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I was driving home last week and noticed a Thai restaurant I hadn’t seen before. Feeling adventurous for dinner that night, we thought we’d try it out and order some take away. I jumped on Google and, to my surprise, the mysterious Thai restaurant could not be found. I tried Google Maps, and again, no result.
At this stage, most customers would have given up and moved on. But on a desperate hunt for a delicious Penang curry, I even went so far as to stalk them on Google Street View. Unfortunately, their phone number wasn’t visible in the window, so we decided to go back to our trusty local. Read more
Looking at my iPhone and iPad today I realized there had been a changing of the guard. The apps I traditionally assumed I was using have kind of fallen by the way side and a new breed has taken their place. Change is normal and the tools we use do go in and out of favor every now and then but I thought it would be nice to mark the moment with a little blog post.
Here are my top three right now. Read more
I was recently at a family BBQ enjoying a beer and a sausage in bread when I was asked the following: ‘Hey mate, you work in computers(sic), what’s all this Cloud computing stuff about?’
Now, being the families resident ‘computer nerd’, I’m often asked computer related questions (either that or cartoon related questions). Usually the questions are along the lines of ‘should I buy a Mac’ or ‘why isn’t my email working’. Most can be fairly easily answered with a paint-by-numbers answer, but this one required a bit more effort. Effort that by the end of the conversation – which only ended because if we didn’t stop talking, all of my auntie’s awesome trifle would’ve been eaten without me getting any – still could’ve been delved into a lot more.
This ‘Cloud computing stuff’ question became a 45-minute discussion about a bunch of seemingly unlinked topics – business, computers, iPhones and iPads, MYOB, the Patriot Act, Russians; the list went on and on. Read more
Disclaimer: this post actually isn’t for you. This article is for that one person (or multiple people) you come across online that doesn’t seem to have a filter for what information should or shouldn’t be shared to the public. I urge you to share this with them. It’s for their own good!
A few months ago a friend of mine was having a lot of trouble getting a job. She’d been to university and achieved all the qualifications required to land a great job. She’s very personable and pretty, and can do the job as good as anyone who works in the industry. But application after application she was bombing out for some reason. It was getting her down almost as much as it was baffling her as to why.
So we decided to do a Google search on her name to see what came up. First result – Facebook profile. Read more
Friday 23rd March 2012
Happy Friday! The countdown to the End of Financial Year is on! With just a few days left until April 1, businesses around the nation are tallying, reporting, analysing and cleaning up – getting ready to start the new FY with their business sin order.
Over the next week, we’ll be bringing you checklists, advice, tips and tricks to surviving the EOFY – so make sure you keep an eye on The Pulse, on our Facebook page and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!
Before you run off to enjoy another weekend, make sure you check out latest from the news sites…
The looming end of the financial year is a great time to check how your business is performing. Like checking under the hood of your car, it’s a good way to make sure everything is running smoothly and you’re not in for any nasty surprises down the road. MYOB’s New Zealand General Manager, Julian Smith, runs through his top tips to make sure everything’s ready to go for a new financial year.
While there are no reports of companies being put out of business due to disruption to their IT systems in the wake of the Canterbury Earthquakes, many were disadvantaged, highlighting a need to ensure proper backup and staff communication processes were in order. The end of financial year is the perfect time to make sure your business is ‘disaster-proof’ and these great tips will help get you on the right track.
Wharfies at the centre of the Port of Auckland dispute now face further delays as the port company says that they can’t return to work due to rostering issues. Ongoing strike action has caused delays and issues over the past four weeks, and in this post, Julian Smith outlines why it’s crucial for the New Zealand economy that it’s sorted – quickly.
This edition if InFocus – MYOB’s magazine for business, tackles a key issue for many Kiwi businesses – the end of the financial year – and includes regular columns from key business leaders, including EMA, BusinessNZ, Business.govt.nz, and Westpac. We also look at emerging trends in the New Zealand business environment, and how businesses can manage the expected growth. