B2B in Canberra February 2011 (Issue 57)

CANBERRA’S BUSINESS & GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

IMPROVE YOUR BOTTOM LINE:

BUSINESS PLANNING SERIES PART 6

Business should talk less and listen more.

Have you linked pricing to business growth & profitability?

b2bincanberra.com.au

FEBRUARY 2011

57

TECHSOLVE

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PAID PARENTAL LEAVE: What does it mean for you?

DEFEAT YOUR BAD DEBTORS Five easy steps inside

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CONTENTS PUBLISHER’S NOTE There is only one point I want to make this month. Please donate something, large or small, to assist those Queenslanders that have been knocked around during the past month with floods and cyclones and all the associated damage that has come from them.

Many thousands of businesses have been impacted by these devastating events. Much of the flow on effects are yet to sink in for these businesses and hit the rest of us. If it happened to us we would expect the rest of the nation to come to our aid.

Donate to the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html or 1800 219 028

EVERY MONTH 06 UPFRONT Read about local business success

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Canberra on the fast track to growth Convert office space into apartments: Greens Better market intelligence for Canberra tourism Get with the ACTSmart Business and Office Program

16 OPINION Juliette Ford, director, Consensus Family Lawyers on the importance of doing a financial settlement with your ex-partner or spouse.

20 ADVICE Advice from business experts

TIM BENSON Publisher

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Tim Benson Liz Lang editorial@b2bincanberra.com.au 02 6161 2751

Man Bites Dog Public Relations ABN 30 932 483 322 PO Box 4106 Ainslie ACT 2602 t 02 6161 2751 f 02 6262 7721 b2b@b2bincanberra.com.au b2bincanberra.com.au

Business coaching: Making money from affiliates

Corporate governance: Growing importance of social media Corporate health: Flu vaccination provides 1000% ROI

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Commercial law: Defeating the ‘bad debtors’ filing cabinet—Part 1

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Accounting: Changes to director penalty notices Accounting services: Four small business

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Estate planning: Left out of a will?

Graphic design: The importance of good design Information security: Are you currently experiencing ICT system down time?

Intellectual property: Why conduct an IP audit?

Management consulting: The virtual CFO —the best advice when you need it.

Websites: riding the wave of social media.

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36 BUSINESS NETWORKING 2010 Highlights, Friday night Jazz at the Kremlin Bar, and Canberra screening of ‘The Dinner Party’.

ISSN 1833-8232

Conference Planning Tip # 12

Make it easy on yourself: By selecting a venue that offers everything in one package as well as a dedicated events manager, you’ll not only save time but money as well.

Visit cscc.com.au or call 6283 7200 now!

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For the information of members and their guests

CONTENTS

18 COVER STORY

photography by Andrew Sikorski

FEATURES 10 GUIDE TO PLANNING THE PERFECT CONFERENCE Canberra Southern Cross events manager, Kate O’Brien tells how.

12 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION Antoniette Gomez, founder, Exhale Coaching & Consulting lets business in on a straightforward secret for success.

14 BUSINESS PLANNING SERIES

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Part Six: Andrew Sykes, partner, RSM Bird Cameron offers strategies on how business can manage their pricing.

18 COVER STORY Techsolve on a mission to save business money. B2B Editor, Liz Lang finds out how 28 G2B: Government to Business Local biotech company, Gamma Vaccines Pty Ltd a step closer to improving world health

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30 A2B: Associations to Business Canberra Business Council ACT Exporters’ Network ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry CollabIT

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UPFRONT

Canberra on the fast track to growth “It’s certainly an exciting time to be doing business in the nation’s capital,” says Lucille Halloran, Ernst & Young’s Office Managing Partner for Canberra.

The Commonwealth faces unprecedented challenges on both a global and national scale while embarking on major reform in areas such as health and education, “At the same time there is also no doubt that Canberra is experiencing intense growth in the private sector— a key focus for our firm.”

Lucille says she is delighted to be returning to the nation’s capital after ten years in Brisbane to lead Ernst & Young’s Canberra office.

Known as both a visionary leader and for putting people first, she has more than 20 years experience in professional services in Australia and Canada.

Lucille’s focus is to help clients achieve their potential through the development of tailored, innovative solutions. She is passionate about people and talent which aligns strongly with Ernst & Young’s commitment to fostering a high-performing, diverse and inclusive environment.

Under Lucille’s leadership, Ernst & Young’s local team offers deep knowledge and experience across federal, state and local government and private enterprise.

Lucille says: “We are seeing unprecedented demand from clients across government and business who are looking to boost efficiency

– to manage and grow business in a way that achieves long term performance”.

“Leadership, execution and fiscal control are the real challenges ahead,” Ms Halloran says.

“As a result, we have really stepped up our investment and focus in Canberra, and are committed to working closely with our clients to meet these challenges as well as drive results.

“Our investment in Canberra also extends to our commitment to the community and the arts through our three year sponsorship of the National Portrait Gallery.

Ms Halloran said Ernst & Young had recently moved to 121 Marcus Clarke Street with this central location being of great benefit to clients.

ABOUT ERNST & YOUNG Ernst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. Worldwide, our 144,000 are united by our shared values and an unwavering commitment to quality. We make a difference by helping our people, our clients and our wider communities achieve their potential. For more information, please visit www.ey.com.

Ernst & Young refers to the global organisation of member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity.

Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.

This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young Australia, a member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited.

Liability limited under a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

Convert office space into apartments: Greens The ACT Greens have called on the ACT Government to facilitate converting excess office space into apartments to help address Canberra’s housing shortage.

The Property Council recently released its Office Market Report figures, showing that Canberra still has the highest office vacancy rate of all cities in the country: 13.4%.

“Canberra currently has an over supply of office buildings and an undersupply of residential buildings—our residential vacancy rate is less than 1%,” said Greens planning spokesperson Caroline Le Couteur.

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“We need to take innovative steps to ease our housing shortage. People in Canberra want more apartments. Median rents for apartments are now higher than for houses.”

“To reduce the oversupply of office buildings, the Government must adopt a more flexible approach to planning and development. In particular, developers should not be required to build additional car parking if they are converting offices in town centres into residences.”

“The Government also must be more flexible about apartment sizes. Its rules prevent smaller residences being built in town centres, which could also mean less expensive rent. The studio apartments in the Waldorf, for example, could not be built under today’s regulations.”

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Ms Le Couteur also pointed out that most offices are well located for residential purposes. “They are near public transport and other facilities. Converting offices would reduce the development pressure on our suburbs.”

“Reusing buildings is also a more sustainable way of using materials, having less of an environmental impact than building new houses.”

“We’ve seen excess office space converted into residential space in the past, helped by government incentives, and the Government needs to investigate how they can support this to happen again,” Ms Le Couteur said.

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UPFRONT

Better market intelligence for Canberra tourism The $732 million Australian Capital Territory tourism industry now has access to the latest local market intelligence with the release of the Regional Tourism Profiles 2009/10.

The profiles have been developed as a tool for business in over 80 regions throughout Australia to give local tourism businesses the information they need to drive investment and tourism development in their communities.

Minister Assisting on Tourism, Senator Nick Sherry, is encouraging tourism businesses and investors to use the profiles as the first stop for information when planning future investments and marketing initiatives.

“Local tourism businesses and investors now have region-specific information on growing tourism market segments and consumer insights into why people travel to the ACT,” Senator Sherry said.

“The Australian Government developed the profiles after the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy and Jackson Report

identified the need for more accurate regional data to assist both government and the private sector with future planning.”

Member for Fraser, Andrew Leigh, said with the right market intelligence, local tourism businesses could build on an excellent year which has seen tourism expenditure in the ACT rise to $1.5 billion in 2009/10–up from $1.3 billion in the previous year.

“In the past year, Canberra hosted the highly successful ‘Masterpieces from Paris’ exhibition, which broke all existing attendance records for an exhibition in Australia,” Mr Leigh said.

“Nearly half a million people attended the exhibition and contributed $94 million to the ACT economy,” Mr Leigh said.

Member for Canberra, Gai Brodtmann,

said that the information in the profiles would assist ACT tourism businesses get a better idea about where visitors are coming from and what they are doing when they visit.

“These businesses can better target their investments, spending money where they are more confident of getting the best return,” Ms Brodtmann said.

The profiles incorporate data from Tourism Research Australia’s National Visitor Survey and International Visitor Survey as well as data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The Australian Capital Territory Regional Tourism Profiles 2009/10 can be downloaded at www.ret.gov.au/tra

Get with the ACTSmart Business and Office Program Strong community interest in recycling has seen Canberra become a national leader in waste recovery. Canberrans recycle more material than any other jurisdiction in Australia with over 70% of waste generated in the ACT being reused or recycled. Due to the strong household uptake in recycling, the focus has now shifted to local businesses and offices in the region.

The Government’s ACTSmart Business and Office programs support ACT organisations to effectively manage their waste. Participants audit their waste streams and put in place measures to facilitate waste recovery.

