Small businesses are being encouraged to sign up for the Greater Western Sydney Business Booster to showcase their products and services during October’s NSW Small Business Month. The day-long event has been strategically positioned in Blacktown, considered the geographic heart of the region, to attract business owners from the adjoining 12 local government areas that comprise the Greater Western Sydney region. Blacktown City Council has agreed to host the event at Blacktown

We have a great program for the 17 April meeting including a major and free Western Sydney University initiative to help boost your business. There's a shock revelation for anyone who owns property or works in real estate, a discussion on why every business needs an advisory group and a keynote on people centred design. Need to know more? Come this Wednesday morning to the Local Area Marketing & Networking -Parramatta event at Parramatta RSL Club (Bligh Room). Details here. O

A Western Sydney University project launch, 'fake it before you make it' discussion and an INSIGHT into how networking built a national property investment company were highlights of Thursday's Local Area Marketing & Networking - Norwest business networking event. The event also featured a keynote on business insurances and an INSIGHT on getting the most out of your website. Philip Watson, National Business Development Manager, Insurance Made Easy (IME), explained the differe

Local Area Marketing & Networking - Parramatta welcomed five new members to its October meeting on Thursday. The meeting had a strong ma

Good takeaways continued to be a hallmark of the Norwest Local Area Marketing and Networking group today.

Search for advice on “how to pitch your company” and you’ll be confronted with more than 8 million results. The recommendations will run the full gamut: everything from brainstorming “vivid” adjectives that describe your business to compiling background research on investors. Whether you’re selling your business story to future partners and investors or the very customers you want to use your service, it can be difficult to know which parts of your sprawling business plan to

Thinking about starting a business or updating your brand image? Colour is an all-important factor because it triggers a chemical reaction in the brain that produces an emotional response. That response draws on positive or negative memories linked to experiences, people, places, environment and culture; factors programmed into our brains from birth and throughout life. Simplistically, we all have our favorite colours and we react differently to each. Remember the fun you hav

Congratulations to the Norwest Coffee & Business Cards networking group for helping create a great networking environment for local businesses A special welcome to new members attending their first meeting: Ralph Rintoule (Managing Director - Citrine Developments & Marketing Pty Ltd); Samir Mansuri (Partner - Tax Store); Dr Rainer Kurz ( CEO - Freelance-market.com); Tony Skinner (Managing Director - ClicksForProfit.com.au) and Aditya Joseph (Principal Solicitor - AJR Lawyers)

Writing catchy subject lines for client email can be challenging if you want to get your message noticed, but there's one cardinal sin you should NEVER COMMIT - because if you do - it will kill off interest in your email messaging. More than 300,000 publically available email threads were analysed by email productivity software company Boomerang to discover what does and doesn’t work when it comes to subject lines. In a blog post, the company revealed subject lines written wi

If you're trying to ramp up marketing for an existing business or beginning a new one, should you invest in a new website or an app? Different 'experts' will give you different answers, which doesn't help if you're an SME with limited budget and even less experience using either. Good quality apps don't come cheap either, so it becomes more of a dilemma. Paul Dunstone, founder and managing director of Brisbane based digital agency OSE, specialists in both private and public s

So, you have a business plan (hopefully), are reasonably confident about your target market, have sussed out the competition, developed your point of difference or unique selling proposition and need to begin marketing. But how? Budget is always a consideration. Never feel bad or disadvantaged about not having enough budget. No one ever has enough money for marketing budgets. As your business grows, you can look to having a marketing budget tied to your growth percentage. For

Running your own business doesn't mean you have to to be an expert at all things. It does mean you need to "manage", and to do this effectively, it means managing yourself. You need to 'work' the business for it to be successful, to interact with customers, suppliers, staff and others involved in providing your goods or services to the marketplace. You also need downtime for family and friends, timeout for planning and for yourself. As an owner operator who loves what they do

Today's self promotion candidates have thrown traditional expectations out of the window in their business sales approach and formalities. Co-founder and chief executive of real estate startup ActivePipe, Ashley Farrugia, says his approach to self promotion isn’t traditional. “I live in jeans and a tee and despite my PR team’s advice; I don’t intend to change that,” he said. He also acknowledges this can be a winner when persuading others to hop on board with your idea. “My a

Promoting your business is not just about the products or services you offer - it's also about you! You can't hide behind behind a veil of anonymity in business, particularly in small business. You are a key point of difference and you possess a uniqueness that no other business can offer - yourself! Icky? Self conscious? Embarrassed? Forget it! Humans are social beings and respond best to personal interaction - and it's free - so start interacting! Over the next few days we

There's nothing more harrowing for many people launching a business than getting the all-important pitch right - and being able to deliver it without stumbling or appearing lacking in confidence. But it doesn't have to be a nightmare if you follow a few simple guidelines and remember a couple of key confidence boosters. Firstly, this is YOUR business. No one knows it better than you. You have started the business journey investing time, effort and money because YOU were convi

If you are Greater Western Sydney based, thinking about starting a business, have just started one or have been operating for a few years, there are basic skills you need and a new training program that brings them almost to your door. The courses cover how to start a small business, using social media, selling and maximising your web presence via Google. Western Sydney Business Centre run the courses in convenient locations throughout the Penrith, Blacktown, Fairfield, Holro

The 2017 Sensis Social Media Report released today shows a growing divide between the number of businesses and consumers using social media.* There is no holding back consumer usage which is almost universal among 18-29 year olds at 99 per cent and jumps in the 30-39 age group (up 14 points to 96 per cent) and the 40-49 age group (up 16 points to 86 per cent). The Report surveyed 1,100 local companies and 800 consumers. It found that while customers are becoming more and more

All small business owners should make a diary note for 27 June 2018 - the date of the next World Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises day. Why? Because it should be a great marketing opportunity for the 2,116,708 small businesses across Australia to collectively be recognised as Australia's economic backbone, encouraging other entrepreneurs to follow their example. It should encourage them to engage with their local communities in an 'open day' style celebration of their

Whether you run a business or are thinking about starting one, having a ‘to do’ list is a must and if you have templates to help you, even better! The Australian Government's www.business.gov.au is a goldmine of information if you know where to look, so here's a guide with links to help fasttrack your search. Planning or starting a business? If you’re new to business, there's a Business Checklist to guide you through the various stages of starting your business. It covers fin

In the world of pitching and promoting, there are some 'buzzwords' you should avoid since they have long lost their real meaning and can turn an audience away from your message. These overused words are well-known are often appear on LinkedIn profiles. So that you don't make the same mistakes, here are the buzzwords as identified by bestselling author and startup coach Bob Dorf. 1. Best Apart from the exception of search engine giant Google, Dorf believes no startup should us