As a qualified CFA Volunteer
Firefighter, a business owner and resident of a fire effected town of Black Saturday, I feel it is my duty to make sure that
everyone is aware of the real dangers of fire and what is important to remember
in protecting your home and business in Australia.
Remember we live in a dry
climate, fire prone, and every year with the effects of Global Warming the
weather is getting hotter (meaning more opportunities for fire) and our land is
getting dryer (meaning more readily available fuel for the fire). No matter where you live you should already
have a fire plan. I would like to see
the government make basic minimum skills taught in high schools. It would only take one week out of a school
curriculum. And it is life skills that
are detrimental to living in this country. But another beef I have with the government for
another day.
Remember, embers can travel
up to 50km in the air before landing and starting another fire. Resources are scarce, so how do you prepare
you business for a bushfire / wildfire. The Victorian Government is really working
hard to provide people with as much information as possible following the
devastation of Black Saturday this year. During the week I was sent the following short
piece of information that I think is a great start to making your business,
your livelihood, fire protected, without compromising yours or someone else’s safety.
Preparing
a Bushfire Response Plan
As a business owner it is
your responsibility to make sure you, your staff and clients are safe in the
event of a fire. A clear and concise Bushfire
Response Plan that your staff know how to use will go a long way to making
sure they are safe.
Things to do
- Have an emergency kit which includes first-aid
and supplies for up to three days; make sure employees know where it is.
- Identify staff who have first-aid qualifications
and train further staff if needed.
- Have a list of contact details for staff
members, including their emergency contact person.
- Identify which staff has the skills to help in
an emergency, e.g. able to keep calm in a crisis.
- Talk to emergency service providers such as
police, fire and ambulance services along with other agencies such as
VICSES and VicRoads to find out what they will want you to do during a
fire.
You can download more
details about preparing a Bushfire
Response Plan here.
Take care over the summer
season. Be pro-active about fire, because there is just NO time to be re-active.
The Serious No Joking Today
Louise Schultze
(This is an actual picture of a 150 year old business that was burnt to the ground only a month ago. I attended to this call out and the current person with the lease to the business had no fire plan and no internal protection installed and readily available, i.e fire blanket and fire extinguisher. This was a sad day for the town of Woodside VIC. Their only General Store that has lost it's 150 years of heritage)
As a choice to be a stay at home working
mother, I am always championing for more respect and development on a
Government level for the rights to/and of parents in Australia when it comes to entering
and exiting the workforce to bring up their children. I would like to see
a work force where children are simply a part of the way we do everything and
pregnant women, can continue to work from home or in the office where their
children are top priority. Addressing these issues was a political
campaign for Rudd leading up to his election, and I was wondering when we were
going to hear anything about it. Well, here is the first introduction to
change. The Paid Parental Leave Scheme. It's nice to see they
haven't segregated women and men from parental roles and a direct financial
support for the biggest job in the world they are about to undertake.
Monday 23
November 2009
The Australian Government is proposing to
introduce a Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme as part of the 2009/10
Federal Budget. The proposed scheme will be made available for parents who are
primary carers of children that have been born or adopted on or after 1 January
2011.
To be eligible for the proposed PPL scheme,
the primary carer must have:
- been engaged in work continuously for at least 10 of the 13 months
prior to the birth or adoption date of the child
- undertaken at least 330 hours of paid work in the 10
month period (an average of around one day of paid work a week).
Legislation for the proposed scheme will be
introduced into Parliament in 2010.
Read
More......
So far, it's a good start, however I would like to see them stop using the word "scheme". If someone said "I have a good scheme for you", one eyebrow would uncontrollably arch. Anyway, as I said it's a start, and the only person I can think of that wouldn't be happy with looking at this would be my mother. Only because she missed out with the 10 of us. Just a little bit p#ssed off! Love ya mum. ;)
http://www.business.vic.gov.au
Orphan Angels
Celebrating 2009 National Adoption Awareness Week Nov
16-22
As part of iBidAM.com’s community awareness and
action campaigns, I would like to talk about something that is very close to my
heart. As a parent earnestly waiting on the international adoption and
permanent care list, a foster care parent sometimes with up to 9 extra children
in my home, I would like to talk to you about a wonderful group I sincerely
care for called Orphan Angels.
Orphan
Angels was foundered by Deborra-lee Furness & Janine Weir, and
advocates for reforms through all available channels to provide children in
need with nurturing homes. They wish to raise awareness of the global crisis of
abandoned children, participate in creating a pro adoption community & illustrate
how anyone can transform the life of a child in need. They strive to
create an opportunity for each child to fulfill their birthright and realise
their potential.
So I believe it’s now time to…… TALK ABOUT
ADOPTION !