The Calvary Hospital is an exceptional example of commercial recycling. In a fivemonth period from 1 July to 30 November 2010, the Hospital diverted 77% of their waste, 325 tonnes, from the landfill stream to the recycling stream. This equates to 50,092 yellow-top recycling bins being sent to recycling instead of the landfill.

With 60,000 members, over 160 staff and in four locations across the ACT, the Canberra

Labor Club Group is the largest Club Group in the ACT. The Group is extremely proud to be associated with the ACTSmart Business Program since it signed up to the program in September 2009.

The Group implemented the program throughout their four clubs by developing ‘The Recycling Project Team’ with representatives from the bar, kitchen and administration taking charge to identify areas for improvement, setting achievable goals and monitoring the progress of staff in their area.

The changes have not only taken place behind the scenes but also in the general public areas. This has been welcomed by the members who appreciate that their club is environmentally responsible and is leading the local industry in reducing their carbon footprint.

From small businesses to large office blocks, 226 different sites – of which 32 have been accredited - are reaping the rewards of the program developed by the ACT Department of the Environment Climate Change, Energy and Water. There are many

Canberra Stadium is one of 32 accredited sites across the ACT who are ‘actively recycling’.

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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11 B B2B IN CANBERR A

benefits to implementing this program at your workplace: • It’s cheaper for your business • It assists in meeting your organisation’s environmental commitments • It reduces the carbon footprint of your business • The ACTSmart logo identifies you as an accredited recycler to your customers.

Interested? E: ACTSmart@act.gov.au, Canberra Connect on 13 2281. Join other businesses including the Canberra Labor Club and become ACTSmart!

F E AT U R E

Guide to planning the perfect conference If you’re currently faced with the overwhelming prospect of organising a conference, then fear not. When you plan an event at the Canberra Southern Cross Club – you are not alone. At your disposal is a dedicated Events Manager who will take you through every step of the process to ensure your conference is a huge success.

K

ate O’Brien, who joined the Southern Cross Events Centre as their Events Manager in October last year, believes in a philosophy of working in partnership with her clients to ensure the best possible event.

“Many of our clients have never organised a conference before,” said Kate, who has more than 10 years industry experience working in both Australia and overseas. “But that’s where we can take the pressure off by offering competitively priced inclusive packages, state of the art AV equipment, a huge choice of centrally located venues and value add-ons such as free parking.”

When asked what the key points are when organising a conference, Kate came up with the following: BOOK WELL IN ADVANCE! I’m amazed at how many last minute requests we get during busy periods such as Christmas time. We are certainly capable of turning around an event in a small amount of time – but ideally you should book well in advance.

DETERMINE THE MEETING OR EVENT PURPOSE. It sounds so basic but it is a crucial part of the planning process. For example if your event is a team building exercise, we can come up with some great out of the box ideas such as pitch and putt, which can achieve your objectives much more effectively than a group lecture.

PREPARE A DETAILED TIMELINE AND CHECKLIST. This is where our expertise comes into play – we’ll give you a detailed checklist and advised timings for everything from printing and distributing invitations, through to how much time to allow for meal breaks on your program.

The Southern Cross Event Centre’s state-of-the-art technology is backed with 24 hour IT support to ensure smooth and seamless presentations.

“My experience is that attendees will remember an event as much for the food as anything else.” Kate O’Brien

OUTSOURCE. Clients are constantly surprised at how much money and time they can save by choosing our venue and our competitively priced, all inclusive packages versus trying to coordinate everything themselves.

KATE O’BRIEN, Event Manager We work in partnership with our clients to achieve the best results.

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For an obligation-free tour of the Events Centre conference facilities, please contact Kate O’Brien on 6283 7200.

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Conference packages can be downloaded from:

www.cscc.com.au

SETTLE FAMILY DISPUTES OUT OF COURT It’s hard enough when a relationship ends. So the last thing you need is soaring legal costs, protracted, public court proceedings, and your personal affairs being determined by a judge.

Consensus provides a better alternative to the Courts.

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For a new style of dispute resolution which puts you back in control, turn to Consensus.

Canberra ACT 2601 T 02 6290 9898 F 02 6257 4382 info@cflaw.com.au www.cflaw.com.au

F E AT U R E

Business should be talking less and listening more.

Antoniette Gomez, managing director of Exhale Coaching & Consulting, has a simple message for business: ‘talk less, listen more, and you’ll see the improvement to your bottom-line.’

By Liz Lang

A

rmed with 20 years of customer service experience, Antoniette says effective communication is the key to business success — but it’s also one of the biggest challenges facing business.

“When you have something to say, you want to be understood — whether it’s delivering a sales presentation, engaging with government, negotiating a contract, or managing staff. But it is how that message is conveyed and received by your target audience that can make all the difference to your business success,” she says.

“Too often business can forget the importance of internal communication with their staff,” Antoniette explains.

“Business owners, may for example, have excellent working relationships with their clients, understand their client’s business vision and project requirements, yet when it comes to communicating internally to staff about the client’s needs, often a two-line email is sent or a five minute conversation is held with key staff. This approach inevitably leads to problems down the track.”

Exhale Coaching & Consulting specialises in developing communication strategies for business leaders, managers and teams.

Their range of programs enable managers and leaders to develop their own communication styles while gaining a better understanding of the styles used by other stakeholders including peers, clients, and staff.

Exhale tailors its services to government and businesses with more than five staff.

Although Exhale Coaching & Consulting was only established as a business last year, its founder Antoniette Gomez is no stranger to the machinations of business and government in Canberra. She spent 15 years working in

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the family business, Fondi Investments, which operated the commercial cleaning business, Complete Cleaning Services. When the family business was sold to the multinational ISS Facility Services Australia, Antoniette was appointed as the corporation’s regional general manager ACT – a position she held for two and a half years.

Reflecting on her business career, she says “I have learnt some invaluable lessons along the way such as how to build rapport with people at all levels —whether it is with cleaners who are regarded by some as the bottom of the ladder in business through to dealing with CEOs of corporations.”

As to why Antoniette’s company is called Exhale? She laughs when she says, “Most of our clients are very driven and from time-totime, we need to remind them that the art of life balance begins with a deep breath.”

Antoniette is a performance coach, auditor and lead auditor of quality systems, master practitioner of NLP, time line therapist, and a member of the International Coach Federation.

ANTONIETTE GOMEZ Managing Director

EXHALE CAN HELP WITH BUSINESS COMMUNICATION INCLUDING ... . Building client rapport . One-on-one communication coaching . Staff feedback and communication skills . Team skills/building relationships that work For more information: Exhale Coaching & Consulting T: 0431 006 747 E: info@exhalecoaching.com.au W: exhalecoaching.com.au

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11 B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A

. Public speaking . How to engage with government . Winning tenders.

F E AT U R E

BUSINESS PLANNING SERIES.

Part Six: Pricing As consumers, we make multiple decisions about price each week—a $3 coffee, a $100 pair of shoes, or $30 for a men’s haircut. We assess the utility and value of products and services almost unconsciously. For business owners, pricing policies and objectives can restrict or

by Andrew Sykes

enable their businesses to flourish.

Often pricing is viewed simply as a tactical response to increase sales. But the pricing of products and services is a strategic objective that is directly linked to business growth and profitability. Overall prices need to be set to maximise profit and value, not just margin or market share.

Basic truths

Price quality strategies

Lower prices do not automatically equate to increased sales. However, the lower per sale profits will require you to sell more to maintain the same level of profitability.

For example, if 100 widgets are sold at $25 each at a gross margin of 40% or $10 gross profit. Total gross profit is $1,000.

Lower the price by 10% and sell for $22.50 then gross profit drops to $7.50. Then $1,000/$7.50= 134 widgets need to be sold.

What is the level of stock required? 1 months sales = 100 x $15 = $1,500. This becomes 134 x $15 = $2,010 or 33% more working capital tied up in stock!

This table represents the perceived value relationship between quality and price.

HIGH PRICE HIGH QUALITY

Pricing policy objectives Pricing needs to be managed proactively to influence expectations, not in reaction to them. Think about how and why you price your products or services, is this driven by: • Profit (eg a targeted profit return)?

• Volume (eg dollar or unit sales growth)?

• Market share growth?

• Match competitors’ price?

• Non-price competition?

Try these two simple equations: Beginning GP% -1 Beginning GP% - % Lowered

=

% of Sales Increase Required

Beginning GP% -1 Beginning GP% + % Raised

=

% of Sales Decrease Absorbed

Customers who buy from you because of price are not your customers. They belong to whoever has the lowest price in the marketplace. Price increases can actually be the best choice in a difficult situation. Why? If business is bad, cutting prices could be the worst thing to do because of increased sales volume required just to maintain existing profits. But, a small increase in price can significantly increase overall profits.

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LOW QUALITY

LOW PRICE

Premium

High Value

Super Value

Over Charging

Mid Value

Good Value

Rip-Off

False Economy

Economy

Your pricing policy should be aligned with your overall corporate mission and the value you offer customers.

