the best ways to bring more content to your site is to have a blog. Sharing your expert knowledge can be a great way to add content and provide additional value on your website. Other ways could be simply changing some of the featured images and graphics throughout your site to make it feel fresh and revived. Doing this every few weeks can peek interest and allow returning visitors to explore other parts of your website they may not have explored.

The above tips don’t have to be time-consuming or expensive, but little touches like this can really impress prospective customers and set small businesses apart from their competitors.

Regardless of whether you walk into a traditional bricks and mortar store or click on a website for the first time, the basics of customer service still apply.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for quickly, chances are you’ll exit the store or shut the webpage faster than you can spell impatient.

The online sales industry climbed 27 percent in the past year compared to the 3.5 percent growth for traditional retail.

According to the November 2012 NAB Online Retail Sales Index, Australians spent $12.6 billion on online retail – equivalent to 5.7 percent of the scale of traditional bricks and mortar retail.

As a single entity, the top 15 online retailers now have a larger turnover than Myer and David Jones and are on a par with retail leader Big W. For these savvy retailers, 72 percent of their sales now come from online.

With shoppers leaving their car in the driveway and turning to their keyboard, online retailers have a huge opportunity to make the customer experience more enjoyable from the moment people visit their website.

An Ernst & Young report into online shopping found that a customer sees the entire experience, including the performance of the site, the delivery and so on, as the product itself.

Much like Australia’s snail-paced uptake of the National Broadband Network, our major department stores have been slow to migrate online. Harvey Norman, insistent for years that online retail would only weaken its store operations, reluctantly launched its online store in November last year – an astonishing 17 years after eCommerce rose to prominence.

The same can be said for department store giant, David Jones, which announced last year that just 4.9 percent of its total sales are through online channels. However, the $1.8 billion company has recently embarked on a new retail strategy that will increase their online offering from 9,000 products to over 90,000.

David Jones’ direct competitor, Myer, has also admitted that its online sales efforts have been below par, with online sales making up a paltry 1 percent of the company’s total net profit. Myer boss Bernie Brookes has vowed to step up his business’ online operations, with a new retail strategy to target 10 percent of total sales by 2016.

In contrast to Australia’s online retail struggles, department stores in the US and UK have been successfully operating in this environment for some time.

For example, John Lewis, a high-end department store in the UK, achieved more than $1.2 billion in sales from its online offering in 2012 – a major addition to its bricks and mortar offering.

An investigation into Australia’s lack of online retail footprint, conducted by Goldman Sachs, suggests that a key contributor is the amount of investment made in technology and online capability. Whilst Australia is allocating pocket-change to technology capital expenditure, the US and UK are allocating significantly larger portions.

It’s not all doom and gloom however, but it is important that Australian businesses start following some important online business practices to ensure that their visitors go to their website – and stay there.

A couple of tips include:

• Optimising your website for mobile devices. Making page layout and graphics scalable and adaptable to all browsers and devices
• Search engine optimisation techniques need to be capitalised on. If your customers can’t find you on the first page of Google, they probably won’t find you at all
• Embrace SMS Australians send 55 million text messages per day, it is the most prominent form of communication in world! Combined with a 98 percent open rate (90 percent within three minutes), it’s the ideal platform for notifying customers that a shipment is on its way or if there has been a delay.

Despite our ground-breaking invention of the ute, the hills-hoist and the bionic ear, Australia isn’t known to be a particularly successful innovator in the vast and compelling online playground. Australian businesses do have some catching up to do, but there is certainly a gap in the marketplace that is awaiting a bold, ambitious business to stand up and grab it.

Here are some of the benefits of having an online marketing strategy for your franchise business:

Online visibility

Many potential and existing customers are going online to research businesses in their local area, in a particular industry or to purchase products and services. To get your website seen by these potential customers you need to increase your online visibility.

You can achieve this by improving your website’s search engine optimisation, including keywords on your website, creating quality backlinks and frequently updating your website content.

Another way to increase your online visibility is by creating a profile on an online business directory such as FranchiseBusiness.com.au. Online directories can provide your business with direct access to your potential customers, helping you to build your brand awareness and drive better quality leads back to your website.

By increasing your online visibility your website will get seen by more potential customers, which may lead to increased sales inquires and business growth.

Online customer engagement

Engaging with your customers online is important for your business to build a valuable relationship with your customers. When you have a high level of engagement customers are more likely to leave comments on your website, share your information or post questions on your website.

An online marketing strategy can help increase your customer engagement by creating the right content to post on the right channel.

Part of this strategy involves finding out where your customers are online and then building your business’ presence on this channel. For example maybe the majority of your customers are on Facebook. Your franchise business could then create a Facebook profile and start communicating with your customers.

By posting a variety of interesting content on social media, responding to questions, commenting on your customer’s profiles and providing great customer service you can start to build a relationship with your customers. Through this relationship you can increase customer loyalty, brand awareness and encourage people to visit your website or purchase your products and services.

