The Australian, Entrepreneur ONCE, the only way to find a business on the move was to call a directory on a mobile phone. But the arrival on July 11 of Apple iPhone — it is 3G, has WiFi and is GPS-enabled and integrated with Google Maps — is about to change the way people use mobile [...]

The Australian, Entrepreneur MARKETING fads come and go but YouTube and the internet look as if they are here to stay. YouTube is about rich interesting content rather than rich video production companies that usually make expensive TV ads. And this makes it an ideal medium for the small to medium-sized business, according to Sydney-based Laurel [...]

The Australian, Entrepreneur AS was first the case with computers and mobile phones, it’s difficult to know where in the technology cycle to dive into global positioning systems. GPS has only become popular in Australia in the past two years, with the sales value of GPS devices now overstepping digital music players. There are about 1.5 million GPS [...]

INTHEBLACK > In the trenches Service is one of those funny things. Some companies care a lot about it and others don’t. But as far as the customer is concerned it can make or break a relationship. Nowhere is there a more concentrated microcosm of the good and the bad of customer service than the restaurant. [...]

The Australian, Entrepreneur FOOD franchises are the fastest-growing franchises. On the league table of fastest growers, six are taking some sort of health angle on food: Sumo Salad, Big Dad’s Pies, Healthy Habits, Noodle Box, Pizza Capers and Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar. Tim Dixon, CEO of consultant Franchise Works, says the high street is so dense with [...]

The Australian, Entrepreneur DARREN Rowse is an accidental entrepreneur. The Melbourne-based lay preacher has earned more than $700,000 from internet advertising since 2003 simply by working out what people want to read on the internet. Now he runs the B5Media Network of 320 bloggers with co-founders Shai Coggins from Adelaide and Jeremy Wright from Toronto after 18 [...]

The Australian, Entrepreneur AUSTRALIA is behind the rest of the world with online shopping. According to online researcher Hitwise, just 6.75 per cent of Australian internet traffic last month was for shopping and classifieds. In the US, 9.54 per cent and Britain 9.61 per cent of traffic was in this category. In the DVD market, 10 per [...]

The Australian, Entrepreneur ARTIST or businesswoman? The question is one that’s often asked about Abigail Crompton. She started her career creating museum shop souvenirs for the National Gallery of Victoria and Craft Victoria, which gave her the idea to make art a business — the Third Drawer Down Gallery. She kicked off with 200 tea towels her father [...]

IN THE BLACK: In the trenches Cool customers: the growing Chinese consumer goods market may give us the greatest lessons about understanding the customer. By Ed Charles Knowing your customer is essential to the success of any business enterprise. China is the market that many multinationals are concentrating on. So how does one begin to understand this [...]

IN THE BLACK Are you a knowledge worker or a pen pusher? The likelihood is that you are the former, which means you are about ideas and -collaboration. In that case, the expressions ’social media’, ‘Web 2.0′, or more importantly, ‘Enterprise 2.0′, should be in your vocabulary, even if you don’t have a profile on Facebook. While these [...]