Justify your prices in terms of customer economics, not your own. If you ensure that pricing matches the value delivered and cost to serve rather than the products sold, you will ultimately create good value that customers will pay for, not great products and services that customers would like.

Andrew Sykes is a partner at RSM Bird Cameron For information on business improvements contact our experienced team, 103–105 Northbourne Ave, Canberra.

T: 02 6247 5988, www.rsmi.com.au

OPINION

New Year’s Resolutions - Part Two For those of you who read Part One of our ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ on the importance of a Binding Financial Agreement in last month’s issue, time to tune in to Part Two. For those of you who missed it welcome to our New Years Resolutions article on the importance of doing a financial settlement with your ex-partner or spouse.

By Juliette Ford, Director, Consensus Family Lawyers

G

oing through a separation is often a stressful and emotional time for all involved. Many people struggle to cope with the new changes that are taking place and trying to negotiate a separation of finances is an area which often causes tension. Others want to move on as fast as possible.

Getting a Divorce and having a Financial Settlement are two separate and different things that need to happen when parties separate. Obtaining a divorce is the legal acknowledgement that you and your spouse are no longer married. Doing a financial settlement involves cutting all financial ties between you and your former spouse so that you are completely separate. You can obtain a divorce without doing a financial settlement and do a financial settlement without being divorced.

Because of the requirement that two separating parties be separated for over 12 months to obtain a divorce, many people put off doing a financial settlement in the mean time. This is not necessary and can cause problems down the track. This is also relevant for separating de-facto couples as the Family Law Act 1975 now treats de-facto couples who are separating in the same way that it treats separating married couples.

Even if you and your separating partner only have limited assets or only debts, it is still important to do a financial settlement between you. For example, take the recent lottery win by Nigel Page in the United Kingdom. His ex- wife Wendy had left him over 10 years before and both Nigel and Wendy had re-partnered. Nigel and Wendy had never done a final financial settlement and when Nigel won the equivalent of $90

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Getting a Divorce and having a Financial Settlement are two separate and different things that need to happen when parties separate. Obtaining a divorce is the legal acknowledgement that you and your spouse are no longer married.

Doing a financial settlement involves cutting all financial ties between you and your former spouse so that you are completely separate.

Million, Wendy put her hand up for some of the winnings. Because Wendy and Nigel had never severed financial ties between them Wendy was able to obtain a share of his winnings.

It is much easier to negotiate a financial settlement when your separation is recent rather than wait until a few years have passed.

Not only will the areas of agreement be greater when the separation is recent but any outside influences on the outcome can be narrowed. For example Betty and Bob separate in 2000. They are divorced and have no negotiations about a property settlement as it all seems too hard at the time. Both

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11 B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A

are hoping that the other will sort it out. 10 years pass and Betty is re-married, Bob has been working on the matrimonial property, paying all of the bills and improving the investment property. Betty’s new partner has become extremely ill and is unable to work.

Betty contacts Bob to now obtain a financial settlement between them so she can have access to some of their assets accrued during their marriage.

One important thing to consider in this example is that the values of the two properties will have increased significantly in the past 10 years and even though this could be partly because of Bob’s continued maintenance and improvement, the value of the properties as at the date of the financial settlement are used for the purposes of a settlement, not their value as at separation.

Superannuation is another important consideration. Say Bob was the primary breadwinner during his and Betty’s relationship. Bob would have received the majority of the superannuation.

Bob has continued to contribute to his superannuation since they separated and now has a nice little nest egg saved for retirement.

The question of how his superannuation should be valued in his and Betty’s financial settlement is a difficult and often complicated one. This is especially the case if Bob’s superannuation is with a defined benefit scheme rather than an accumulation scheme.

Doing a final financial separation with your ex-partner can be a complicated and difficult process but it only becomes more difficult as time passes. So don’t delay!

For an Out of Court Solution contact Consensus Family Lawyers.

B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11

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COVER STORY

TECHSOLVE ON A MISSION TO SAVE BUSINESS MONEY They’re young, savvy IT professionals, who are determined to save Canberra businesses money on their IT costs.

Liz Lang finds out how.

“Too many times, we see the IT big guys coming into Canberra with their brand name and charging exorbitant prices for their services.

Businesses are paying for the brand name but they aren’t necessarily gaining any value-add from these companies,” explains Nathan Dunn, Techsolve’s solutions architect.

“Through working in the industry, we knew that when a small business had an IT problem, they wouldn’t get a qualified engineer sent out to fix it.

Instead, they’d end up with the IT trainee who would use small business as a training ground to develop their skills and then move on,” he says.

“We identified a gap in the market two years ago—which was to provide all business with tier one IT systems, personnel, and service but without the hefty price tag— that’s how Techsolve came to be and we haven’t looked back,” Nathan said.

“To my mind, there’s no place for the large IT companies of this world to be interacting with sites with less than 500 people because they are set-up for a completely different playing field,” says Nathan.

“This is where Techsolve can assist Canberra’s businesses, such as small builders, construction companies, medical centres, and law firms who are paying big pay cheques to large IT companies and not seeing value for money.”

Corporate Medical Options, a medical services company based in Deakin is one such client who switched from a large provider to Techsolve. Managing director, Dr Jennifer Loughman, says, “Having inherited a computer system which had been kept just ticking over by a large provider, I needed a competent responsive company who could fix my existing problems, and also help me grow with innovative

Photography by Andrew Sikorski

Save Money On IT According to Techsolve, the most important thing that business should be doing in 2011 is saving money by making technology work for them.

1. VIRTUALISATION

NATHAN

Move your IT infrastructure such as physical file servers, physical exchange servers, and domain controllers to a virtual environment. Virtualisation is particularly useful if you or your staff need to work by remote access and want to log into the same office desktop environment. This technology removes the need for businesses to purchase and maintain physical server infrastructure and that saves money.

Solutions Architect 18

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MATTHEW General Manager

solutions. Techsolve has worked closely with us to achieve just that, and elevating our system into the clouds means that going national will now be much simpler.”

With its headquarters in Civic, Techsolve is a young company with its average employee age at 28 years. General manager, Matthew Kennedy says, “In the IT industry, we find that it’s the young guns who lead the way. However, we don’t only employ young people. We have senior engineers in our team who have more than 20 years of experience and they help to guide our operations.”

“One of our major points of advantage over our competitors is the diverse experience that we have all garnered through working with both small and large IT firms. Nathan is one of the best solutions architects in town and we leverage off that,” Marketing manager, Pete Daly said.

Too many times, we see the IT big guys coming into Canberra with their brand name and charging exorbitant prices for their services 2. CLOUD

COMPUTING

4. GREEN

AS USUAL

Techsolve sends out highly qualified and experienced engineers to resolve business IT problems whether it is maintaining systems, antivirus protections, installing Windows updates or ensuring that IT networks run smoothly.

IT

Did you know that the power costs for an average PC will be between $2-19 a week?

With a Wyse type thin computer terminal, the cost is 29 cents a week. Techsolve can advise business on how to move to environmentally sustainable computing.

Enables your business to store and access its data and applications through the Internet and centralised remote servers. With the Techsolve data centre in Sydney, their engineers will maintain your cloud computing environment and ensure your data is private and secure.

3. BUSINESS

For your business IT needs, contact Techsolve, Level 2, 1-13 University Avenue, Canberra City T: 6257 8600 E: sales@techsolve.net.au, techsolve.com.au

PETE

Techsolve’s mission is to provide its clients with cost effective, innovative and relevant information and communications technology solutions that allow them to focus on their core business operations and activities. Cloud computing and virtualisation are some of the technology solutions that allow Techsolve to achieve its mission.

Marketing Manager B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11

19

A D V I C E

F R O M

B U S I N E S S

21 ACCOUNTING

E X P E R T S

25 ESTATE PLANNING

Changes to director penalty notices

Left out of a will?

By Frank Lo Pilato, RSM Bird Cameron Chartered Accountants

By Stephen Bourke, Certus Law

21 ACCOUNTING SERVICES

25 GRAPHIC DESIGN

Four small business CGT concessions

Importance of good design

By Brett Billington, Hillross Wealth Management Centre Canberra

By Lester Bunnell, Paper Monkey Graphic Design

22 BUSINESS COACHING

26 INFORMATION SECURITY

Making money from affiliates

Are you currently experiencing ICT down time?

By Wayne Bolin, 10X

By Boaz Fischer, CommsNet Group

22 COMMERCIAL LAW

26 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Defeating the ‘bad debtors’ filing cabinet—Part 1

Why conduct an IP audit?

By Maurice Falcetta, Trinity Law

By Shaun Creighton, Buchanan Law and Technology Pty Ltd

24 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

27 MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Growing importance of social media

The virtual CFO – the best financial advice when you need it

By Phil Butler, Australian Institute of Company Directors

By Andrew Fleming, MAXimus Solutions

24 CORPORATE HEALTH

27 WEBSITES

Flu vaccination provides 1000% ROI

Riding the wave of social media

By Dr Jennifer Loughman, Corporate Medical Options

By Sam Gupta, Synapse Worldwide

www.canberrabusinesspoint.com.au 1300 648 641 Canberra BusinessPoint is the gateway to practical advice and support for both existing businesses and those intending to start a business in Canberra.

The program taps into the collective knowledge and experiences of the Canberra business community, to provide workshops that build strong foundations and encourage innovation, mentoring programs, one-on-one consultations, master classes which provide tailored and specific advice, and networking events.

PROGRAM DELIVERED BY:

AN ACT GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE

Business Innovation Centre

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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11 B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A

EVENTS 17 Feb 2011 Business Fundamentals Workshops 1 & 2 These workshops cover essential financial & marketing strategies, business structures and strategic business planning.

23 Feb 2011 Canberra BusinessPoint Shopfront Launch 23 March 2011 Online Marketing for Small Business and Social Media

ADVICE

Changes to director penalty notices

by Frank Lo Pilato

ACCOUNTING

In July 2010 there was a significant change to the ATO Director Penalty Notices (‘DPN’). A DPN is issued in situations where the company has fallen behind in payment of its PAYG obligations and company directors then become personally liable for the unremitted PAYG amount.

Previously if a director received a DPN from the ATO, they could mitigate the personal liability of the company’s tax debt by the company entering into a instalment payment agreement with the ATO. From 1 July 2010, entering into an instalment payment agreement with the ATO will not dissolve the director’s potential personal liability if the DPN expires. It will only limit the ATO’s ability to commence proceedings against the director, but this will only take effect for the period while the payments are being made in accordance with the instalment payment agreement. The notice period of a DPN has now been extended from 14 to 21 days before recovery proceedings can be taken against the directors, but it is important to note that a DPN takes effect from the date it is posted, not when it is received by the director, as was tested in the matter DCT v Meredith.

The appointment of an Administrator or a Liquidator is still the only way for directors to adequately protect themselves from being personally liable for a company tax debt in the event a DPN is issued to them. However the appointment of an Administrator or Liquidator must be made within the time frame specified on the DPN, which should now be 21 days.

Company directors to be held liable for Super Guarantee On 24 November 2010, the Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten MP, announced that the Government will be amending the director penalty provisions to include unpaid employee superannuation entitlements as liabilities that may be recovered from directors.

These changes are further to the amendments announced by the Government on 25 July 2010 regarding a proposal to impose further reporting obligations on employers regarding quarterly SG payments.

These proposals will require employers to report actual payments made to the employee’s superannuation fund on the employee’s payslip.

Legislation introducing the above changes has yet to be introduced into Parliament. Please contact us at canberra@rsmi. com.au with your details and we will keep you updated on the expected commencement date of the rules once this occurs.

Frank is the director in charge of RSM Bird Cameron’s Turnaround & Insolvency Division in Canberra. He provides advice to clients on all areas of personal and corporate administration.

For more information, contact RSM Bird Cameron, 103-105 Northbourne Ave Canberra, T.6247 5988, www.rsmi.com.au

Four small business CGT concessions

by Brett Billington

ACCOUNTING SERVICES

There are a set of four concessions that potentially reduce or entirely eliminate the amount of assessable capital gain on disposal of assets that, broadly speaking, are used in carrying on a business by a small business owner or a related entity. The assets that qualify are referred to as active assets but importantly, not all assets used in carrying on a business can qualify. For example, the concessions do not apply to any gains made on the disposal of depreciable assets such as plant and equipment, or where the main use of the asset is to derive rent.

The four concessions are: • Small business 15-year exemption: it exempts all the capital gain and is broadly applicable on the sale of an asset held for at least 15 years where the business owner is in the process of retiring and is generally aged 55 or over.

• Small business 50% active asset reduction: exempts 50% of the gain.

If the disposing entity is a trust or an individual, it applies in addition to the general 50% discount • Small business retirement exemption: it exempts up to $500,000 (lifetime limit per qualifying owner) of otherwise assessable capital gain for each qualifying owner. This concession, despite its name, does not actually require the individual to retire. But if the person is under age 55 the exempt amount must be contributed to superannuation in order to qualify.

• Small business CGT roll-over relief: it provides deferral for at least two years of any assessable capital gain remaining after having applied 50% active asset reduction and retirement exemption.

All the concessions share a set of rules, referred to as basic conditions that must be satisfied in order to qualify. Apart from the small business 50% active asset reduction, the other three concessions have their own additional set of rules, referred to as specific conditions that also need to be satisfied before each concession can apply.

It is important to understand the process of where small business CGT concessions fit when calculating the net capital gain upon the sale of business assets. Furthermore, this process can determine which concessions may be used to maximise contributions to superannuation using the lifetime CGT cap per qualifying individual ($1.155 million in 2010/11). This cap is in addition to the non-concessional and concessional contribution caps.

Clients rely on professional advisers to ensure their financial strategies achieve the outcomes intended. This can be achieved with the right advice, particularly when the client’s accountant and adviser work closely together integrating taxation and wealth management advice.

Hillross Wealth Management Centre Canberra – providing professional wealth management services to clients of our alliance partners.

Brett Billington is a financial adviser at Hillross Wealth Management Centre Canberra.

Level 7, AMP Building, 1 Hobart Place, Canberra City, T: 02 6263 9200, info.wmcc@hillross.com.au, www.hillross.com.au

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ADVICE

Making money from affiliates

by Wayne Bolin

BUSINESS COACHING

These days, nearly all businesses (mostly like yours included) have an online presence. One way to make sure you’re getting maximum ‘bang for your buck’ from your business website is to look at linking up with an affiliate program.

What are affiliate programs?

Affiliate programs are also sometimes called associate programs and are essentially an arrangement you make with other sites to send you traffic (or vice versa).

In an affiliate program there is a merchant (the site where traffic is being directed) and the affiliate site (the site with the link, directing traffic).

How it works is, affiliates make agreements to post links on their site, that when clicked, take traffic through to the merchant’s site. These agreements will generally be based on the number of people an affiliate sends to a merchant’s site or the number of people they send who buy a product/sign up for a newsletter/or take some other action. Typically there are three types of affiliate arrangements: pay-per-sale, pay-per-click and pay-per-lead.

An affiliate example: Amazon began allowing affiliates to post links to individual books for sale on amazon.com and when a customer clicked through and purchased that book, the affiliate was given a percentage of the profits.

Next, all you need to do is decide whether you want to become an affiliate, acquire affiliates, or both!

Becoming an affiliate Go to an affiliate network site and fill out an online application to become a member—this will usually require you to list some details like your name, address, payment method and information about your site like its URL and description of what kind of content it contains. You generally do not need to pay to become an affiliate. The merchant will then review your site and either approve you as an affiliate or not. If they do approve your site, they’ll establish payment arrangements with you and then you can essentially wait for your money to come in.

Acquiring affiliates The best way to acquire affiliates is to join an affiliate network. There will usually be some fees involved, depending on the network you join — major networks can charge any where between $1,000 and $5,000 — plus, you’ll generally pay the network a percentage of every payment you make to an affiliate. However, on the upside, the affiliate network takes care of almost EVERYTHING for you—including keeping track of activity, issuing payment to your affiliates and distributing your links to affiliates.

Wayne Bolin is the principal at Bolin Accountants and the 10X Canberra South owner.

For more information, please visit Unit 3/71 Leichhardt Street Kingston or visit www.10x.com.au/canberrasouth

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Defeating the ‘bad debtors’ filing cabinet – Part 1

by Maurice Falcetta

COMMERCIAL LAW

Do you have a filing cabinet hidden away in the corner of your office full of ‘bad debtors’? Do you have clients or customers for whom you have put in long hours and hard work and they have failed to pay their bills for whatever reason? Have you sometimes accidentally glanced at the cabinet or caught a glimpse of it from the corner of your eye, and shuddered? You are not alone.

Debt recovery is an unpleasant aspect of operating a business and sometimes it feels like the only solution is to put the idea of debt recovery in the ‘too hard’ basket and resolutely ignore the filing cabinet.

Here’s a list of handy hints to assist your business to address your debt recovery issues: 1. Have a signed agreement or credit application with the client or customer. If the client or customer is a company, have one of the directors sign a personal guarantee.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask for a deposit or money up-front.

3. Maintain and keep updated a list of contact details for your clients or customers, including several contact telephone and fax numbers, email addresses, physical and postal addresses. Sometimes a debtor will ‘disappear’. Having an accurate and comprehensive list of contact details increases your chances of recovering your money.

4. Be pro-active about enforcing your terms of payment. Generally speaking, the older the debt, the more difficult and potentially expensive it becomes to recover the monies owed. Being pro-active includes: a. Creating a disciplined internal debt recovery procedure.

Ideally it should include a flag that highlights when a payment deadline has passed, and implements a ‘stop work’ notification until payment is received. b. Following through with your debt recovery procedures and warnings. A recalcitrant client or customer will be more inclined to heed the terms of payment if they know that your business means what it says about its payment terms and the consequences of not complying with those terms.

