Expert Advice

What a great time of the year. Olympic Games, Wimbledon, Tour de France, football codes getting closer to finals. I love major sporting events. Competing in Olympic and Common wealth Games were highlights of my "former life" as an athlete. Working as an in-house lawyer on the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the Volvo Ocean Race are highlights as a lawyer....

Why choose Maloney's After 20 years in property management I would like to point out why I think we lead the way in property management. 1. We are a company big enough to be systemised, organised, structured and well resourced, however, small enough to care about our clients 2.Our website has a major focus on property management and is a...

Forty per cent of employers expect to increase their permanent staff levels in the coming year, with engineering, IT, HR and distribution departments tipped to see the biggest job growth, according to findings in our 2016 Hays Salary Guide. This far exceeds the 13% of employers who expect to decrease their permanent headcount. Engineering professionals will be the biggest beneficiaries...

It is sometimes said that the law is an ass. In the case of strata legislation the most pervasive issue is usually lack of rigor and prescription around how an Owners Corporation should go about its affairs. Pleasingly in the ACT we have seen great improvement on that front since our jurisdiction upgraded its strata laws in recent years. Although...

We are living in the age of Attention Economy! If you are still measuring your digital marketing success with the number of clicks, you are doing it wrong. Our (human beings) average attention span is about 8 seconds, which is shorter than that of a goldfish. An average page visit lasts less than a minute. On a mobile device, it's...

Developing and implementing effective public policy has become increasingly more difficult because of three reasons: 1. The obvious responses have been implemented - the most obvious policy responses that were readily achievable, did not require a lot of effort, and/or delivered substantial benefits, have largely been implemented; meaning that government must explore innovative policy responses to achieve further outcomes. 2....

Last week, I caught up with a successful Canberra-based sportswear retail entrepreneur. When sharing about the challenges we faced as business owners, I was glad that my counterpart had learned the importance of bookkeeping and understanding the numbers in his business. One of his biggest mistakes was to hire a low-cost bookkeeper and to outsource all finance-related matters to the...

Have you ever wanted to know what goes on behind the closed doors of Government agencies and a Minister's office? You might be surprised to realise that the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the Act) grants you a fundamental legal (and democratic) right to access that information, subject to certain exemptions such as confidentiality or national interest considerations. Equivalent...

With winter just around the corner, now is the time for businesses to consider how to save money on heating costs and improve the comfort of their workplace. The good news is that Actsmart can help. If you operate a business (outside the home), have fewer than 10 full-time equivalent staff or electricity bills under $20,000 (incl GST), you may...

We live in the Information Age, where access to previously unobtainable information is available at the stroke of a key. We look to the world wide web to answer every question and now with the rise of YouTube and video blogs, we can be experts in just about anything. A very common example of this, one I am sure we...

MARATHON. What is it? Well, it depends who you ask. It is an event? Yes, of course it is. Just ask the thousands of people who run 42.195km in events conducted through the streets of most major cities each year, or the athletes preparing to run the Olympic marathon. It is a brand? Yes. A search of the Australian trade...

Six months ago I began writing this column on strata management in B2B Magazine. I had just commenced as Managing Director of Vantage Strata and was six months into my role as President of Strata Community Australia (ACT). I said that my mission was to 'do nothing short of rewriting the book on strata and building management in Canberra'. We...

Unless you are selling via your website, be it products or services, the most crucial function of your website is likely to be lead generation. Even if you are selling online, lead capturing is still the second most vital function of your website. If you are a business that is spending money on any kind of advertising or marketing, your...

Since starting out in 2009, my staff and I have dealt with a wide range of customers from different industries and it got me thinking about what makes a customer great or ideal. Among our pool of customers, there are some who we thoroughly enjoy working with, and I'm confident to say that we'll be working partners for the long-term....

Small businesses will soon enjoy the benefits of protection against unfair contract terms in their dealings with other businesses. Currently, only consumers who enter into standard form contracts can claim protection from unfair contract terms under the Competition & Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (the Act). However, small business can be just as vulnerable, often lacking the bargaining power to negotiate...

Public events can produce significant amounts of waste material, much of which is potentially recyclable, including paper, cardboard, glass, metal, plastics and organics. Furthermore, event patrons are increasingly expecting access to recycling services at ACT events. Event organisers can play a positive role in implementing and encouraging sustainable activities and behaviour, both at an event and in the broader sense...