Birdwing Business Solutions

The tourism and hospitality industry has been strengthened through the establishment of

Workforce Futures, a new Workforce Development initiative worth $11.8 million. The

program funding has been provided through both industry contribution and from

government through the National Workforce Development Fund. A true industry driven

partnership approach has made this initiative a reality though the work done by Service

Skills Australia (SSA) who manage the project.

Its been a busy week – another week with another new client who is in trouble because they were not getting the right advice.  I love accountants – don’t get me wrong – its just that they are only very rarely experienced business managers or consultants.

1.       Accountants are highly trained – to give tax and financial advice.  Would you ask your bank manager to design your marketing programme?  Or your we...

Most advertising we see is pretty mundane; I always recommend that clients should be really creative to get noticed amongst all the messages that compete for our attention.  Here is a prime example of some very creative advertising from Warner Bros.  Enjoy!

Several of my clients are either already selling or are interested in selling to Asian markets; I encourage companies to plan and not to take a scattergun approach to the many different markets.

The article here (thanks to Startup Smart) gives some good initial guidlines and things to think about.

Dont try to do everything youself!!

So there you are, working (too) hard in your business and you identify that help is needed.  If its something specific like financial help, you would probably talk to your accountant or bank manager.  If they can't help then they can usuallly point you in one direction or another.

But what if its undefined, or general business, or marketing, or stragic help you need - who do you turn to then?

And do you need a consultant a coach or a mentor?

And wh...

The majority of SMEs believe their banks are not loyal to them and that access to funding hasn't got any easier over the past year, a new survey from accounting firm WHK reveals.

The survey of 531 SMEs from across the country, compiled by East &Partners, found that 94% of SMEs don't believe their banks have been loyal to them - up from 82% in August 2010.

WHK chief Carl Walsh says the issue is that businesses think theirbanks should trust them given they have been loyal custom...

The CEO at a company I once worked for had a favourite saying, "If it smells, it probably stinks."

At the time, the senior management used to think this was very amusing, but though its not how I would phrase it, it is actually often true.

One of my clients had signed an overseas distribution contract that was going sour through no fault of theirs.  We eventually brought this to some kind of a conclusion but during our discussions the client said that prior to signing the agr...

A bit of advice courtesy of HBO and Entourage.

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I love the English language and the ability to make puns - words that sound the same but with different meanings.

Here's a few that although old are still amusing....

1.  The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian .

3. She was only a whisky maker, but he lo...

So there you are, doing what you always wanted to do or earning lots of money, or - even better – earning lots of money and doing what you always wanted to do…….  So why aren’t you enjoying it?

Planning – a broken record?

I hate to say it again, but planning is so important.  If you have a plan – where you are going, how you will achieve it and how you will get out of it (or move to the next stage) R...