Carers who are Centrelink nominees -  that is, as person nominated by a customer to handle their Centrelink affairs - can now register to do Centrelink business for themselves and the person they care for online.

Nominees can register for online services at www.centrelink.gov.au.

Once registered, you may be able to:

• subscribe to receive letters online
• update address and bank details online, and
• view payment details to see when the next payment is due.

If you receive a Centrelink payment, you can also register to use Centrelink’s online service for yourself.

Online services are currently available to a nominee if they are an individual, such as a family member or a friend who is a carer. Access will be offerred to organisations who are nominees (such as Public Trustees and nursing homes) at a later date.

For more information or to register for online services, visit www.centrelink.gov.au or call 13 2717.

Are you a manufacturing small or medium sized enterprise (SME) looking to develop your business further?

The online self-assessment tool has been provided to identify your business’ capabilities and highlight areas that may be in need of improvement.

The tool is a free resource provided by Enterprise Connect.

You should allow 30-45 minutes to complete the assessment, which will ask you to prioritise and rate different areas of your business. Afterward you will be provided with a summary of your business capabilities which you can then use to develop an action plan to improve your business’ performance.

 To access the tool or for any other assistance, visit the Enterprise Connect website.

Are you looking to improve your small business or develop your financial management skills? The SMExcellence website is a free online learning resource which provides short courses on business topics covering a range of industries.

Through SMExcellence, you can develop your business knowledge on issues such as:

• starting a business
• registration and compliance
• sales and marketing
• taxation and financial management.

For further information or to begin a short course in your industry, visit the SMExcellence website.

Need Cheap Ink For Your Business? Think Ink. Think Inkman

The NSW Department of State and Regional Development (DSRD) has now put together a toolkit containing podcasts and a downloadable PDF covering a variety of business topics.

Developed as part of Small Business September ’08, the toolkit contains information and advice from leading corporate, industry and Government representatives on a range of issues including:

• DSRD programs for small business
• online business and marketing
• insurance
• doing business overseas.

To access the podcasts or PDF, visit the NSW Small Business website.

MYOB Australia is excited to announce the launch of myBRC.com.au, a free online resource for small business owners. myBRC, My Business Resource Centre, cuts through the internet clutter and helps business owners find useful, quality information, tools and resources that can help them run their businesses better.

“We live in an information driven society. Over the last decade the amount of information available to small business owners has exploded. So much so that the main challenge is no longer access to information, but the ability to filter and process that information.

MYOB has created myBRC.com.au to assist small business owners make sense of all the information available, and provide the right building blocks for business success,” explains Tim Reed, Managing Director of MYOB Australia.

“MYOB works with and for SMEs every day. myBRC is one way in which MYOB can give more to Australia’s small business community,” says Mr Reed.

In the March 2008 MYOB Small Business Survey 67% of small business owners surveyed agreed that there should be better information available for new businesses when starting up, and 48% agreed with the statement ‘I often feel isolated or on my own as a small business owner’.

Through myBRC, MYOB aims to address this need for improved information and help ease isolation through the ongoing development of its web-based community. myBRC also attempts to save time for business owners, by allowing them to search by specific business lifecycle phases or topic area.

myBRC contains a mix of content created, sourced and aggregated by MYOB, and links through to other quality business information and tools available on the web. Registering on myBRC provides users with access to premium content, the opportunity to rate and comment on articles, and contribute to user forums.

“myBRC is starting life as an information portal, but our goal is to build it into a vibrant, online, small business community,” says Mr Reed. “Community forums will be established on myBRC and will act as a medium for small business owners to network and share best business practice with peers”.

MYOB would like to see myBRC shaped by small businesses and encourages feedback and involvement from users to help build it into a meaningful small business community. In fact myBRC is currently in BETA format, to enable just that.

“We are always looking for content from a wide variety of sources and anyone with quality content is more than welcome to submit it to myBRC. In our opinion this is one of the key elements in keeping the site exciting and vibrant!” says Mr Reed.

myBRC demonstrates MYOB’s commitment to small businesses, and ensuring that all small business owners are equipped with the tools to run their businesses successfully. It also reinforces MYOB’s commitment to the online space, following the recent launch of MYOB Business Web Hosting.

The Tax Office has released three new web-based tools to help employers understand and meet their tax and super obligations.

Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said that a priority for the Tax Office was to help business people meet their obligations easily and cheaply.

“Different tax and super obligations apply to workers depending on whether they are an employee or an independent contractor.

“The free interactive tools we have developed for business provide an easy way for employers to determine and calculate their obligations,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.
The tools are:

• an employee/contractor decision tool, to help people work out whether their new or existing workers are contractors or employees for tax and super purposes
• a superannuation guarantee eligibility decision tool, to help employers work out if they have an obligation to make super contributions for their workers, and
• a superannuation guarantee contributions calculator that calculates how much super employers should be contributing for their eligible workers.

Each tool takes less than 15 minutes and guides people through a series of questions. Employers will receive an online report at the end of each session.

