My aim with this newsletter is to provide you with helpful information for small and medium business, to keep in touch with people and to let you get to know me and how I can help if and when you feel this would be helpful.

I am not a pushy sales person and I do not want to do scary selling.  However some things in the current business environment are a risk to business and do need to be taken seriously.  Because of this I am listing a number of ways (and the links to follow) that I can help small and medium business owners and managers to avoid some of the current business dangers.

There is also a video that is well worth watching.

1.    Online integrated or individual ISO systems

2.    DIY ISO Systems

3.    Simpler Systems 

4.    Simpler Safety 

5.    Business support

The benefits are of good systems are twofold:

1.    You reduce your business risk

2.    Boost potential and make your business more valuable

My kindest regards

Jean Cannon

P.S. Congratulations to Broome Air Services for their successful certification to an integrated ISO system including ISO 9001 Quality, ISO 14001 Environment and AS/NZS 4801 Safety which we also fully integrated with their CASA safety system.  These guys are a major air charter business in the north west of Australia servicing the mining and oil/gas industry and others.

This is the second successful integrated ISO certification this month.  The other one was Prime Traffic Control.

One of the things I love about working with online clients Australia wide is that they are so varied.  It is totally interesting and fun to work with all these wonderful people.

Articles

Traffic pollution harms arteries

Defective kidneys may be a sign that traffic pollution is harming the arteries, research in the US suggests.  Scientists who tested 1100 stroke patients found a link between reduced kidney function and living close to a major road.  They believe kidney damage may be an indicator of artery disease due to long-term exposure to air pollution from road vehicles.

The budget for bullying

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten said in a statement the crackdown on workplace bullying comes alongside reports from the Productivity Commission which show workplace bullying could cost $36 billion in productivity every year.

Fair Work Commission vice-president calls for change to commission’s approach

A vice-president of the Fair Work Commission, Graeme Watson, has criticised the commission’s adversarial approach to the industrial relations system and said most Australian businesses are not “conflict-ridden basket cases”.

The solar threat to power utilities

A document prepared by the US-based Edison Electric Institute (EEI) explains what is at stake for centralised utilities from the threat of rooftop solar.

And the solar war in Queensland

Last year, Queensland energy minister Mark McArdle promised that there would be “no fixed charge of any sort on people using solar”.

This year, the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) has proposed exactly that – an increase in fixed charges of $210 per year on electricity customers who have installed solar panels.

Overturning quad bikes are the leading cause of death on Australian farms

Safe Work Australia CEO Rex Hoy is asking manufacturers to install crush protection devices to quad bikes to prevent deaths and injuries from overturn accidents, which are the leading cause of death on Australian farms.

Do seismic tests shatter undersea tranquillity?

This is a relevant discussion in Australia as the Tuna industry has concerns about the oil and gas prospecting in the Great Australian Bight.

The Scientific American journal has published an article about concerns that seismic surveys used by the oil and gas industry as a key threatening process.

Australia’s safety laws contrasted with the USA

Nothing could show this difference better that the explosion left 15 people dead, 200 injured and millions in damage in the Texas town of West.

Business owners and managers simply don’t want to know

Everyone I know who is running workshops, training and information sessions, even no cost session with lunch thrown in are finding these hard to fill.

8th May 2013

Did you know that recent Australian Government legislation* means that unless your business meets the new national workplace safety standards, any employee in your business having simple accident means that you can be sued by the government for a minimum of $30,000 for a small business and $300,000 for larger business and it can be much more and even include time in prison.

This has now happened to other business owners and if it happened to you it can cost you not only your business but your family house and possibly even time in prison.

Under this new legislation, as a business owner or manager you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent and you do not have the right to remain silent or get legal advice to prevent self-incrimination.  This even applies to micro businesses and where your staff are working from home.

This is the sad reality affecting you if you are a business owner and if you don’t do something about establishing evidence of the prescribed “duty of care’ it is only a matter of time before something happens to you.

Many of you already know that I am an expert in helping small businesses get simple low paper compliance with standards and regulations.  Even if you are a small business, while this legislation is inconvenient and seems way over the top, you must have it.

As a business owner myself, I know the value of your time and I will guide you through the process to make sure you get this in place with as little pain as possible and I will show you how you can get this it very affordably and in a very time efficient manner.

So if you want to be one of the business owners who makes sure your business is protected and you are covered in a way that protects you from this new Government legislation phone now for a free 15 minute phone consultation to discuss your business and how I can help you protect your important assets.

For very small, low risk businesses I have a program called Simpler Safety and you can choose two levels of help here.

Larger businesses and those in higher risk industries or who need certification should get themselves certified to AS/NZS 4801 which I help you to keep simple with minimal red tape.

*passed on Jan 1st 2012 in most states and Jan 1st 2013 in SA

P.S. if you want to get started on this in a hurry, join me at a risk management workshop in Adelaide on Saturday 18th May 2013.  I would love to see you.  For more information visit here

Articles

Australia loses $305 billion due to lost productivity

Australia is losing $305 billion per year due to lost productivity, a study from Ernst & Young has revealed.

What gives Bunnings a stable workforce?

Recruiting older workers, lower penalty rates and overtime entitlements are the key drivers to Bunning’s 33,000 employees being among the most stable workforces in the nation, its operations head says.

They negotiated lower penalty and overtime payments in a negotiated enterprise bargaining agreement with the Shoppies union that defines working hours on an annualised basis.

Government is reviewing public sector work injuries

The Government has announced plans to reduce the cost of work-related injury in the public sector by helping injured workers get back to work sooner and being more rigorous with mental injury claims.

What do Company Directors think about business in Australia?

Just under half (49%) of company directors surveyed by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) believed the National Broadband Network (NBN) was a positive thing for Australia.  This is up from 44% in November and before the coalition released their policy.  and more…

How is your online privacy and security?

New research by online security company McAfee of 500 Australian businesses found 38% are at danger of online privacy and security breaches because they have not had appropriate training in the management and storage of sensitive data.

Mining costs are up and productivity is down

More than half of Australia’s mines have costs above global averages, they told the Paydirt 2013 South Australian Resources and Energy Investment Conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre last week.

Some dolphins prefer eating noisy prey

An analysis of dolphin faeces confirms that some dolphins prefer eating noisy prey.

A study, published today in the journal Royal Society Biology Letters, based on analysis of dolphin faeces backs up a previous hypothesis based on the study of stomach contents from stranded dolphins showed that some dolphins prefer eating fish that make a noise.

Red tape kills productivity

There are huge hurdles and red tape placed in the way of businesses getting the approvals they need to operate a business. this simple prevents development

The South Australian Resources and Energy Investment Conference in Adelaide was told that the Policy Potential for resource developments world wide has South Australia dropping steadily each year from 5^th in 2007, to 10^th in 2011 and 20^th in 2013. 

Last week I caught up with an old friend who is a lawyer working in insolvency and he has never been busier.   This is not about the high profile closures that hit the news but a continual succession of small businesses.

This is scary stuff again and the common theme in all of them, my friend tells me, is that they lack systems.  This is something that is so easy to fix.

Systems should be simple.  Your staff do not need to spend hours, or more, writing out their procedures.  There are easier ways. Having a big folder of multi page procedures on a shelf will not improve your productivity

I am an expert in helping small businesses get simple low paper compliance with standards and regulations so get in touch and use me to help you.  As a small business you must be able to easily comply with legislation because you don’t have time to waste if you have too much red tape.

As a business owner myself, I know the value of your time and I will guide you through the process to make sure you get a system in place with as little pain as possible and I will show you how you can get this it very affordably and in a very time efficient manner.

While some businesses need to have certified systems, there are a lot more who find my Simpler Systems and Simpler Safety works really well for them

Give me a call on 08 8365 9513 to learn more.

My kindest regards

Jean Cannon

P.S. Urgent warning for all business owners. You cannot afford to ignore workplace safety.   Under the new legislation, as a business owner or manager you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent and you do not have the right to remain silent or get legal advice to prevent self-incrimination.  This even applies to micro businesses and where your staff are working from home.

This is the sad reality affecting you if you are a business owner and if you don’t do something about establishing evidence of the prescribed “duty of care’ it is only a matter of time before something happens to you.

