From In The Black: In the trenches The likes of actor Johnny Depp, with plenty of help from Hollywood, have in recent times romanticised the image of pirates and privateers. There he was charging about as Jack Sparrow in the blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean, causing many a swoon and coining around US$2.7 billion [...]

From In The Black: In the trenches Achieving an effective level of management is a fairly universal story no matter what business you work in or run. Just look at the restaurant industry. It’s a microcosm of the business world, picky customers and tight deadlines. And the man who has highlighted it, warts and all, [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur JULIAN Persaud, the newly appointed online head at Google Australia, is a man with a big message for small and medium-sized companies. He wants to wake them up to the opportunities online presents for growing their businesses. “They are coming on board in increasing numbers,” he says. “About 40 per cent [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur THE cafe business is highly lucrative and has a lot in common with the game of Monopoly. There’s a vibrant trade in cafes — in Melbourne there are stories (perhaps exaggerated) of $50,000 a week businesses selling for $2 million. If you know what you’re doing you can pick up an [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur An online questionnaire can help employers sort the chaff from the grain when it comes to recruiting workers, writes Ed Charles Article from: The Australian THE internet is a wonderful thing for job hunters. Once an online resume is created, it can be sent almost effortlessly to as many potential employers [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur THE hospitality business in Australia is huge. It is jam packed full of small entrepreneurial businesses with over 40,000 restaurants, cafes and caterers alone turning over $15 billion. And they all have one massive problem: finding and retaining the correct staff. And that means it is more important than ever to [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur Accountant Ramez Abdulnour has calculated how to make a quid on the morning brew, reports Ed Charles YOU’D think the coffee business was about selecting and suppling the product as in any food and beverage business. But in reality it has more in common with the mobile phone business, where handsets [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur THERE are many reasons to start a business. Some people are driven by money. Others by passion. But for Omar Kilani, of Sydney, the Remember The Milk web application came about simply because of a personal need and his passion for programming, which he has followed since he was 13. He [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur TO some extent, Web 2.0 or the read-write web as it is known, is all about crowd sourcing. The idea is that the crowd can create content for you, give feedback and even have a hand in designing products they really want. It’s a tricky concept for many companies to master [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur ONE of the major challenges for small companies is to make the transition from being a small-volume product to being a brand sold in a large number of retailers. For Sydney-based Nikki Michel and Lisa Ross the challenge was to move from selling their dream Pickles and Loop pyjamas at Paddington [...]