5. Engage a third party to recover your outstanding debts. Often interposing a third party allows you to maintain your relationship with the customers or clients because you are directly removed from the debt recovery process. In addition, having a third party pursue your debts on your behalf means you can continue to focus on your business.

For your debt recovery needs, contact Trinity Law. Maurice Falcetta is a partner at Trinity Law. Trinity Law is a boutique firm which is focused on providing business and corporate legal services and is motivated by long term business relationships.

2/214 Northbourne Avenue, Braddon ACT T: 6163 5050 www.trinitylaw.com.au

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B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11

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ADVICE

Growing importance of social media

by Phil Butler

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

There have been few topics that have attracted as much attention recently as the rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. With millions of people using social media for sharing information, entertainment, networking and learning, directors need to be aware of its potential for marketing and communicating with stakeholders.

A newspaper article I read about Qantas late last year reminded me of the need for awareness and the growing importance of social media to an organisation, whether large or small.

As busy business owners and directors, focused on governing our organisations, it can be difficult to devote the necessary time to what is happening in the ‘virtual world’ but its potential impacts, both positive and negative, can be enormous.

According to social media analysts, there was a wave of negative opinion about the airline on social media sites and blogs after a number of safety concerns were publicised by the media. Qantas was able to effectively manage its public relations in the mainstream media, however, it was the opinions expressed by the public in social media that proved more difficult to manage.

This was partially because, by its very nature, social media has the ability to move quickly and without much control. While many organisations have a range of specialists who continually monitor popular social media sites, it can be difficult to manage a brand’s image and reputation if it is being seriously threatened. The article about Qantas also referred to research by Convergys Corp, which indicated that ‘one negative customer review on YouTube, Twitter or Facebook could cost a company up to 30 customers’.

For those of us who are involved in organisations much smaller than Qantas, with limited resources to devote to monitoring social media, it can be quite a challenge to ensure that your brand or product is not under threat.

The fact that social media is so fast and dynamic adds additional challenges. First, you need to be aware that your brand is suffering and from here, you need to do something about it — and if you do not have a plan to deal with such issues, the impact can be devastating.

However, on the positive side, it is also worth mentioning that social media can be an extremely valuable stakeholder engagement tool for your organisation when implemented and managed effectively. What better format for your satisfied customers to sing your praises and generate word-of-mouth referrals!

The Australian Institute of Company Directors is hosting a briefing on 17 March, which will explore the evolving world of social media from a director and owners’ perspective.

Phil Butler is state manager of the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ ACT Division. For more information about AICD ‘s course programs and events, T: 02 6248 5954.

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Flu vaccination provides 1000% ROI

by Dr Jennifer Loughman

CORPORATE HEALTH

When staff get sick, so too does business. The 2011 flu will cost Canberra businesses substantial loss of income, staff down time and disrupted production. The impact is especially harsh for small to medium enterprises (SMEs).

A new mobile vaccination service—the VaxVan—is helping businesses stay healthy. VaxVan travels around the ACT and professional nurses vaccinate staff at or close to their place of work, providing 90% protection from the flu.

Run by Canberra’s Corporate Medical Options, the VaxVan is an easy, quick and extremely cost-effective way of boosting staff wellbeing.

VaxVan stays in each business precinct for an extended period. Staff simply pop down to the van and get vaccinated. It takes only minutes and VaxVan handles all paperwork.

As a doctor, I see the massive impact the flu has on business. The Australian Government reports influenza costs business millions of dollars and recommends that all Australians get vaccinated each year.

Corporate Medical Options already vaccinates staff from government and big business at the workplace. It’s an easy decision for employers, with a return on investment of at least 1000% for each case of influenza prevented as, typically, workers take 2-7 days off work and sometimes longer.

VaxVan offers SMEs the same great service that big business already enjoys. Most staff —without employer support—don’t get vaccinated. It’s a time-consuming process—an appointment to a GP for a prescription, to the pharmacy to fill the prescription and then back to the GP to be vaccinated. Some staff can’t find the time and others don’t want the hassle. So they hedge their bets and hope they don’t get sick.

The reality is that healthy, vaccinated staff take around half the number of sick days of unvaccinated workers. Protecting staff is smart business especially since the flu is highly contagious. Workers who ‘soldier on’ taking no time off work, may well infect others in your organisation, costing you even more.

Flu vaccines can be given year round, but are most beneficial before winter and the VaxVan has already hit the road with the 2011 Fluvax.

Corporate Medical Options specialises in all types of vaccines, including Fluvax, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, all travel vaccinations and whooping cough. Whooping cough—known as the 100-day cough—dramatically rose in 2010. While most staff were vaccinated through childhood immunisation, a booster at any age over 10 is now recommended.

Finally, vaccinations improve productivity and send staff the message that employers care.

Visit www.vaxvan.com.au or call 1300 VaxVan (1300 829 826).

Dr Jennifer Loughman is the managing director of Corporate Medical Options.

Suite 4 Clinical Services Building, 173 Strickland Cres Deakin ACT 2600 T: 02 6282 1100 www.corporatemedical.com.au

ADVICE

Left out of a will?

by Stephen Bourke

The importance of good design ESTATE PLANNING

Last month we talked about Will kits. This month we are discussing what you can do if you have been left out of a Will.

In the ACT, the Family Provision Act 1969 aims to remedy unfair treatment of people who have been left without proper provision being made for them in a Will.

This means that the protections of the Act apply not only if you have been left out of a Will but also if you have been named in the Will but have not been adequately provided for.

Let’s have a look at some of the legal stuff. To make a claim you must be an eligible person. In relation to the deceased an eligible person can be a wife or husband; partner living in a domestic relationship (this includes defacto couples and same sex couples); child; grandchild living the in same household as the deceased; former wife or husband; or person with a whole or partial dependence on the deceased.

The eligible person has 12 months from the date when administration or probate of the estate has been granted to apply.

This makes it important to act quickly to ensure that your claim is lodged. In deciding whether a family provision claim should be granted, the court must consider a wide variety of matters including: • Do any other people have competing claims?

• Is the estate of sufficient in size to support the extra payments which will result should provision be made under the Act? • The character and conduct of the person making the claim.

• Any contribution made by the eligible person towards the deceased’s property or welfare.

• Has some provision already been made in the will for the person who is challenging?

• Other matters that the court considers important (e.g. the financial means, resources and needs of the applicant).

The Family Provision Act is designed to provide a balance between a person’s freedom to make a Will in the way they wish as against ensuring that those left behind are not stranded or abandoned upon the death of someone with whom they had a dependency relationship, i.e someone they depended upon.

It is also good public policy as otherwise someone who has not adequately been provided for may become a drain on the public purse through Centrelink payments or other social costs.

While you cannot make a Will to completely exclude challenges, it is possible to minimise conflict over your Estate. A professionally prepared will together with a family conference greatly reduces the potential for a family provision claim.

Stephen Bourke is a director of the boutique firm, Certus Law, which specialises in superannuation, trusts and estate planning. Visit Certus Law at Level 5, 28 University Avenue, T: 6268 9090, www.certuslaw.com.au

by Lester Bunnell

GRAPHIC DESIGN

We all love good design and are constantly being influenced by it.

But for many people the importance of good design is rarely thought about. Just wander round the local shopping centre, jump online or simply sit down in your living room and look around — good design is never very far away from you!

It’s a crowded market place out there; every product and service is desperate to get your attention. But you might notice that good design doesn’t need to shout, it quietly relies on its strengths to compete with everything else around it.

Form, function material and experience are singled out or combined to create something that ‘stands out from the crowd’.

And, once that happens, it can become a phenomenon!

Ultimately, what makes a good design is a personal thing. There is no scientific formula to follow or magic wand to wave but generally good design exudes an aura of positivity for most people.

But why is good design so important? As consumers we’ve learnt that average or standard just isn’t enough.

We like to be amazed, we love to be enlightened but most of all we crave uniqueness. Good design can tick all these boxes and might even evoke the emotion of desire. Before we know it we’ve been swept off our feet by a piece of creative brilliance!

Maybe good design is important because it immediately makes clear the benefits and value on offer. All of a sudden we understand the product or service and can choose to include it in our lives. It all seems so easy, why can’t everything be like that?

The striving toward good design is probably aided by our natural instinct to continuously re-invent the wheel. This process of refinement eventually leads to creating good design. And, let’s not forget that it’s human nature to want to feel satisfied and contented — good design does just that!

Good design continues to set a challenging benchmark. It forces the mediocre to look very mundane, sometimes to the point of making it obsolete. It can take an everyday item or experience and make it seem so much more than you thought.

Maybe that’s the beauty of good design and why it’s important — it can quite literally change your life forever!

Lester Bunnell is a senior graphic designer and writer.

For creative design solutions, contact Paper Monkey Graphic Design, 72 Townshend St Phillip, T: 6285 2400, www.papermonkey.com.au

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ADVICE

Are you currently experiencing ICT system down time?