If you are in Adelaide you can get started and well on the way with your system at a workshop I am holding on Saturday 18th …

… Don’t waste time booking in because I am closing the bookings off at 5pm on Wednesday – Tomorrow!

Simply email me at jean@jeancannon.com.au, phone 08 8365 9513

Articles

Company officers liability in workplace safety explained

Company officers’ liability for workplace safety was recently clarified in a West Australian case.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW  and WHAT YOU NEED TO DO…

Does a bring-your-own-electronic device policy make sense?

On a practical level -yes.  In fact, it’s going to become essential for businesses to operate under these types of flexible policies.

But if you don’t have your security set up properly, then …

Legal help available at Fair Work Commission

The Fair Work Commission has a new service to provide independent legal advice to self-represented employees or employers involved in unfair dismissal cases.

What do our signatures say about us?

Research showed that companies led by CEOs who have large signatures  perform worse than ones led by CEOs with small signatures.

The vital role of records

A recent unfair dismissal case serves as a reminder small businesses need to clearly communicate and record poor performance to any employee over a period of time, according to legal experts.

Better safety training required for young people

A recent survey of schools in South Australia has found that health and safety education must better reflect workplace conditions.

More business problems

Medium sized businesses are also having problems at present in Australia and here are some that are facing insolvency

A Melbourne-based manufacturer of commercial and high-end residential blinds has collapsed just as the property industry has begun to find its feet after years of instability.

Once the learning cliff has been climbed these upgrades usually but not always do result in an improvement and sometimes even a leap in productivity.  Basically the problem is twofold.

•    We need to keep running our businesses while we make changes that actually prevent us from doing do in the short term, plus we need to do new training to use the new software, hardware or process

•    and the other problem is that we are hard wired to resist change and continue to do what we usually do on  automatic.  This requires a lot of time spent on supervision to keep people doing things the new way.

Research shows it takes a full month without lapses to change behaviour.

I think the worst is finally sorted in my business.  A few weeks ago I migrated my newsletter to new software and although it is much better for the longer term, like all big software upgrades it had its glitches.

The biggest glitch was over 900 of you being accidentally labelled with a NO so that you did not get the newsletter.  This week I have finally sorted this so if you are getting the newsletter again after a biggish gap, you now know why.

The other software upgrade I have made is to finally move from Office 2003 to Office 2013.  OK, I know it was long overdue.  It is great to have my emails and calendar synchronised so that I cut out the errors that were so easy with two diaries but I am still finding some things hard to find in the new version.  My personal productivity is down at present however this is improving.

For the 900 who were left off the list for a while and any who were to busy to read the newsletter, I am repeating information about the workshop on May 18th

My kindest regards

Jean

PS, if you know other people who would benefit from the workshop, please let them know.  It will be interactive and hands on.  You will learn practical strategies for coping with the new more punative safety legislation PLUS th eother risks that are affecting our businesses at present.

This workshop is about risk identification, risk analysis so you know the real size of the risk and risk management and reduction.  This is stuff you need to know.

Program investment is $198 per person includes a workbook, DVD disk, data file disk, lunch, refreshments, two of Jean’s books and includes GST.

Location is The Oxford, 101-107 O’Connell St, North Adelaide. SA 5006.  Easy parking available.  9am to 4pm.   Limited seats available so book soon and don’t miss out.

From the last workshop

“You don’t know what you don’t know, and I needed more information.  The workshop was very informative and helped me to look at the big picture.”  Chris Davis, Elite Plumbing Services.

Go to the website to book in or simply call me on 08 8365 9513

Articles

Where does $12 billion in the red leave us as small and medium businesses?

$12 billion a big number and scary

So where does this leave us as small and medium businesses?

One thing is certain and that is that wringing our hands and thinking negatively will not help.  We need to take steps to identify where there are risks to our businesses, look at the size of each risk and work out what to do to prevent or at least reduce the risk.

Have you ever had tough stuff happening in your business?

Have you ever had the tough stuff happening in your business?  Those problems when staff keep making the same error again and again, customer complaints come rushing in; increasing compliance and red tape you did not know existed, difficulty accessing  larger clients and tenders or you just fell foul the new workplace safety regulations?

Which is Terrorism – Boston, Texas or both?

Compare the response to Boston deaths by explosion with that of the Texas deaths by explosion

Both resulted in horrendous deaths and injuries and there were 20 deaths and more than 200 injuries in Texas.

In Texas it as the result of an industrial accident at a site with a very poor history of safety breaches.

Oh What a Waste

The metals in all our “disposable” electronic extras are simply wasted at present.  Two United Nations reports recommended this week that everything from mobile phones to electric car batteries should make be designed so they can more simply be broken up and stripped of metals ranging from copper to gold and including rare earths.

No hitchhiking organisms for Antarctica

The Australian Antarctic Division has opened a new cargo and quarantine hub on Hobart’s waterfront designed to banish bugs, rats and other “alien hitch-hikers” from boarding ships travelling south.

Join me on a journey and discover what questions you need to ask to prevent these tough things from happening in your business.

You will learn about the dangerous trends happening in the current business world, the critical regulatory changes that affect your business …

…and the importance of  how to find the problems before they happen plus how to manage them so that they don’t mount up and waste your time and money and they don’t put your business at risk.

There is a proven system to reduce the risk in your business and this workshop is perfect for anyone who owns or manages a small or medium business and wants to reduce the stress and risk in your workplace.

Program investment is $198 per person includes a workbook, DVD disk, data file disk, lunch, refreshments, two of Jean’s books and includes GST.

Location is The Oxford, 101-107 O’Connell St, North Adelaide. SA 5006.  Easy parking available.  9am to 4pm.   Limited seats available so book soon and don’t miss out.

From the last workshop

“You don’t know what you don’t know, and I needed more information.  The workshop was very informative and helped me to look at the big picture.”  Chris Davis, Elite Plumbing Services.

Go to this website to book in or simply call me on 08 8365 9513

My kindest regards

Jean Cannonph 08 8365 9513

P.S. Three more of my clients are currently in the audit cycle and have had their pre-audits for integrated ISO systems and that means that now I do have space to fit in some more businesses that want help to get simple, low paper ISO systems that provide real improvements to their business and avoid the typical excessive folders

This is definitely the easiest way to get successful certification.  I don’t have time in my business for unnecessary paperwork and my own system is in place to make my life easier.  My clients want the same thing so we keep the systems lean.

Articles

Sham contracting does not save money

A NSW fruit and vegetable store has been fined $166,848 following a Fair Work Ombudsman investigation into sham contracting and the company director and part-owner has been personally fined a further $27,808.

Another Fair Work Case chasing underpayment

The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking an Adelaide windscreen company to court over allegedly underpaying seven employees more than $100,000 over a period of four years.

The director of the company intends to defend his company – and himself – against the allegations, which he feels are unfair.

Why are most states pushing back on deposits for drink containers?

I keep reading headlines like “Cash-for-cans is not the answer”.  These complaints mainly come from the food and grocery council. Why?

They even claim deposits and recycling is a threat to manufacturing jobs.  What nonsense.  Cans and bottles are recycled nor reused.

Increased optimism with bigger business – hopefully will flow down

Deloitte have surveyed the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) of major Australian listed companies and this is on a quarterly basis since the third quarter of 2009.

What are the trends for solar hot water?

There have been 794,000 solar hot water systems installed in Australia to date and this represents 9 per cent of total dwellings and 14 per cent of owner occupied, detached and semi-detached dwellings with solar hot water systems.

Interesting facts about carbon policy, greenhouse emissions and polulation

A statistical analysis by Crikey, based on data released this week, indicates that if Australia’s high population growth rate were reined in, the country would already be meeting its targets to cut greenhouse pollution. In fact, we’d probably be under those targets.

So the question could be – do you know what you need to know?

I think all parents understand it is hard to tell your kids what they need to know and even harder to tell your kids spouses and this week my own family had a classic example of a typical problem seen in business.

One of my daughters and her husband are self-building a new house and when I had a look recently as I passed the site I was concerned about the lack of workplace safety by the builders – so I mentioned it. I was told that “it is almost impossible to make the builders wear safety gear etc. on small sites”, so after giving them a brief warning I reluctantly kept quiet as a mother-in-law needs to.

This week a guy fell 2 stories through the still un-sheeted roof and broke his hip.  Now they are listening and doing risk analyses, inductions etc, discussing this with SafeworkSA and they have me as a consultant.

How many businesses are like my kids and either don’t know what questions to ask or ignore what they need to know?

Small and medium business is so snowed under with red tape already that looking for anything extra is unwanted and overlooked.  I understand but the risks are too big.

So I am holding a practical full day workshop to give simple and effective help with sorting out what questions you need to know to reduce the risk in your business.

You will learn to find your problems and manage them.  So unlike all the seminars that just tell you about legislation.

This will cover safety along with all those other mistakes that waste staff time and cost money or upset customers – that’s quality plus there is a lot more and the website will give you more information.

Adelaide on May 18th from 9am to 4pm the cost is only $198 and it is limited to 20 people so that it can be properly interactive and you can can get individual help for your business.  I already have bookings from interstate so don’t miss out.

My direct phone is 08 8365 9513

Kindest regards

Jean Cannon

P.S. Prime Traffic Control was recommended for certification to an integrated ISO system including ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and AS/NZS 4801 last week.  Well done Sharon and the boys!   I do love seeing my clients get their certification successfully.

Articles

Fitting more into your day without adding more hours?

Two warring staff members destroyed a business

Two women who were telemarketers in one company fell out and one started keeping records of every time the other made a slight exaggeration in her sales spiel.

Fair enough if this was to report the problem to the business so this could be addressed.  The exaggerations should not have happened.  This sort of thing is contrary to the Australian Consumer Law (and previously to the Trade Practices Act).

The world carbon price has died

The European carbon price has dived to around A$4 a tome.  Australia’s carbon price is 550% higher and locked in to legislation to rise even higher on July 1st this year and again next year.

I fully believe we should all be reducing out carbon emissions however I have never seen any real benefit from the current legislation.  This whole thing is bizarre.

Australian business costs soar so what does it matter?

A new survey showed that Australian businesses are paying on average 17.5% in business costs on top of an employee’s gross wage compared with 8.24% and 6.99% in the United States and Canada, respectively

The real issue is about the value you get out of your costs of production rather than looking at wages specifically.  So how can you improve your productivity?

So easy to say that and it sounds so glib.  However we are all in a challenging business environment.

The world is not the same any more and it is even more difficult in Australia because we are the third most expensive place in the world to do business after Norway and Switzerland. Ref: International Monetary Fund’. 

We have just seen this illustrated by Holden.

Your challenge is how to increase your productivity so that you keep your current profit margins in this new business reality.

Every time you open a paper or watch the news you are reminded of the rising number of insolvencies, job losses, difficulty in accessing funding for expansion and cash flow and the fact that Australian business owners work more hours than their overseas counterparts and 32% more than their full time workers. Ref International Business Owners Survey, & The Working Australia Census 2011

The risks for business are mounting, red tape and green tape is increasing adding to your paperwork burden; business costs are rising and finding reliable staff is getting harder, staff turnover costs up to 150% of salary and recent legislation means business owners and managers are guilty until you prove yourself innocent..

It makes sense to know what you actually need, then control those processes that cause problems. Unfortunately too many people just go ahead and document the most obvious processes without even knowing what their biggest dangers are.

So what is your strategy to cope with the new economic conditions?

There are solutions so why not discover them at a one day risk management workshop for small and medium business.

You will learn how to discover those dangers or risks that could lose you business, waste time and money or cause legal problems so that you can develop an effective strategy to achieve the outcomes you want for your business.

This will cover what you need to know about the duty of care demanded in the new workplace safety regulations and simple ways to help your staff understand brilliant customer service.  I will help you develop a practical plan to manage your biggest risks and know how to take this further for your remaining risks.

Make sure of your place at the next workshop for practical hands-on help in Adelaide on Saturday May 18th Cost $198

Call me on 08 8365 9513, email jean@jeancannon.com.au or go to www.riskmanagementinbusiness.com.au to book in.

My kindest regards

Jean Cannon

Articles

Is 40 percent of your time spent on emails?

Research by Sydney employment law consultancy, Employsure showed that 68 per cent of bosses spend more than two days out of a given week reading and responding to emails.

How did they ignore it?

In a busy street in the Melbourne CBD a brick wall simply fell over and killed three outstanding young people!

That wall apparently had cracks in it that no one noticed.  Not the landowners, not the contractors who cleared the site, not the council who are responsible for keeping our streets safe, not any passers by over months who never reported the derelict condition.

Every one has a responsibility to notice hazards or dangers and report them so that actions can be taken to make the situation safe.

What an amazing person Margaret Thatcher was

She qualified as a research chemist and graduated in law, then became an MP and as a woman, she also faced all the gender related prejudice which was more then even than it is now.  But she never moaned about misogyny.  She just got on and did a better job so that she was the one respected and chosen.

Four lessons we can all learn from her are:

Australian Consumer Law – Are you up to date?

Contractors vs employees – what do you need to know?

An employee works in a business and is part of that business. A contractor, on the other hand, runs their own business, has an ABN and provides services to other businesses.

Australia’s incidence of asbestos-related disease is the highest in the world

Australia has the highest per capita incidence of asbestos-related disease in the world.

Approximately 750,000 tonnes of asbestos was mined and 1.5 million tonnes of all forms of asbestos was imported, bringing the total to 2.25 million tonnes in society.

Are there too many plane trees in Adelaide’s city streets?

he Adelaide City Council has been warned to cut back plans to plant plane trees in Victoria Square and, instead, consider a mix of native and exotic trees better suited to the state’s climate.

They also need to consider real public safety issues with both of these trees.

Help your productivity with notes from a highly productive person

I thought it was worth passing on some time management tips from Alexi Neocleous who is an entrepreneur and marketer I really respect

I am not quite as draconian as Alexi but I certainly do not have any sounds on emails and never check them on my phone unless I am out of the office and have some spare time between meetings.  You may also have noticed that I don’t publish my mobile phone number..

Will the future see flocks of sheep beneath the Eiffel Tower and bleating by Notre Dame Cathedral?

Paris is enlisting a few hungry sheep to keep the city’s grass trim, replacing petrol-guzzling lawnmowers.  The first four sheep from an island in Brittany are busy at work munching the bountiful grass of the Paris Archives.

They wanted to discuss current challenges and frustrations and get real business input.  They plan to hold more of these to develop a longer term vision to improve South Australia.

The aim is to formulate an economic vision for our state.  A great initiative when politicians want to really understand business viewpoints and seek answers from a broader base rather than simply running down the other side and/or telling us what is good for us and that they have the answers.

A fantastic morning and I am honoured to have been invited to be involved.

It is scary, scary stuff when we saw the size of the state deficit and also the non-deficit debt associated with infrastructure spending that will not show up on the books until 2014.  And we realise that they borrow money to pay public service salaries.  It will be interesting to see the truth of the federal position as well.

If business was run this way they would simply be declared insolvent and the directors charged with trading while insolvent.

Good luck to Steven and his team and I so sincerely hope this is followed up.

My kindest regards

Jean Cannon,

jean@jeancannon.com.au 618 8365 9513

Articles

Has Trump been trumped?

US billionaire Donald Trump  is furious about eleven giant wind turbines to be built off the east coast of Scotland because he says they will spoil the view from his nearby golf course. The 640-feet turbines will be in the sea an estimated mile and a half (2 km) from Trump’s links course.

What is expected as our Duty of Care as employers?

You must take reasonable steps:

listed below  – click on the link.

The costs of workplace injury and illness

A few years ago, the Australian National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) estimated the total direct and indirect cost of workplace injury and illness to the Australian economy in the 2000–01 year to be $34.3 billion.  That is the equivalent of 5 per cent of Australian GDP.

Let’s look at other countries.

Australian electricity use is down this summer despite it being the hottest on record

The drop in carbon pollution was equivalent to taking 2.5 million cars off the road for the three months of summer.

A lovely story this one

A group of visitors on a cruise off Bunbury in WA spotted a pod of dolphins making clicking and squeaking sounds when the pod suddenly fell silent and a calf bobbed to the water’s surface and took its first breath.

More about unfair dismissal

Employers are warned again that they need a history and real reason to fire an employee, following an unfair dismissal case in which a worker was awarded compensation after being fired.

Confusing the bees

A recent report in the journal Nature Communications shows that pesticides can scramble the brain circuits of honeybees, affecting memory and navigation skills needed to find food, scientists say.

