Seven Businesses You Can Start Tomorrow

You don’t need a fancy pedigree or specialized set of skills to launch a business. Some start-ups require more capital than others, of course, and all companies demand care and feeding. But if you can muster the courage, do a bit of research and secure an ABN (so the tax office can take their cut), you can be your own boss.

Low-tech ventures that work best tend to target a devoted customer base and offer an easy-to-grasp product or service. Take dog walking (as in, walking dogs)… read on

Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

The science of stamina has advanced to the point where individuals, teams, and whole organizations can, with some straightforward interventions, significantly increase their capacity to get things done.
by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy

The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals—behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible…
click here to continue…

How well do you handle your energy?
Do you schedule in time to recharge?
I know I do. For example; we try and keep Sundays free of all pre-arranged activities, and then please ourselves how we spend it, including having pyjama days! how decadent!
It certainly helps I must say… try it…

Women still keeping house

by Dewi Cooke for TheAge

The Bureau of Statistics figures provide a snapshot of how Australians while the days away and show that we are spending less time per week on recreation and leisure activities such as sports, games and arts and craft, although we now spend an extra hour a week zoning out in front of the television or roaming through cyberspace.

But the differences are most stark between the sexes.

Although men and women spend similar amounts of time “working” (between 51 and 52 hours a week), men spend more time in paid employment and women spend substantially more time on unpaid work.

Clearly the model we are currently using is not working as planned.
I appreciate that we have been working with this arrangement for some time now, the evidence is available to prove that what was supposed to happen is not…
so where to from here?

Opens up many possibilities really doesn’t it…

It’s About Time: Women, men, work and family

The women, men, work and family project was launched by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward in 2005. It examines the relationship between family responsibilities and paid work.

Striking the balance between paid work and family life has become more than a “barbeque stopper” – it is one of the major challenges facing families, employers and governments.

HREOC released a discussion paper, Striking the Balance: Women, men, work and family in June 2005.

The project builds on the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission’s previous work on paid maternity leave and the Pregnancy and Work Inquiry by examining the broader issues for Australians who seek to combine paid work and family responsibilities.

At the heart of efforts to “strike the balance” between paid work and family and carer responsibilities is the issue of time.

It’s About Time: Women, men, work and family is the final paper of this project.

It’s About Time draws on material provided through 181 submissions from individuals and groups and 44 consultations and focus groups held around Australia throughout 2005 and 2006. HREOC heard many personal stories during the consultations and focus groups and spoke to employers, employer groups, employees, unions, community groups, parents, carers and children.

Despite a decade or more of economic growth and prosperity, many Australians say they are not living the lives they want. They feel pressured, stressed and constrained in the choices they can make, particularly at key points in their lives.

Family relationships top their list of priorities, but the demands of paid work increasingly undermine the time that people have to care for their children, parents and other family members.

While a large number of workplaces have family-friendly policies, many others do not.

The cost of not finding solutions to this challenge can be immense, particularly for individuals who are forced to take poorer quality paid work in order to meet their dual responsibilities or who have to drop out of the labour market altogether.

There are also costs for employers, particularly in industries with skills shortages, and costs for the economy as a whole in terms of workforce participation and productivity.

The aim has been to broaden the work and family debate to better include men’s role in family life, include forms of care other than child care (such as elder care and care for people with disability) and to highlight the relationship between paid work and unpaid work.

It’s About Time makes the case for a new framework to support a balance between paid work and family responsibilities. This new framework recognises changes in caring needs and responsibilities across the life cycle, addresses equality between men and women and reflects a “shared work – valued care” approach.

It proposes a series of changes to legislation, workplace policy and practice and government programs to support this new approach.

Making this new framework a reality requires commitment from governments, employers, communities, families and individuals because, in the end, striking the balance between paid work and family is a shared responsibility.

These proposed changes to legislation will most certainly affect your organisation in time, possibly sooner rather than later.
How committed and open will your organisation be??
Will it be ready to share the responsibility?….

Female millionaires on the rise: report

The number of female millionaires in Britain has been rising on the back of social trends – such as inheritance and the rapidly climbing divorce rate – according to independent market analyst Datamonitor.

On top of that, a new generation of women have started to prosper in their own right, and female entrepreneurs are increasingly growing in number.

are you at millionaire status yet?
if not why not?

Pin It on Pinterest