INFORMATION SECURITY

by Boaz Fischer

The term down time is used to refer to periods when a system or the business function provided by the system is unavailable. Down time or outage duration refers to a period of time that a system fails to provide or perform its primary function. This is usually a result of the system failing to function because of an unplanned event, or because of routine maintenance.

Are you currently experiencing ICT system down time? Whether it be unavailability of email, business applications. Whether it be the reliability of your business network that intermittently falls over or failure of recovery of certain documents.

Let me start by asking you a number of pertinent questions: How much business productivity are you losing? What additional costs are you experiencing? What business opportunities are you losing? How often are you experiencing down time?

The following table shows the translation from a given availability percentage to the corresponding amount of time a system would be unavailable per year, month, or week. Where does your business sit?

Availability %

Down time / year

Down time / month

Down time / week

99% (“two nines”)

3.65 days

7.20 hours

1.68 minutes

99.9% (“three nines”)

8.76 hours

43.2 minutes

10.1 minutes

99.99% (“four nines”)

52.57 minutes

4.32 minutes

1.01 minutes

99.999% (“five nines”)

5.26 minutes

25.9 seconds

6.05 seconds

Here are some reasons that may have caused levels of unavailability: lack of best practice in network and infrastructure redundancy, lack of best practice in design, management and operations of the ICT infrastructure, lack of best practice in technical and process of backup, lack of best practice in avoidance of internal application failures, lack of best practice avoidance of external services that fail, and lack of best practice in security Special Offer:If you are experiencing any form of down time, CommsNet Group is offering you the opportunity to engage our network and security expertise for free for the first 10 businesses who apply. Whereby, we will assess your current problem and draft a recommendation report based on best practices. Normally, this service is valued at $4,995. Simply register your interest to myinterest@commsnet.com.au by the end of February 2010.

Boaz Fischer is the managing director of the CommsNet Group. For more information, contact T: 02 6282 5554 or visit Level 1, 67-69 Dundas Court Phillip, mail@commsnet.com. au, www.commsnet.com.au

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Why conduct an IP audit?

by Shaun Creighton

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

When the calendar moved into January, many of us made personal New Year’s resolutions about diet, exercise and work. But have you thought about making a New Year’s resolution for the wellbeing of your business?

A key area often overlooked by businesses is the protection of intellectual property (IP). Nearly every business has IP of some kind; it can be embedded in things as commonplace as a list of customer phone numbers or an advertising pamphlet. As a general rule, though, businesses are unaware of the full extent of their IP with the result that they insufficiently protect and under-exploit this valuable asset.

Conducting an IP audit can be a cost-effective means of identifying your business’s IP and developing strategies to protect, use and enhance it.

Some key questions that can be covered in an IP audit include: • Do you own all the IP you use? For example, if you engaged a graphic designer to prepare an advertising campaign, did the contractor agreement bestow ownership of the IP created in your business? Do your employee agreements specify who owns any IP created during the course of employment?

• Do you have trade mark protection of your business name or brands, keeping in mind that business name registration does not give you any substantial intellectual property rights in law?

• Are your staff aware of what constitutes infringing your IP, whether during employment or after leaving your business? It is much better to ensure you have clear guidelines in place and educate your staff appropriately than to deal with disgruntled ex-employees attempting to solicit your clients or use your business’s confidential information at a later date.

• Are you unwittingly infringing someone else’s IP, including trade marks, patents or designs? Such infringement could prove very costly in the long run, and even necessitate complete re-branding of your business.

• Do you have IP lying dormant that could be put to a valuable use?

• Are there strategies that can be developed to limit gaps in your IP ownership?

Developing an IP register and good IP policies ensures you maximise your business’s growth opportunities, avoid infringing other business’s IP and protect your business from IP appropriation.

IP audits can be geared to each business’s needs, however big or small, new or established.

So make 2011 the year for your business to have an IP audit.

Shaun Creighton is a director of Buchanan Law IP and Technology Pty Ltd. It is a specialist boutique IP law firm based in Canberra that assists clients across a wide range of industries to protect, enforce and commercialise their valuable intellectual property rights.

Visit buchananlaw.com.au

ADVICE

The virtual CFO – the best financial advice when you need it

by Andrew Fleming

MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

The concept of the Virtual CFO (Chief Financial Officer) has been around for some time but more recently is really starting to take off as people see the enormous benefits that an experienced CFO can bring, but at a fraction of the cost of employing someone full time.

You may be the chief executive of a small to medium government agency or business and would love the services of an experienced CFO but feel you just can’t afford it. Whether you are growing or consolidating, faced with cost pressures or expansion possibilities, there will always be a need for a capable hand on the financial tiller but paying $200k plus is just not an option. And you probably don’t need someone all the time anyway.

An experienced CFO can pick up the nature of your business and where they can best add value very quickly. This may be in setting out a financial plan for the year to assist and mentor your existing finance staff or putting in place a monthly financial reporting system which allows you to really see how your business is performing. Once the basics for these activities have been set up the virtual CFO can play a monitoring role to ensure everything stays on track.

The virtual CFO can also play a strategic advisory role as an independent sounding board for your ideas and proactively give you the benefit of many years experience in much larger and complex organisations faced with exactly the same issues as you may be facing.

Why not use that experience and avoid the mistakes of the past?

Then there will be the one-off occasions involving possible acquisitions, complex financial transactions or legal matters where a few days time from your virtual CFO may well save you time and dollars in avoiding hiring specialist consultancies but also ensure you don’t make any expensive business decisions which will cost you in the long term.

And don’t believe that even though your CFO is not with you full time he or she can’t develop a deep understanding of your business and your needs. Indeed, our experience is that an initial intense period with you of say 2–4 weeks followed by ongoing regular visits of up to 5 days per month is quite sufficient to develop the understanding needed to satisfy your requirements especially when augmented by having the virtual CFO on call in case of the need for urgent advice.

Finally, just because your CFO is virtual and not with you all the time don’t discount the fact that they are out in the market place every day working with other businesses and agencies. Your virtual CFO will bring that knowledge into your business with a fresh approach and enthusiasm every time they show up for work.

Andrew Fleming is an executive director at MAXimus Solutions.

MAXimusSolutions offers a range of strategic consulting and support services.

T: (02) 6295 9044 or visit Ground Floor, 27 Murray Crescent, Griffith www.maximussolutions.com.au

Riding the wave of social media

by Sam Gupta

WEBSITES

No matter where you go, people are all talking about social media whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin— the list goes on! Business and government are integrating social media strategies as part of their day-to-day business and small business needs to ensure that they are exploring and embracing these new avenues.

Recently, my wife and I were looking for a new dishwasher. What does this have to do with social media, you may ask?

We decided on a well-known brand that was recommended by the retail stores we spoke to and seemed to have all the features we needed. Then, my wife went online to research this product. She found that although the dishwasher generally had good reviews, there were some concerns with one of the key features that we wanted. After further research, we decided that this dishwasher was not the right product for us. Without the help of online forums and reviews written by users across Australia, we would have made the wrong purchasing decision.

Social media is not just about creating a Facebook page or a Twitter account. Let’s imagine a huge party at Manuka Oval. There are groups of people talking about all kind of things. Let’s say you find a group which was talking about one of the products or service your business provides. Maybe someone was looking for the best option, another one may have had a bad experience and someone else may be just curious etc. I am sure you would want to join the conversation and offer your thoughts on the topic. This is plain old conversation. The same scenario applies to social media online. People post their questions, ideas, feedback and all kind of information online. You can join the conversation and offer your expertise.

Engaging online can be of huge advantage not just to your business but also to your website. You can post links to your website resources, articles, documents on these websites and create links back to your website. The more ‘backlinks’ to your website, the better it is for search engine rankings.

At the end of the day, social media can be overwhelming. It’s not practical to engage in every single conversation out there. Choose your medium, choose your topics, and select your conversations and audience. Don’t engage in social media for the sake of it. If you don’t know where to start, you can start by choosing a current trend in the market. Have an objective, an integrated strategy and keep it nice and simple.

Sam Gupta is the managing director of Synapse Worldwide. Sam would love to hear your thoughts on this advice column.

Please contact him on 1300 785 230 or admin@synapseworldwide.com

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GOVERNMENT TO BUSINESS

Local biotech a step closer to improving world health

Gamma Vaccines MOU signing with PT Bio Farma and PT SOHO Group at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, November 2010. L-R: Professor Tim Hirst, executive chairman, Gamma Vaccines Pty Ltd, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope MLA, Drs Iskandar, president, PT Bio Farma, and Drs Andreas Halim, Commisonaire director, PT Soho Group

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nfluenza costs Australian businesses billions of dollars each year through unscheduled leave and lost productivity. With ‘bird flu’ and ‘swine flu’ gaining widespread attention in the media in recent years, many people are now aware of the challenges that face current vaccine technology when seasonal or pandemic strains of influenza appear.