Many Australians have been touched
by adoption, permanent care or foster care. Most Australians know someone who
has been in one of these situations, who has adopted or fostered or even has
had to give up a child into one of these systems.
Adoption & foster care has touched us all at some time. However, for too
long it has been poorly understood and stigmatised. It’s time for us all
to become adoption advocates and acknowledge past practices, debunk adoption
myths, educate friends and family about ethical transparent adoption.
With a little preparation each one of us can do something...have one
conversation, discuss one article or one story within adoption awareness week,
that will inspire & create greater awareness of adoption, inter-country
adoption & foster care in Australia.
Please feel free to contact iBidAM, post a comment or
get in contact with the organisers directly if you can contribute in anyway to
raise the awareness of adoption and foster care within Australia.
Email Contact : enquiries@orphanangels.com.au
http://www.orphanangels.com.au
http://www.adoptionawarenessweek.com.au/
GlobalPoverty-ACallToAction-SpeakersNightInvitation.pdf (3.24 mb)
CALLING ANYONE WHO SERVICES SMALL BUSINESS. IF YOU
EVER THOUGHT YOU HAD THE GIFT FOR WRITING, WE WANT YOU!
WRITE ABOUT YOUR EXPERTISE,
WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR SKILLS OR SOMETHING RELATED TO YOUR COMPANY THAT YOU KNOW
WOULD BENEFIT SMALL BUSINESS AND WHY. AND THOSE MOST INFORMATIVE WILL
HAVE THEIR OWN WEEKLY SPOT ON OUR BLOG. THIS COMES WITH YOUR LOGO AND
CONTACT DETAILS IN FRONT OF OUR 10,000 BUSINESSES ACROSS AUSTRALIA!
Take a peek at what is in there now...
Email info@iBidAM.com, with "I want to share"
in the subject header, and a paragraph of what your business does. If you
know anything about our CEO - the more entertaining the better. DON'T be a car
salesman. Not that there is anything wrong with that of course!
Mr. Watson
at it again. This time teaching pre-schoolers all about the 'S' word
that we all love to hate..... Sales! What were you thinking about?
This is what he had to say.........
"Pre-schoolers never stop asking until they get
what they need but unfortunately, most people tend to lose that ability to ask
for what they need as they grow up and subsequently conform to external
pressures from parents, teachers, early employers, social peers, and the
general community in which they live.
As a business owner, the loss of this skill, to ask for what you need from
those who control what you require, can have a highly detrimental effect on
your businesses’ ability to increase its sales revenue.
Your business will therefore reap the benefits if you relearn the ability to
ask for what you need in order to grow your business. So how do you start
relearning what you once did intuitively as a pre-schooler?"
Want
more..... ?
Daniel Watson
from Rhodan Management
Consultants Pty. Ltd has over 35 year experience in directorship,
management, consulting, in both Private, Listed and Unlisted Public Companies
and Public Sector organisations, in Real Estate, Telecommunications,
Information Technology, Professional Services, Franchising and Government.
He is a member of all the cool business groups like Australian Institute
of Management, Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Golden Key
National Honour Society etc, and has the University papers to back it all up.
We’re going to cross over to
Daniel’s 'Unique Insights' Blog
from time to time and steal a few words of wisdom for all you SME’s that like a
bit of Boost Juice for your business.
I have the honour of speaking at one of Australia’s
most prestigious and downright amazing events for empowering Women in Business.
It's run by Fabe Keily
aptly called What Women
Want. And damn it, she has put together an amazing selection of
international speakers for this event. What amazes me is meeting people
like Fabe and her
husband Joel, who are genuine about what they do. To the point they fully
fund the events, making it a non-for-profit event ensuring that everyone from
all walks of society have access to this kind of uplifting experience. They have priced the tickets at $49.00, but I
caught up with them a week or so ago and here they were on the streets of Melbourne handing them
out for free.
The event covers many topics including work / life balance,
relationships, finance, business, motivation and health.
Fabe
has generously offered iBidAM members 20 FREE double tickets to pass on to you
which means you can bring along a friend as well for FREE. The value of
these tickets is over $1200 each!
It's this weekend 24th and 25th of October, I know short
notice, at the Hilton on the Park, in Melbourne.
It includes food and drinks and some clinking of cocktail glasses!
I was a little jealous of all this free lovin going around. So I've decided to give iBidAM members free
advertising till Jan 1st 2010, if you attend the event, worth $600. Just
come up to me, at the event, give me your business card and it's all yours!
To claim your two free tickets go to http://www.whatwomenwantwealthcreation.com and book via “DO
YOU HAVE A MELBOURNE VIP TICKET?
Be quick so you don’t miss out. Looking forward to kicking up my heels and
clinking up the cocktail glasses with you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thhvt8kdNt4&feature=player_embedded
In the first two parts
of this series, Louise Schultze sat you on the analyst’s
couch to figure out whether you have ADD (Advertising Deficit Disorder) and, if
so, which type. Today, she tells you how to cure ADD2 (and your Dad issues!).
