the entrepreneurial mother

Care of the Barefoot Investor; Scott Pape...I had to share this with you as he is making a lot of sense...

November 15, 2008
WITH world leaders running around spending billions – no, make that trillions – of dollars of our money in an effort to avert a global financial meltdown, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking your little stash of cash pales in comparison.

Rubbish. I know from personal experience that as little as a thousand bucks can change your life.

Coming up with a grand shouldn't be too much of a stretch, especially if you've read and implemented a few suggestions from last week's column. And if you didn't, readers on my Herald Sun blog this week have added dozens more tight-ass tips.

Then again, if all else fails, the PM is playing Santa Claus this year so look for your cheque under the tree.

Let's look at half a dozen ways where money can buy happiness.

* Pay off your debts
* Get some Mojo
* Best investment this year
* Start a web-based business
* Loose change legacy
* Change someone's life

So, there you have six things that can change your life (or someone else's). Don't buy into all the doom and gloom. It's in dark financial days like these that fortunes are made starting with as little as a thousand bucks.

Tread your own path!

Read on to get the full detail. The detail he extrapolates the six points with is really worth the continued reading.

In terms of starting a web-based business, I am going through that very process right now, so stay tuned for updates as I go along... the continued path of my "4 Hour Work Week" journey.

How can you:
* Bring you more freedom and fulfilment in your consulting life?
* Create new revenue streams and increase your income?

Initially, by being part of the aCE talentNET Global Consultant Study...

For this inaugural annual study, we are inviting all consultants to share how aCE talentNET can continually work on new products and services to help you and your consultancy, that will not only:
* Bring you more freedom and fulfilment in your consulting life
* Create new revenue streams and increase your income
and also:
* Make you a recognized expert (or even celebrity) in your field
* Make growth, marketing and lead generation easy (and even fun)
* Build a large community of loyal fans around your brand

aCE talentNET plan to launch a number of new products and services throughout 2009.
BUT FIRST, we need your input. This will help us continue to develop products and services that will best serve your needs.

There are two reasons why you should take this survey.
1) To have your voice heard and ensure you get what you want from aCE talentNET
2) To save yourself the time and energy of having to do much of what you currently do solo.

We greatly appreciate your feedback. It will directly impact the creation of valuable new products/services for you. It is after all ultimately about increasing your bottomline, and how we can assist you in doing that.

Click here to commence...

It will take 15 minutes max. to complete.
The study will be available for completion until 30 November 2008.

If you, and/or colleagues, are not yet part of the aCE talentNET community, we invite you to do so by registering as a consultant via the web site.

Regards

Denise Hall
aCE talent NET | Executive Director - Business BT&D MIMC
& the entrepreneurial mother
www.acetalentnet.com

"If you are anything like me you've been paying close attention to the global financial crisis but still adopting a relaxed attitude that "it couldn't get that bad in Australia". Well no longer... as I continue to read articles and watch news stories I have woken up to the fact that we need to adopt an extremely conservative approach to business and managing our finances in what could be troubled times ahead. This is true for both large and small businesses alike.

Contract World has recently posted an extremely sobering review of the facts leading up to the global financial crisis and goes on to explain the impact for large and small businesses, including the potential failure of large US icons like Ford and General Motors. Whilst the Australian economy is supported by a strong export market to China, we rely more heavily on Japanese exports, one market predicted to be hit hard by the global credit crisis. When (if?) this occurs together with an inability of large infrastructure projects to secure finance, rising unemployment, falling property markets and the highest personal debt levels in history the prospect of Australia avoiding a slide in to recession seems unavoidable. Consequently we all need to be vigilant in how we manage our businesses (and household finances). For some very useful tips I strongly recommend that you read the article on Contract World. In short... prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't get as bad as predicted.

On a more positive note, aCE talentNET is pleased to report that at this stage we have seen no such contraction in projects and opportunities for our Talent Network. We will continue to work closely with our clients to ensure that they have the resources they need (at cost effective market rates!) to deliver the projects committed to in current and future budgets.

So what does this mean for the consulting market? Who knows what the future holds... I'm not really brave enough to make a prediction at this stage. I guess there are two immediate thoughts:
1. that the project/contracting market will downsize as larger organisations adopt conservative attitudes to project initiatives and, as mentioned above, large syndicated finance becomes harder to access thus putting on hold many planned initiatives; versus
2. larger organisations may turn to contract resources to deliver on project initiatives (whilst putting downward pressure on market rates) and avoid replacing and/or taking on new hires in a recession environment. Perhaps it will be a mix of both? Time will tell.

We would also like to say a big THANK YOU to all the Consultants that have taken the time to complete our Inaugural Consultant Survey... the response rate has been extremely pleasing. For those of you yet to complete the Survey we strongly encourage you to do so, as this is your opportunity to tell us how aCE talentNET can support you and your business. The Survey will take no longer than 15mins and completion before 30 November 2008 enters you into a draw to win a Nano iPod - how can you refuse??!! Complete Survey.

Until next month...
Deirdre Gruiters
Corporate Talent Agent
www.acetalentnet.com

as featured in the "Inspired" magazine, Autumn/Winter 2008
by Fran Molloy

For former management consultant Denise Hall, the flexibility she needed as a mum has become the key to her success; her business is based on supplying talented consultants, who work as ‘free agents,’ to organisations who need their skills for a short-term project, often in project-based fields like organisational development and training.

She channelled her inner entrepreneur and with another mum as business partner, established aCE talentNET. With her extensive experience as an international management consultant, Denise could have had her pick of top executive positions; but she felt that, as a single mum, she needed a certain level of flexibility, and that is difficult within a large corporation.

Now, she works about 25 hours a week – during school hours – and is able to earn a good income, while keeping an active role in parenting her daughter.

“You don’t have to bust a boiler to make it work,” she says, adding that she sees many parents caught up in inefficient work settings that waste the time they could be spending with their children.

Efficiency and responsibility are key to making her business work – and her team is not bound by office hours. “We structure our days around what needs to be done – the work to be done is addressed rather than the hours that need to be filled.”

Technology helps to make most of Denise’s work location-independent – and she has a lot of trust and respect for her team of co-workers.

for the full article... read on

The July / August 2008 edition of Trend Briefing is now online, covering INNOVATION AVALANCHE, including new and updated trends, and no less than 41 new business ideas, many of them begging to be introduced to the Australian market.

So... time to finally dream up that new product or startup.
You know you want to ;-)

INNOVATION AVALANCHE: There’s more innovation happening than ever before. New brands, new niches, new concepts, new products, new services and new experiences are flooding an equally fast expanding number of markets. Just as important, there are more freely available sources to track these innovations than ever before. And all of this is coming to (if not at) you from every corner of the world. The GLOBAL BRAIN has been unleashed, and there’s nowhere to hide for those who aren't part of it.

The link between INNOVATION AVALANCHE and trends? As focused as we are on emerging consumer trends, we never tire of pointing out that trends are only good for one thing: helping you get inspired to innovate, to come up with new goods, services and experiences for (or even better, with) your customers.

Now, one easy way to get started is by taking a look at innovative companies around the world that are already capitalizing on trends, and learn from them. But before you dive into the many trends and examples we've selected for you, a few quick pointers...

read on...