A warming world causes more blizzards.

This does sound counter intuitive but…

Climate scientists have linked the massive snowstorms to hit Europe and North America so far this year to shrinking sea ice levels in the Arctic which are the sixth lowest since satellite records began over 30 years ago.  And the thickness of the ice is a concern because it is so reduced

And we now have the sixth small business minister in 15 months!

I have also felt pressured while I have been restructuring websites and migrating them back to Australia. – see below.  This is one of the objectives in my current 90 day plan.

So let’s talk about setting meaningful objectives.

•    Must have measurable outcomes, call these evidence or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
•    They must have deadlines
•    The resources needed to achieve each objective needs to be clear
•    One person needs to be responsible for achieving each
•    Don’t set more than 3 or 4 at a time or you will be overwhelmed.

My current 90 day objectives (set on 10th February) are:
1.    Restructure and move all my websites  – almost done
2.    Identify and implement a completely new contact management system because my old one was no longer supported by the supplier – done
3.    Set up a business support program so that I can provide additional support for clients, past clients and other small and medium businesses that want additional help – done
4.    The fourth one is to run a risk management workshop in Adelaide in May – so you will hear more about that next week.

Meantime go to www.riskmanagementinbusiness.com.au for preliminary information.  I would love to see you there.

Of course, you need longer term goals and I suggest a 5 year plan plus two and one year objectives with set targets.  In an annual or biannual plan, things tend to drift.

So to really get things done, break these up into 90 day plans and also share the workload around in your business.  You may well find that one clearly set out objective for a single employee works well provided you require follow up.

P.S. if you have not got a good workplace safety system in place beware!  Please read the workplace safety article below

Articles

Where are you up to with managing workplace safety?

Where are you up to with managing workplace safety?
Here is some extra information for you, straight from the legislation.
What is Reasonably Practicable? and…

Better indoor air quality – cheap, effective and good looking!

Research by the University of Technology, Sydney into the generally poor air quality of workspaces, shows that plants improve indoor air quality and they are more than air filters.  In fact they demonstrate real productivity benefits.

Donkeys to the rescue

A grazier in Western Queensland says he hasn’t found evidence of wild dogs attacking his sheep since introducing five donkeys to the herd late last year.

The migration story

My previous web developer, since 2007, was located overseas and he set up all my websites overseas which worked well then. Now two things have happened:
•    Google has changed its rules and penalises search rankings if businesses do not have their website in the same country as their operations and
•    My web developer has changed his business model and is no longer supporting websites

So I decided this was an opportunity to rethink and …

The positive, the negative and the totally inspirational

I went four fascinating events this week.

One was the SA Chamber of Mines and Energy breakfast on the day of the political chaos in Canberra and it was interesting to listen to the concerns about delayed projects which are really delayed investment because of all the uncertainty both globally and especially in Australia at the present.  Africa seems to be a far more attractive place to mine because our costs are so high and our red, green and tax tape so movable.

So how do you manage this? Change is essential and the rate of change is increasing in the modern workplace.

Systems are the structure that gives you and your team/employees/workers the structure that allow the egos to calm down because everyone knows what is the norm and what is expected from them.

Then come the disruptive interruption! I just got caught out here. I completely changed my system for emails and was in the hands of someone else and their system. It is now done, thankfully!

However I shocked myself by allowing myself to feel seriously stressed on Monday. I should know better because I am the only one who can control how I feel. Normally my systems manage the day and also the unexpected but losing all my contacts for 24 hours was a bit of a panic.

Wisdom is about editing what happens and knowing what to overlook. This is important to impart to employees when change happens, especially unwelcome change.

For me it is time to move on, be grateful for my new much more efficient system and overlooking yesterday.

My kindest regards

Jean Cannon

P.S.I read a fascinating set of statistics this week – There are 7 Billion people on earth, 5.1 Billion own a mobile phone and only 4.2 Billion own a toothbrush. Source Mobile Marketing association, Asia, 2011.

P.P.S. if any of you are still using my old email address, jean@enviroaction.com.au, please update it to jean@jeancannon.com.au becuase the old one will no longer get to me.

Phone 08 8365 9513, PO Box 4137, Tranmere North SA 5073

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