Seasonal vaccines are developed each year following the identification of the predominant influenza strains that are predicted to circulate in the coming winter season. Pandemic vaccines are developed following the identification of a new and unexpected influenza virus that is likely to cause widespread infection. The current method of producing influenza vaccines using chicken eggs is well established and cost effective. However it is no longer sufficient to meet demand, with an average of one to two eggs required to produce a single dose.

In early January 2011 ‘swine flu’ made it back into the media, with documents released by the Federal Department of Health showing that the Australian Government spent $200 million dollars to respond to the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 and 2010.

The majority, $131 million, was spent on purchasing vaccines to help prevent the spread of H1N1 through the Australian population.

While the recent H1N1 pandemic did not see the high mortality rates of the pandemics in 1918 and 1968, its highly-infectious nature and the costs associated with lost productivity, make influenza a global health challenge.

Gamma Vaccines Pty Ltd, a Canberra-based biotechnology company, is quickly proving itself on the global stage.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11 B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A

Established in July 2009, the company is leading the way in redefining the way influenza vaccines are designed and manufactured. Like many local biotech companies, Gamma Vaccines has roots in institution-based local research and development.

In November 2010, Gamma Vaccines signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with two Indonesian biotechnology companies. PT Bio Farma and PT SOHO Group are both highly regarded in the global vaccine and pharmaceutical industries, and the agreement marks an important demonstration of confidence in Gamma Vaccine’s main product, GammaFlu Professor Tim Hirst, Executive Chairman of Gamma Vaccines Pty Ltd said, “one of the largest challenges in improving world health is to ensure that innovative technologies are made available to developing countries. Gamma Vaccines has a philosophical commitment to this. As our near neighbours, with a population of over 240 million, Indonesia represents an exciting opportunity to take this technology from the laboratory into clinical practice. This will be achieved as a result of this important collaboration.”

Gamma Vaccines was established to develop a ‘universal’ cross-protective influenza virus vaccine, GammaFlu The technology was invented by Professor Arno Müllbacher and Dr Mohammed Alsharifi, leading viral immunologists from The Australian National University’s John Curtin School of Medical Research. This vaccine is designed to put an end to annual, or seasonal, influenza vaccination as well as the need to develop a new vaccine when a pandemic strain emerges.

For further information about Gamma Vaccines Pty Ltd see www.gammavaccines.com.

Gamma Vaccines Pty Ltd, a Canberra-based biotechnology company, is quickly proving itself on the global stage. Established in July 2009, the company is leading the way in redefining the way influenza vaccines are designed and manufactured.

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Helping to reduce waste Helping responsible local business grow Find out how:

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A S S O C I AT I O N S T O B U S I N E S S

The risk of a focus on the Sydney-Newcastle corridor as a start-up section, is that, if dealt with isolation, it may jeopardise the case for the construction of the whole east coast network.

High speed rail: moving forward CHRIS FA U L K S

CEO Canberra Business Council

AFFILIATED WITH

UPCOMING EVENTS Friday 18 February 2011 Canberra Times Business Series Luncheon, The Business of Sport TIME: 12.30 – 2.00pm VENUE: Bradman Room, Manuka Oval COST: $77 Members $99 Non Members Wednesday 23 February 2011 Connect @ The National Library TIME: 5.30 – 7.30 pm VENUE: Foyer, NLA, Parkes Place, Parkes Cost: $30 per person Wednesday 23 March 2011 Online Marketing for Small Business and Social Media For all registrations go to www.canberrabusinesscouncil.com.au

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n our article in the B2B February 2010 edition (‘Getting HSR back on Track’) we supported the work done by the CRC for Rail Innovation with its Report ‘High Speed Rail: Strategic Information for the Australian Context.’ It was pleasing then to see, in the lead-up to the August 2010 Federal Election, all political parties support the CRC’s recommendations for a detailed study of HSR. It was even more gratifying when the Gillard Labor Government announced, in late October 2010, the Terms of Reference for a $20m feasibility study to determine the economic benefits of a high speed rail network along the east coast of Australia.

While very supportive of the study itself, the Council has some concerns about the NewcastleSydney ‘spine’ being the central focus of this work and is lobbying to have both the northern and southern corridors out of Sydney included in the initial study so that a comparison of construction costs, and likely patronage, can be made.

Sydney-Newcastle Corridor The Sydney-Newcastle section has some features which make it attractive for early implementation.

A high speed line between these two cities has the potential to avoid part of the investment currently proposed for the existing Sydney-Newcastle commuter railway, and it would relieve traffic associated with the North Sydney freight corridor.

On the other hand the Sydney-Newcastle section has some characteristics which make it less suitable as the first section of high speed line to be developed.

First, it is very short. The existing railway (to Broadmeadow) is 154 km in length (via Chatswood rather than Strathfield). This contrasts with the generally accepted parameters for high speed railways, which are that they are suitable for distances of between 250 km and 1000 km. Below 250 km, the time associated with access and egress to and from stations offsets the transit time advantage on the rail part of the trip, so that most commuters will continue to drive.

Second, its terrain will make it the most

expensive section to construct of the whole Melbourne-Brisbane network. There are two major waterways to be crossed (by bridge or tunnel) – Sydney Harbour and the Hawkesbury, with very difficult topography both south and north of the Hawkesbury and several other waterways to be crossed between Gosford and Newcastle Sydney-Canberra Corridor The Sydney to Canberra corridor, while still part of the overall east coast network, is expected to be more indicative of the costs and financial and economic benefit of the entire network.

First, at a corridor length of approximately 285 km, it is more likely to attract a modal shift from air and car to rail than the shorter route from Sydney to Newcastle. Second, the opportunities for regional development, including such benefits as relieving population congestion in Western Sydney, developing the Southern Highlands and expanding the Federal Government employment pool, need to be considered as part of this study.

Finally, high speed rail between Sydney and Canberra would enhance the potential for Canberra Airport to act as an overflow airport to Sydney airport for both domestic and international flights, thus delaying the huge expense and need to develop a second Sydney Airport.

The risk of a focus on the Sydney-Newcastle corridor as a start-up section is that, if dealt with in isolation, it may jeopardise the case for the construction of the whole east coast network. It is for this reason that Canberra Business Council continues to strongly advocate a comparison of routes for HSR from Sydney both north to Newcastle and south to Canberra.

While very supportive of the study itself, the Council has some concerns about the Newcastle-Sydney ‘spine’ being the central focus of this work...

Principal Members ACTEW Corporation, ActewAGL, Bank West, Blue Star Printing Group, Canberra International Airport, Cre8ive, Elite Sound & Lighting, Ernst & Young Services Trust, eWAY, Hindmarsh, HolisTech Pty Ltd, KPMG (Canberra), Master Builders Association (ACT), Medibank Health Solutions, National Australia Bank Ltd (Turner), National Museum of Australia, NEC Australia Pty Ltd, Staging Connections (ACT), The Village Building Co, Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems Australia, TransACT Communication

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11 B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A

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Another secret to success has been taking advantage of services offered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Austrade.

Noetic Group: growing from strength to strength BRENT J U R AT O W I T C H

President ACT Exporters’ Network

For more information on the ACT Exporters’ Network visit actexportersnetwork.com.au, or contact the Network’s manager, Pam Faulks, on 0400 090 452 pam.faulks@ canberrabusinesscouncil.com.au.

M

embers of the ACT Exporters’ Network continue to enjoy success in the world of exporting, as they enter new markets and expand their activities in existing ones. The Noetic Group is an example of one of our members that combines its success domestically with growth internationally.

The Noetic Group recently moved to new offices at the Equinox Business Centre in Deakin to accommodate the continued growth in their business — growth that is also reflected in Noetic’s ongoing success as an exporter.

As a leading strategic management and knowledge consulting firms specialising in the business of government, Noetic entered the world of exporting in 2005 when it opened its first off-shore office in Washington DC, USA and was rewarded for its efforts by winning the Emerging Exporter Award in the 2007 ACT Chief Ministers Export Awards, followed by the Award for Small to Medium Services in 2008.

The impetus to opening an office in Washington DC was linked to an existing employee moving to the USA, but has grown since then to include seven staff members, including both Australian expatriates and American nationals. In order to be successful as an Australian company in America Noetic needed to prove that it had specialised and unique services to offer the market. In particular Noetic provides national security advice to this market, with clients including the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the United Nations (UN) Department of Peace Keeping Operations.

In discussing what helps exporters succeed, Noetic’s Chief Executive, Peter Murphy, highlighted how important partnerships had been for his company. For example, Noetic partnered with Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) to deliver training to Timor Leste’s oil and gas industry regulator, the National Petroleum Authority. This

project focuses on capacity building, so that by upskilling members of Timorese personnel, this workforce can provide better health, safety and environmental regulation for Timor Leste’s growing oil and gas industry.

Timor Leste is not the only near-neighbour that Noetic is working with, with an office recently established in Papua New Guinea (PNG) where Noetic is working with the PNG Police Force. Like Timor Leste, Mr Murphy finds PNG a good place to do business and is employing PNG interns in Australia, which not only helps to improve cross-cultural understanding but also assists in capacity-building.