People who are not sure whether their workers are employees or contractors should use the employee/contractor decision tool first, before using the super tools.

The tools are available on the Tax Office website at no cost, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To use web-based decision tools and calculators, visit http://www.ato.gov.au/ and select: For Business – Employer essentials – Tax rates, calculators and tools – Other calculators and tools.

According to True Local over 90% of the Australian Internet audience are using online directories to find a local business, service or product. Not all micro business can afford an expensive yellow pages ad – particularly those which are home-based. Many small local traders have no online presence or offline listings at all. Don’t let an impossibly tight budget hold you back. Make the most of the free resources which are available to you.

Free Directory Listings

For an investment of a little time, you can get your business name out there by submitting your details to online business directories.

I’ve sourced several sites which provide a FREE listing in their directory.

Hot Frog (http://www.hotfrog.com.au/) gives you a free basic listing, including a clickable link direct to your own website. Another cool feature is the ‘latest news’ button you can use to include more information and add current business promotions. The listing includes all your contact details aswell as space to add your own business description or blurb. Listing was quick and simple and, to my amazement, Google picked our Hot Frog listing up almost immediately and ranked it high in search results according to the search criteria I used.

Web Find (http://www.webfind.com.au/) was one of the most generous free listing providers I located. Your basic listing has the option of including a logo graphic, hours of operation, a lengthy blurb about your business, bulleted unique selling points and the products and services you provide. It all comes together under a cute little “contact card� complete with a clickable link to your own website.

Local.com.au (www.local.com.au) offers a free listing with plenty of room to add your business description. It includes a direct link to your website and email, aswell as other contact details. Adding a listing was pretty fast. Although the site says it may take up to 2 days to add the listing, we had ours up within 2 hours (pretty impressive for a Sunday night).

Rave About It (www.raveaboutit.com.au) deserves raving about. Submitting a listing was painlessly simple and allowed plenty of great options such as including pictures and adding promotions. A free listing allowed me to add all my details, link directly to our site, include a lengthy description and manage opening hours.

Aussie Local (http://www.aussielocal.com.au/) allows you to submit a basic free listing in up to five different categories.

The Ozebiz Index (http://www.ozebiz.com.au/) allows you to include either your web address OR your contact details.

Business Search (http://www.businesssearch.com.au/) offer a free listing which does not include a web link, but does include your name, address, phone and region serviced. Adding a link to this site was quick, simple and almost instant. The locality search worked a treat to quickly find the listing again.

For something specifically local, go to Oomah.com From there you can access www.thecentralcoast.org, www.gosford.org, www.wyongshire.org and a host of other Central Coast regional directories. A basic listing is free but you’ll have to pay if you want an active link to your site or other bells and whistles.

Other sites offering a free listing include:
dLook (www.dlook.com.au)
hhh Services.Com.Au (www.hhhservices.com.au)
Australia Map Guide (www.street-directory.com.au)
Aussie Web Local Search (www.aussieweb.com.au)
True Local (www.truelocal.com.au)
NSW Central Business Directory (www.nsw.australiancbd.com.au)
Come on Aussie (www.comeonaussie.com)
Laton Australian Business Directory (www.laton.com.au)
Local Biz Online Shopping and Services Directory (www.localbiz.com.au). This last site requires a reciprocal link to maintain a free listing so you must have a website. Alternatively, a basic listing with no reciprocal link is $2.50.

Okay, so it’s not a full page colour advertisement in the Yellow Pages but it is a start. From experience, I can say that these “free” directory listings do generate some business (not always a lot, but some). For zero financial outlay they are not a bad investment at all for small business on a shoestring budget.

If you haven’t yet discovered Online Services at the Family Assistance site, it is well worth the effort to register. Save yourself the time and frustration of queuing up at Centrelink for simple matters.

After a secure login, you are able to view and update your information aswell as access payment history, apply for certain benefits and view the important correspondence your dog ate.

Registering is relatively simple and you only have to do it the one time. Goodness knows, it has to be less painful than standing in a line trailing out the door for 2 hours just to notify a stressed-out public servant that your child has changed preschools!

Check out the Family Assistance site to get the ball rolling. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

Because I am a huge fan of anything that saves me time and hassle, I’m happy to note that Medicare Australia now offers a range of online services.

You do need to register and wait for a password to be mailed to you but once you are set up you can:

Shop-A-Dockets have been in Australia since 1986, and savvy shoppers have been using them since then.

The great news is that you no longer need to spend a single cent at the supermarket to take advantage of the savings. Did you know you can download the vouchers and print them off at home?

Hotdockets.com.au is the Shop-A-Docket online voucher site. Simply enter your postcode to search for savings in your area.

We tend to do this for pizza occassionally and the price difference is well worth the minimal effort to print out a voucher before heading off to Domino’s.

The Australian Government has introduced a comprehensive, independent website that shows an overview of every available private health insurance product from every fund.

It’s controlled and run by the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman and it includes a simple search facility that makes it easy to find and compare all the products that fit your needs.

You can now easily compare private health insurance products at http://www.privatehealth.gov.au/.