The Australian, Entrepreneur Importers accept the necessity of strict biosecurity measures but can find that their implementation is hard to swallow, writes Ed Charles | November 30, 2007 LAST month Melbourne-based food importer Friend & Burrell was forced to destroy 80kg of the prized Porcini mushrooms. Another exotic food importer reports that truffles — the underground fungus [...]

The Australian, Entrepreneur An online questionnaire can help employers sort the chaff from the grain when it comes to recruiting workers, writes Ed Charles. 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 as the applicant wishes. The SME recruiter, [...]

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 | September 28, 2007 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 as the [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur: The independence flowing from having your own business can come at a high price, Ed Charles discovers | August 31, 2007 MEN work longer hours than women, and self-employed men work longer still. The problem for the entrepreneur is to take control of the hours worked. “The self-employed just work a lot more and [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur: Blogs save time and energy, writes Ed Charles | July 27, 2007 THE hype over blogs focuses on gossip and radical politics. What many people miss is the power of the blog as a marketing tool for small business and an alternative to e-newsletters.  BUSINESS BLOGS • workingsolo.com.au • blog.completepotential.com • trevorcook.typepad.com • www.benjaminchristie.com • www.nobledentist.com.au/blog/index.php • www.frankteam.com.au/blog • blog.nowhiring.com.au • www.barrett.com.au/blogs/suebarrett • lukegoodwin.blogspot.com Blogs offer superior features to static websites, sometimes cost [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur: Travel broadened the mind for an adventurer who is into cleaner motoring, writes Ed Charles | July 27, 2007 IN starting a business or achieving anything in life, timing and chance play as large a part as passion. For Daniel Epstein, a lifelong environmentalist who recently returned to Melbourne after living in San [...]

INTHEBLACK - In the trenches Over a thousand years ago whisky was born in Asia. Only now is it experiencing a rebirth. By Edward Charles. Chinese youths are increasingly turning away from the nation’s traditional potent spirits, known as baijiu, in favour of whisky as their alcohol of choice. In the bars and discos in Shanghai, [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur: Ed Charles | July 27, 2007 THE home office is often thought of as an oasis outside office politics, an ideal space without interruptions, but the reality is that there might be more distractions at home. For people who have kids (or partners), their grubby mits can get over everything. Even though a home office [...]

From In The Black - May 2007:? You know that coffee is a big and profitable business when the drinks and snackfood giant, Coca-Cola Amatil, turns its attention to it. Two years ago it bought Grinders Coffee, whose founder Giancarlo Giusti is one of Australia’s coffee pioneers. Grinders was founded in 1962, when coffee in the English-speaking [...]

The Australian, Entrepreneur ONCE upon a time chocolate was the preserve of the rich. That’s if you could find any decent chocolate to eat — a chocolate culture didn’t really exist in Australia. Then, inspired by their travels, local entrepreneurs began trying to replicate what they had found abroad. One of the first was Yarra Valley winemaker [...]