Another secret to success has been taking advantage of services offered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Austrade. Apart from a source of general advice and information about new markets, the generosity and accessibility of Ambassadors and High Commissioners in assisting with introductions and giving on-the-ground assistance has been particularly helpful for Noetic.

While Mr Murphy acknowledges that DFAT and Austrade staff may not be able to get you jobs, they can organise for you to meet the right people and steer you in the right direction – and just as importantly, they can help you avoid going down the wrong path!

As a member of the ACT Exporters’ Network, the Noetic Group can also take advantage of the many networking opportunities offered to exporters, where exporters share their knowledge and experience, and together look at ways to expand their export activities. The Exporters’ Network, which operates as part of the Canberra Business Council, also works closely with other organisations that also help exporters like the Noetic Group, including Business & Industry Development – ACT Government, Austrade, AusIndustry and the Australia Institute of Export.

Timor Leste is not the only near-neighbour that

The ACT Exporters’ Network is proudly sponsored by the ACT Government, Canberra Business Council, the Centre for Customs & Excise Studies and AusIndustry

Noetic is working with, with an office recently established in Papua New Guinea (PNG) where Noetic is working with the PNG Police Force.

Peter Murphy (CEO) and Andrew Balmaks (Principal) of the Noetic Group

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The scheme will provide a maximum of 18 weeks government-funded Parental Leave Pay paid at the National Minimum Wage, currently $570 a week, before tax.

Paid parental leave – what it means for you GREG SCHMIDT

Director, Workplace Relations

Corporate Sponsors ACTEWAGL, 104.7 / Mix 106.3, Prime TV, The Canberra Times, The Good Guys Tuggeranong, Duesburys Nexia, Synapse Worldwide, B2B in Canberra.

Associates and Affiliates Retail Traders Association, Australian Industry Defence Network Foundation Member Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry 34

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rom 1 January 2011, all working Australians, including full-time, part-time, self-employed, casual, contract and seasonal employees, are entitled to Parental Leave Pay funded by the Australian Government, if the employee meets the eligibility criteria.

The scheme will provide a maximum of 18 weeks government-funded Parental Leave Pay paid at the National Minimum Wage, currently $570 a week, before tax. It is funded by the Australian Government via the Family Assistance Office & Centrelink Australia which will initially make the payments of Parental Leave Pay to eligible people. However from 01 July 2011, the Australian Government has stated that employers will be required to perform the paymaster function that is currently undertaken by the government agencies during the initial implementation phase. (1) When an employee claims for the Paid Parental Leave scheme, the employer will not have to provide Parental Leave Pay to their employee until the funds have been transferred by Centrelink Australia & Family Assistance Office into the employer’s nominated bank account. The employer will receive a payment notice with each payment either through Centrelink Business Online Services or by mail. The employer, in its role as paymaster on behalf of the Australian Government, will need to withhold income tax instalments and ensure that the payments will correctly appear on the employee’s subsequent Payment Summary. The good news is that employers will NOT be required to pay Employer Superannuation Contributions in respect of the Parental Leave Payments, and nor will the payments affect the employer’s payroll tax and workers’ compensation liabilities.

Parental Leave Pay is in addition to any other obligation the employer has to the employee, for example an obligation under an Enterprise Agreement to provide an entitlement such as paid maternity leave. The Paid Parental Leave scheme is designed to complement existing workplace entitlements.

It is important to note that the governmentfunded Paid Parental Leave scheme is not actually paid leave in the usual sense. That is, the government funded scheme is a way of delivering payments to an eligible person during an absence from work; it doesn’t create the right to be absent in

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11 B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A

Parental Leave Pay is in addition to any other obligation the employer has to the employee, for example an obligation under an Enterprise Agreement to provide an entitlement such as paid maternity leave. The Paid Parental Leave scheme is designed to complement existing workplace entitlements. the first place. An employee will therefore have to apply for leave to be absent from work before they qualify for the government payment.

The leave that the employee should apply for will usually be unpaid Parental Leave (a National Employment Standards leave entitlement) if they have more than 12 months service with the current employer. However, employees may also choose to apply for Annual Leave, Long Service Leave or even the employer’s own Paid Parental Leave entitlements if organisational policies or an Enterprise Agreement provide for this. The availability of paid leave from the employer will not affect the employee’s rights to receive Parental Leave Pay, and the governmentfunded payments can be received before, after, or at the same time as employer-provided paid leave such as Annual Leave and/or Parental Leave.

Although there are no restrictions on when an employee can access Parental Leave Pay, some employer policies or agreements may mandate when an employee must access employer-funded leave. Employers who provide paid parental leave through an industrial instrument, such as a workplace agreement, cannot withdraw that entitlement for the life of that instrument.

Employers wishing to find out more information about Paid Parental Leave can do so through the Australian Government Family Assistance Office, or through their employer association. The ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry has a long history of providing advice and support to employers on a wide range of Workplace Relations and Human Resources issues.

A S S O C I AT I O N S T O B U S I N E S S

A2B

mHITs is a mobile payment service which allows payments to be sent instantly simply by sending an SMS.

CollabIT: Celebrating local innovators delivering solutions to business NANETTE RICHERT

ACT Branch Manager

C

anberra company mHITs (pronounced Em-HITS) took out 5th place in the inaugural iPitch i10 Awards at the end of last year. The iPitch i10 Awards recognise and award the top 10 high potential and innovative start-ups out of the nearly 450 Australian startups in the iPitch community. mHITs is a mobile payment service which allows payments to be sent instantly simply by sending an SMS. The service also allows the purchase of food and beverage items at retail point of sale and is operating in coffee shops in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide.

The company has also launched the Q-Jumper service which is specifically designed for food and beverage franchises, solves the problem of queuing and waiting in line, a problem which is common for the industry resulting in revenue loss due to so called ‘walk-offs’. The mHITs technology is also being used in payment services in developing countries for the so-called ‘unbanked’ where people do not have access to a bank account.

“We are thrilled to be acknowledged in this way” says mHITs CEO Harold Dimpel. “iPitch provides a valuable industry service for start-up and early-stage

companies in Australia and we are very excited to have received an i10 Award.

We believe the mHITs SMS payment and ordering service has terrific potential not only in the retail food and beverage sector but also in every day life including person-to-person payments and other applications such as paying for parking.” he concludes. mHITs is also an ideal payment method for purchase of mobile content, MP3 and other electronic and digital downloads, or for making purchases for goods and services from Internet websites. Other applications include cashless vending, parking, taxi fare payment, charity donations and cash back offers. mHITs recently launched its ‘pay for coffee by SMS’ service in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide and has plans for rollouts in other cities.

Details of venues currently using the service in Australia are available via the mHITs website at http://www.mhits.com.au.

For more details, visit http://www.mhits.com.au or contact Harold Dimpel on 0410 622 272 or via email at harold@mhits.com.au.

CollabIT is an engagement and business development initiative that links small and medium sized companies with multinational corporations and other stakeholders in the ICT sector.

CollabIT is a joint initiative of the ACT Government and the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and is delivered under contract by the AIIA. To learn more about CollabIT’s activities visit the website: http:// aiia.com.au/pages/collabitact. aspx or contact Nanette Richert, ACT Branch Manager, via the AIIA National Secretariat on

Grnd Floor, 39 Torrens St Braddon ACT 2612 T: (02) 6281 9400 B 2 B I N C A N B E R R A F E B R U A R Y 2 0 11

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2010 HIGHLIGHTS

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B2B @ CANBERRA SCREENING OF ‘THE DINNER PARTY’ NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE, ACTON

1. Cole Bennetts, and Steve and Maureen Doszpot 2. Graham and Lucy Ball and Timothy Stiles 3. Adam Suarez, Chelsea Parker and Leaney O’Sullivan 4. Jo Douglas, Lucinda Watson, Brendon Sloane and Jason Norris

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B2B @ FRIDAY EVENING JAZZ @ KREMLIN BAR

1. Dejan Andrevski, Hannah WestrappEvans, Lisa Rosevear and Alex Ness 2.

Vern Lim, Marco Hatt, Stan Bulifal, Dixie Reserreccion, Lisa Williams, Peter Duncan, Luke Summers and Hal Painter 3. Anthony Tonkin 4. Tim Collins, Tami Poke, Penny Jorna and Josh Sweeney 5. David Tompkins, Nadine Hopman, Alanna Hewlett and Rob Nicholls 6.

Bryon Daniell, Asher Westropp-Evans and Anthony Tonkin 7. Jolene Hall, Hannah Martin, Elsa Ramiro and Elsa Ramiro 8. Anna-Maria Svirtko, Laura Sweeney and Celia Lindsay 9. Geoff Grey, Lauren Black and Thomas Manley 10. Lisa Alwast, Sahar Moradi and Nazanin Movadi 11. Cornelius Weber, Claire Murray, Brigid Costello and Amy Ward

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