Enhance your reputation and brand

Having a strong brand and reputation is important for franchise businesses because it can lead to increased customer trust and brand loyalty. When customers trust and recognise your brand online they are more likely to purchase your products or services and recommend you to their friends.

An online marketing strategy can help achieve this by ensuring you have consistent branding and key messages on all of your online channels. Your strategy can also help you to organise and create content for your website, social media profiles, eNewsletters, online directory listings and more.

A part of this strategy may include writing informative articles about your industry and providing expert advice and tips to your customers online. This can help to position your business as an expert in its industry and build your brand and reputation.

There are many benefits of implementing an online marketing strategy for your franchise business such as getting your website seen by more potential customers online and increasing your customer loyalty through online engagement.

Innovation is a term that is bandied around quite a lot. Businesses large and small know it is a necessity but few get it right. For large businesses, there’s more room for trial and error and costly mistakes can be absorbed. For smaller businesses, the margin for error is a lot finer and more often than not, the old adage, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ rings true.

A lot of opportunities in today’s digital age also come from exploiting new technologies like mobile apps and social media, an area many SMBs already struggle to keep-up with.

The statistics

In this context, it’s perfectly understandable that few if any small business feels they necessarily have the time, resources or tech know-how to turn an idea into reality. The latest government statistics on Australian Small Businesses are quite telling. Only 30 percent of micro businesses (employing up to four people) undertook an innovative activity. This rises to 62 percent for medium businesses and 66 percent for large businesses. When asked what the typical barriers to innovation were, smaller businesses typically cited a lack of funds, skills and/or the actual cost involved in implementing said innovation.

How then should smaller companies realistically approach innovation – particularly in the digital age?

Collaboration is the key to innovation

The news is not all bad. The same set of government statistics suggests collaboration is the golden key. Where collaborative agreements are in place, a higher proportion of smaller businesses have been shown to increase the number of products and services they provide, as well as improving their overall productivity and profitability.

In hindsight, this seems quite logical. The reality for most small businesses is that they are unlikely to ever have the combination of time, skills or resources necessary to devote to an innovation. Partnering can help fill in potential gaps and amplify business outcomes. Where that gap involves the added complexity of technology, collaboration is arguably even more potent.

Practical tips for SMBs looking to innovate

Here are a few practical tips for SMBs looking to get started:

• If you are short of new ideas, talk to your customers and suppliers. Ideas for innovation often come from within the same industry.
• Most new products fail, regardless of how great it is. As a first step, companies should spend time considering how an innovation will fit into their existing business and potentially compete in the market place.
• For SMBs looking for rapid results, be realistic about what you can and can’t do. Find a good partner that can help fill in the gaps. Ideally it’s someone also willing to learn about and understand your business.
• To be innovative is to do something that has never been done before. Not all innovations however require a ‘Big Bang’ approach. Many can be undertaken incrementally – one step at a time. This not only reduces overall risk, it helps you test some basic assumptions behind the idea as you go.

For many smaller businesses, innovation is a well known and understood priority. With limited time, skills and resources however, it is a challenge at the best of times. SMBs looking for results should seriously consider collaboration as a means to addressing the gap between theory and practice – especially in today’s fast moving digital age.

Because the Cloud offers far more than simply reducing costs. It’s also about using internet and data centre infrastructure to improve business and sales processes. And it’s not just about where you store your data, but about enabling that data from anywhere. We’ve seen the beginnings of this with retail but it’s going to transform every business model.

Disrupting the old order

Building Cloud-based sales and business processes makes small businesses incredibly disruptive and presents a great opportunity to disrupt large multinationals as they continue to write off their large, slow, in-premise infrastructure.

Disruption in any market, whether it be the deregulation of the telecommunications market or the advent of the internet and social media, spurs on innovation and business models, and always shortly after, a great market for resellers.

For many businesses, Cloud will be a decision that they’re not going to buy their own infrastructure or host their own website. They’re outsourcing the headache of managing much of their own IT.

Hardware is still critical

Of course Cloud doesn’t mean an end to hardware. Security and privacy issues mean that businesses may choose not to host critical customer data in the Cloud, even if processes are kept there. Hybrid solutions will be a popular option.

It’s my view that if there is encouragement for innovation and the Cloud really does transform business models then the market will be driven to invest in infrastructure to support the Cloud. Infrastructure to pre-empt the technology is dangerous. It is much better to take an approach of supporting businesses that will make this transformation happen.

Need for education and encouragement

Despite prominent investment, adoption of cloud services remains sluggish and tentative in many sectors. IDC estimates that the new service delivery model only accounts for ten per cent of IT spend.

Despite the clear advantages, for some companies, operating in traditional ways for decades, Cloud is going to be a leap of faith. When you’ve invested in infrastructure for years, you have to tear out traditional mindsets along with legacy hardware.

