Business Essentials

An honest open workplace is the first step to ensuring your team can work together at their optimum. Hidden issues fester, eventually leading to mistrust and a strained working environment. So how can you build trust and connection among your team, and what can you do if conflict occurs? Leadership team performance specialist Adrian Baillargeon shares insights from his book, ‘Teams That Swear: by...

Many successful business owners swear by the advantage of having a business coach. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find the right one, and even when you do, they’re not always available when you need them. An alternative is self-coaching. Karen Stein has developed self-coaching strategies, which she outlines from her book, ‘Be Your Own Leadership Coach: Self-coaching strategies to lead your way’....

Being a leader is one thing, but leading your team to operate at its peak - building a high-performance team - is another thing all together. Jake Bridges is a Partner/ Facilitator at Leading Teams, an organisation best known for its success with high profile Australian sports teams, even though the majority of their clients are in the corporate sector. Jake explains what goes into building a high...

While we may have neared the peak of RBA cash rate hikes, many business owners feel we’re in recessionary times. Many are struggling, and without help, they may face insolvency. Michael Fingland is CEO of Vantage Performance which helps turn around underperforming businesses and safe guard those that might be on the edge of the insolvency cliff. He offers six principles to ensure you’re in a bette...

Keeping up with technology is not just for enthusiasts or developers. Being aware of new technology in your industry, that streamlines process or enhances user experience is critically important, because, as James Smith, CEO of digital agency Smith Brothers Media says, if you’re up to date, your competitors will be, which could mean you’re already behind. James explains how to stay ahead of the ga...

Australians are a caring and sharing lot. Some 25 percent of us volunteer on a formal basis. A lot of companies allow their staff to take time off for volunteering activities, including the state emergency services, rural fire brigades, environmental organisations, and so on. Financial advisor Helen Baker, says it’s attractive for employers to offer time away for staff to engage in pursuits they’r...

An effective website is not a set-and-forget online brochure. Its purpose should be to convert visitors into leads, through good design, conversion mechanisms and clear content. Amy Miocevich, founder of Lumos Marketing, guides us through her 7 essentials of a high-performing website, including the six-second impression: if a visitor doesn’t understand what you sell within six seconds, then it’s n...

Business names can sometimes have a use-by date. If you’re thinking about a name change, there are important things to consider. Luke Faccini, Founder and Brand Strategist of The Sponge branding agency, says sometimes a name change is unavoidable when you move into new markets, for example, and your current name won’t work. Luke takes us through some of the biggest mistakes businesses make when ch...

Don’t let bumps in the road get in the way of success. That's the message from former Hoyts Cinemas CEO, Peter Ivany, who faced many bumps in his journey to take Hoyts from a 40-theatre chain to more than 2000 theatres a decade later. He spends much of his time these days giving back to the community with several chairmanships of not-for-profits in sport, the arts and charities. Peter was even rec...

The old rules of selling won’t cut it any more as consumers become more savvy and far more cynical. CEO and sales guru, Harry Mills, of The Aha! Advantage offers a technique which aims to have consumers persuade themselves to buy. Business Essentials Daily is produced by: SoundCartel soundcartel.com.au +61 3 9882 8333 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re facing a world of relentless change and uncertainty right now, from industry transitions, post-pandemic impacts, technology advances, skills shortages, cost-of-living issues, and so on. So, as a leader, how do you  guide your team through the challenges of change? Leah Mether says much of it comes down to communicating clearly and consistently to everyone. It’s all outlined in her book, ‘Ste...

When someone’s emotional or psychological needs are unmet, they may adopt a victim mentality as a way of drawing attention to themselves. This behaviour is an insidious workplace issue. Its impact can be just as destructive as that of bullies and narcissists, and can ruin company culture. Roxanne Calder, Managing Director of recruitment firm EST10, explains what behaviours to look out for and how...

If you haven’t started planning yet, now’s the time. That’s according to Kerry Boulton, Founder & CEO of The Exit Strategy Group, and author of ‘Million Dollar Pay Day – How To Get Rich And Get Out…Creating The Perfect Exit Strategy and Life After Business’. Kerry has walked the walk when it comes to selling a business – she built up and sold Freight Management International 20 years ago – and...

Workload is the number one cause of workplace stress, beating job security, life balance and people issues, according to a survey by The American Institute of Stress. Online technology hasn't made our workload much easier. In fact, email, phone calls, text messages and impromptu meetings all add up to more work and more stress. So, what can be done? Leadership performance coach, Muffy Churches has...

Before making a big impact as a sales consultant, Tony Gattari was a leading sales manager at Harvey Norman. And for decades since, Tony’s shared his sales wisdom with some of Australia’s leading brands and sales teams. He explains how sales works in the modern world of business. Business Essentials Daily is produced by: SoundCartel soundcartel.com.au +61 3 9882 8333 See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

Too many client presentations are self-serving with badly organised and complex content. Moreover, great ideas are often lost in a sea of slides that don’t connect with the audience. That’s according to David Fish, a globally recognised strategist and business leader, who’s worked with some of the world’s largest advertisers. He’s also author of ‘What it takes to create winning presentations’, in...

Numbers have a magnetic effect on people and can anchor their behaviour. Behavioural specialist, Bri Williams discusses a golf study which found that professional golfers tended to take fewer strokes when the same hole was labelled as a par four compared to when it was labelled as a par five. The implications of this research extend beyond golf and into daily business life. It highlights how expec...

How does a busy business person slow down and take back control in a world of constant noise and interruption? Occupational therapist, Angela Lockwood, addresses those issues in her new book “Switch Off: How to find calm in a noisy world”. She has espoused everyday activities to cut out the clutter and bring focus back into our lives, including breathing exercises, outdoor play, healthy eating, la...

Give your team the tools to do their job and watch your business shine. That’s one of the messages from Diederik Gelderman, a successful veterinarian, who now advises others – not just vets – on how to grow successful businesses via his consulting firm, Turbo Charge Your Practice. He says being nice to people is important for not only business success but in its own right. Business Essentials Dail...

As business owners, we often get stuck in the day-to-day activities, and neglect working on the business. Systemising business processes will allow us to break free. That's according to Joel Gerschman, Managing Dire­­ctor of The Change Coach, who’s written a book on escaping the shackles of your business to achieve wealth, freedom and fulfilment. ‘The Mindful Entrepreneur’ is all about how to make...

Swearing is becoming more commonplace in the media, in social circles and at work. It’s not necessarily a bad thing – in fact, Adrian Baillargeon reckons it can be good for you and your team. Adrian is a leadership team performance specialist and author of ‘Teams That Swear: By each other, not about each other’. Swearing can be cathartic and it can build connection within the team. But Adrian errs...

If you find that you’re spending more time working on your business but getting little reward for it, you may have hit an ‘entrepreneurial ceiling’. Now’s the time to look at your systems, redesign your strategy and shift your mindset. Chris Green is a mentor, strategist and author of ‘Business by Design: Take your business from chaos and overwhelm to scalable and rewarding’. He says, if you’re th...

How persuasive are you really? Do you struggle to win more business? Do you want to get better at convincing others of your ideas? Well, if you cultivated some persuasion techniques into habits, you’ll feel more confident to win over the other party. Presentation guru Michelle Bowden spells this out in her latest book, ‘How to Persuade: The skills you need to get what you want’. Business Essential...

With interest rates and inflation dominating the headlines, our regular economics commentator, University of Melbourne, Professor Neville Norman, is asking us to challenge how the two are connected — or not. He says the Reserve Bank appears to be living in a “fairytale” world, where big, external price makers do not exist. Nevertheless, Neville says inflation is likely to have peaked, and he outli...

Consumers trust word of mouth 2.4 times more than branded content. With this in mind, James Smith, CEO of digital agency, Smith Brothers Media, believes that making people feel like they’re part of the experience, and having users generate their own content for your brand can be a match made in heaven. Business Essentials Daily is produced by: SoundCartel soundcartel.com.au +61 3 9882 8333 See omn...