Ok, you know what to do. Get comfy. You’re here because you have accepted that
you have ADD2. Last session on the couch, we spoke about ADD1 and your ‘Mother’
issues. Guess what? Yep - ADD2 is all about your Father issues. So let’s re-cap
what ADD2 is again.
ADD2 - (Advertising Deficit Disorder -
Type 2)
You’re hyperactive in your advertising. You place dozens of ads everywhere,
take up every distress ad out there with a ‘buy it, buy it now’ attitude. You
can’t see whether the ads you are placing are actually working for you, and you
probably created ads for your business that had a negative effect. You fiddle
excessively with your ads, and have poor listening skills when it comes to your
creative designer or marketer. And it just simply never registers to think
about the buying behaviours of potential clients.
So put that down, stop fiddling, and look at me Kimmy. Look at me!
We’re going to talk about Fathers............
To read the whole article, comment, rate and
spread the lovin go to...
http://bit.ly/dpfBC
Thanks iBidAM supporters! We do love you!
I am constantly on the look
out for businesses and individuals who genuinely offer the good stuff when it comes
to business advice and the real needs of SME’s. And I get all tingly when I come across someone
already sharing the love that wants to throw some our way.
Daniel Watson from Rhodan Management Consultants Pty.
Ltd is ready to play a little business hand ball. Daniel has over 35 year
experience in directorship, management, consulting, in both Private, Listed and
Unlisted Public Companies and Public Sector organisations, in Real Estate,
Telecommunications, Information Technology, Professional Services, Franchising
and Government. He is a member of all
the cool business groups like Australian Institute of Management, Australian
Institute of Company Directors, the Golden Key National Honour Society etc, and
has the University papers to back it all up.
We’re going to cross over to
Daniel’s 'Unique Insights' Blog from time to time and
steal a few words of wisdom for all you SME’s that like a bit of Boost Juice
for your business.
I thought I’d start with
some of his sizzling sss’s. Six of them
in fact!
The
Six Critical Elements to Building a Successful Business.
Creating a business is one
thing, but building a successful business that attains a level of profit which
represents a satisfactory return on the time and capital invested by the owners
and also proves to be sustainable over many years, is a challenge that many
business owners fail to overcome.
I believe that six critical
elements (the Six S's) must all be effectively in play before any business can
realistically become a successful business.
If one or more of these
elements is not operating at an optimal level within your business you have
some work to do if you want success to eventually come your way.
The Six S's are …….. read
more……
Oh Yeah forgot to say –
Daniel likes to give away a freebie here and there. Check it out!
In part
one of this series, Louise Schultze sat you on the analyst’s couch to
figure out whether you have ADD (Advertising Deficit Disorder) and, if so,
which type. Today, she tells you how to cure it.
How to cure SMEs with ADD Type 1
So here you are back on my
couch. You’ve either accepted that you have AD1, or you have plenty of time up
your sleeve and want to chill out on my couch. Either way, clock’s ticking and
you want to know what to do. So let’s get into the cure.
ADD1 - (Advertising Deficit Disorder - Type 1)
You’re the one complacent
about advertising. You have difficulty focusing on where to advertise and what
type of advertising works for your clients. You feel overwhelmed by it all and
then do nothing because it feels like the safer option.
Well, like all good
psychiatrists, I want to start at the beginning. Let’s talk about your
relationship with your mother.
To read the whole article,
comment, rate and spread the lovin go to...
http://bit.ly/r8S6H
Thanks iBidAM supporters! We do love you!
Now get off my couch and
start dealing with your Mum issues.
By Louise Schultze, Australian Anthill Article - August 28, 2009
I recently had the pleasure of having lunch
with the brains behind CLIVE
technology (Customer’s Live Internet Video Experience), Chris Schwager Director
at Ridge Films and Scott Maxworthy
Director at Maxys. They simply amazed me with their new
technology and how it can make a difference with engaging clients once they
reach your website. You see, Advertising
to marketing is like man to virus. You
need the host to attract the bug – so it can multiply and spread. Well, in the same way Advertising like humans
attract, and marketing is the virus that multiplies and spreads the bug. So you need a good engaging ad to get people
to your site and then a great contagious marketing campaign to keep them there.
This technology is definitely one to
engage and has the ability to be used as an ongoing marketing tool also.
But don’t take our word for it - look at the
recent shark attack on the net using
the CLIVE technology. You have to click the play button at the
bottom right hand corner.
Mr. Maxworthy says “These days, you’ve got just 12
seconds to grab someone’s attention on the web”.
Crap, I hope it didn’t take you longer than 12
seconds to read this then!
www.clivevideo.com