Transitioning to Cloud

Servcorp’s own experience with Cloud has been as both a provider of Cloud services to SMBs, which we’ve been doing even before the term was coined, and as a customer of Cloud providers, as we are moving all our own back office into the Cloud. The Cloud is a natural fit for us as we manage businesses across 23 countries and 130 locations.

The transition to Cloud has at times been difficult but our overwhelming view is that it will only benefit our business.

Adopting the Cloud will enable you to make your business more efficient and do much more with a much larger market for much less cost.  The Cloud is allowing us to transform our business and the way we run it, and the way we work. It’s delivering affordability, scalability and flexibility, which is why we’re passionate that other companies should also realise these advantages.

So what’s the best frequency for sending emails?

The short answer is – weekly. No… I’m just kidding. Sorry. There is no short answer.

I wish it were that easy but the fact of the matter is that email frequency is something you need to work out for yourself based on what’s best for you and your subscribers.

Now that we’ve identified that there’s no silver bullet for email frequency, let’s discuss how to determine your optimal email frequency.

Email frequency must be aligned with value. This is a really important point and one that I can’t emphasise enough. It’s quite common for email marketers to ask, “How often should I send email to subscribers?” But I think a better question to ask is, “How often can I add value to subscribers through email?”

This is a concept that Mark Brownlow covers in a fantastic article he wrote over at Email Marketing Reports where he states:

“If you increase value, then…

• you can earn more profits at the same frequency
• recipients will respond positively to more email for longer than if you’re sending rubbish
• you can earn more profits at lower frequencies”

What I particularly like about this way of thinking is that it takes the focus away from your business and moves it towards the needs of your subscribers which in my opinion is the golden rule of effective email marketing.

So if you have enough content of genuine interest to share with your subscribers every week, then send them a weekly email. But if you find yourself compromising on the quality of content just to keep up with your email schedule, then maybe you need to slow things down.

Look at what your data is telling you. Irrespective of how often you’re sending emails to subscribers, keep a close eye on your email reports to monitor their performance. If you start sending more emails to subscribers, pay close attention to any changes to your unsubscribe rate.

If it starts to go up then this is probably a sign that you’re over-emailing. So you either need to increase the value that your emails offer to subscribers, or you need to reduce the number of emails that you’re sending.

If you’re really not sure how often your subscribers want to receive email from you, then ask them. Whether it’s a part of your subscribe web form or a dedicated customer survey, this sort of feedback is invaluable and should guide you in determining your ideal email frequency.

If you’re looking to help your business get a head start on your competitors for 2013, it’s worth noting just how vital a strong internet presence is for a successful modern business.

It will seem obvious to many of you reading this but to others, this is a wake-up call. Did you know only 38 percent of all Australian SMEs have a business website? Our research over the past 8 years shows this percentage has barely moved in all that time.

Not only is the internet changing the way you can communicate with existing and potential customers, it can also make your business more productive and competitive.

On a communication level alone, the internet is providing huge advantages to businesses with an online presence. Businesses that are able to be found online have a real advantage over the competition when it comes to attracting customers, especially in Australia, which has one of the highest rates of internet usage in the world.

Depending on what research you read, anywhere between two thirds to four fifths of consumers will search online first when looking for a product or service. What this means for businesses that don’t have a website is that the competition will get to make their case to the consumer first – and if that consumer doesn’t search any other channels, an offline-only business completely misses out.

The internet is also making it far easier to expand the potential market place for your business. With the increasingly widespread availability of affordable e-commerce sites, it’s easier than ever for businesses to sell to the global marketplace. For Australia, this is helping close the distance between us and the rest of the world, something that’s always been a big economic challenge.

It’s because of these advantages that the latest MYOB Business Monitor shows businesses with a website performing considerably better than those without one.

Business operators that have a website were 53 percent more likely to have experienced revenue growth over the last financial year, and 31 percent more likely to have more work or sales in the pipeline over the following quarter, as well as being 40 percent more likely to be forecasting revenue growth over this financial year.

It isn’t just the competitive advantage of a website that is making the internet a more integral part of a modern business, it’s also the internet’s ability to transform the way we work.

The advent of cloud computing – accessing computing power, software and infrastructure through the internet and on a pay-by-use basis – is helping businesses become more mobile and more flexible. It can also help their operations become more cost effective by reducing the amount they need to spend to maintain up-to-date IT systems.

As with websites, business operators using cloud computing found themselves with better results than their non-cloud peers. They too were 53 percent more likely to have experienced revenue growth over the last financial year.

With the economy still not fully recovered, it’s important that your business is able to take advantage of every opportunity to attract more customers and work more productively. In 2013, expanding your online presence will be one of the best ways to make sure your business is performing at its best and you are well positioned for the year ahead. Best of luck!

If you don’t yet have a website, check out Getting Aussie Business Online – an initiative from MYOB and Google where Australian businesses can get a free website and domain for a year.