From The Australian, Entrepreneur: BOUTIQUE ROASTERS Unique blends stand out from the crowd, writes Ed Charles IT’S a typical Melbourne location, an old warehouse off the main drag of Clarendon Street in South Melbourne, better known for its brothels than its beans. If it wasn’t for the smell of coffee roasting you wouldn’t even know St Ali was in this back alley. But despite the unpromising location, the micro-roaster and cafe named after the father of coffee, the 14th century […]
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Putting out the garbage
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 applicant wishes. The SME recruiter, however, is fast becoming overwhelmed by resumes — many from people who are inappropriate for the job. According […]
Hunter gatherer
From The Herald Sun, Citystyle By ED CHARLES ED CHARLES meets a chef bringing world-class culinary innovations to a regional kitchen IT’S 7am. Chef Dan Hunter is collecting baby carrots, herbs and flowers from the garden at the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. Later, in the kitchen of the southern Grampians getaway, he picks tiny blue flowers from rosemary, ready to be used in a dish plainly called “lamb rump, hazelnut, sheep’s milk, rosemary”. Hunter is going back to the […]
Arabic bazaar
From The Australian. Indulgence: Brunswick, Melbourne: Most visitors to this neighbourhood venture no further up Sydney Road than the Brunswick institution Mediterranean Wholesalers, which stocks more types of anchovy, tuna, cheeses, cured meats and olives than you could poke a salami at. But it is worth pressing on. Sydney Road may look downtrodden and the Lebanese influence may have been diluted but there are still old-school butchers and bakeries to be found among the newcomers. Signs in Arabic script read […]
Chips are down on magnetic strips
From The Australian, Wealth: CONSUMER NEWS: Your credit card might not work overseas, Ed Charles reports | September 19, 2007 AUSTRALIANS may be enjoying the Rugby World Cup in Europe but many may find that they will have trouble spending any money on their credit cards. The problem is that in Britain and Europe, credit cards that contain microchips and require a PIN rather than a signature have become the norm. Through ignorance, many merchants are now rejecting cards with […]
The world of long working hours
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 are a lot more likely to work long hours than the non-self-employed,” says Mark Wooden, professorial research fellow and deputy director of […]
Interactive beats static
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 nothing and are […]
Biofuel for thought the way to go
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 Francisco and then Byron Bay, all three came together earlier this year. First, global warming and the environment reached the political agenda and […]
Getting the lowdown on low-docs
From The Australian, Wealth: Ed Charles | August 29, 2007 Investors with low-doc loans should reassess them, MORTGAGE brokers are warning property investors to be careful which low-doc and non-conforming lenders they choose to ensure they don’t face interest rate increases over the market rate charged by mainstream banks. The combined effect of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s August rate rise of 0.25 per cent and the knock-on effect of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis means funding costs for non-bank […]