The High Price of Love

We have all grown up with the nagging voice of our mothers telling us to not get in cars with strangers, or eat unwrapped candy from the overly enthusiastic middle aged man dressed up as a pirate on Halloween.  And most of us have fallen into the trap of a little innocent online flirting, with a virtual stranger. It's easy to do when you're enjoying the late night banter over a glass or 2 of your favourite wine, or discreetly checking when they were last online to make sure they're still alive. After weeks of getting a good thing going, and only thinking it’s a little strange...

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The costly effects of ignoring a toxic bullying work culture.

For most employers, it’s a given that creating a healthy workplace environment is a crucial and mandatory step for any organisation that aims to become prosperous. According to J. Right Sims (Management, 2010. Wellness and Productivity Management. Presentation to the Health and Productivity Management Congress 2010), for companies where employers focussed on creating a healthy workplace culture, it has been observed that employees are: Five times more likely to be engaged Three times more likely to stay in the first year Two and a half times more likely to say that their organisations...

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VET FEE-HELP overhaul designed to encourage strong employment options.

A lot has been written recently about the government’s VET FEE-HELP scheme with Education Minister, Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham saying that 2015 VET FEE-HELP data is littered with examples of rorting and shonky behaviour from some providers who continue to take advantage of students and taxpayers, tarnishing the reputation of the vocational education and training sector. Recent changes to the VET FEE-HELP scheme has seen a large reduction in the number of VET courses covered by the scheme down from 825 to just 350 available courses. The Australian Council for Private Education...

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ACT NOW – Improving your email open rates

People say, don’t judge a book by its covers, but in the case of getting your target audience to open the email you have just sent out, your subject line plays a huge role. Did you know that 35% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line? So you have just spent the past 2 hours crafting your EDM that is about to be sent out and inside it has the best offer in the industry that no other company can provide. Imagine how disappointing and sad it will be if your audience doesn’t open the email and no one will know about it and next thing you know, *click*, there it...

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A new weapon in the war on drugs

Surely filming the moment a young boy is told he has lost his mother to drugs is reprehensible, yet Brenden Bickerstaff-Clark’s video has gone viral.   The video, which has been viewed more than 200,000 times, shows a father sitting across from son at a picnic table, cigarette in hand. “I got something I want to tell you, okay? Give me your hand,” he begins before pausing to collect himself. “Mommy died last night.”  “What?” The boy asks after a moment of stunned silence. “Mommy died last night, okay?” “What do you mean- my Mom? How?” “From drugs.” It’s not...

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What businesses can learn from Donald Trump's election campaign.

GrAl / Shutterstock.com It may be the American election campaign, but there are very few people in Australia (or the rest of the world for that matter) who aren't aware Donald Trump is running for the Presidency of the United States of America. On paper, he's not really the candidate that most quickly springs to mind. He's a TV personality. He's a property developer. He's a billionaire, a casino operator, a hotel owner, but he's not a politician nor a policy expert. While it can be said he can surround himself with those things, the reality is as Commander-in-Chief he is lacking in some...

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Turning marketing copy into lead generation and sales

In the late 1980's the book, The Art of the Deal was released to a huge amount of fanfare and success. The book detailed the rise and rise of American billionaire property developer, and future Republican Presidential Candidate, Donald Trump. Purporting to give an insight into how to go from the poor house to the Penthouse the book is a time capsule of it's era. For most businesses owners the idea of reaching the heights of people like Donald Trump is a bit of a wistful dream, but who hasn't spent a good portion of their time daydreaming about what it would be like to own a successful business,...

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How Amazon could disrupt e-commerce supply chain

We live in an age where technology is constantly changing and transforming businesses and how they operate. For example, Uber can become the world’s biggest taxi company without owning any cars and Airbnb can become the world’s biggest hotel chain without owning any bricks and mortar.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock these past few years, shopping online from the comfort of your home is now the norm. Who’d ever have imagined that people would buy apparel and footwear based on an image online without trying them on? Hence, the rise of the digital revolution, diverse customer...

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It’s not me, it’s you: breaking up with bad tech habits

Advancements made in technology like the smart phone, Google Glass and Apple Watch mean that we can take the internet with us everywhere now. The down side is that we take the internet with us everywhere now. With technology’s constant presence, it’s vital to maintain healthy technology habits to ensure your health is in tech-top shape. Here are the top five habits to break ASAP: Leave screens out of the bedroom I’m guilty of using my phone in bed before my eyes become too heavy or I drop my phone on my face. Not only can receiving a work email in your place of slumber increase...

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69% of fraud perpetrators are your employees

A recent report by KPMG entitled ‘Fraud Barometer: The face of Australian fraud in 2015’ revealed an alarming statistic of internal fraud cases in Australia. The report highlighted that the most common perpetrators of fraud are business insiders – including management and employees. In just the 6 months up until September 2015, fraud committed by management averaged $3.3m in Australia. The following infographic shows a disturbing view of the number of perpetrators who are employees and managers in organisations. Collectively, this amounts to 69% of fraud perpetrators. A few...

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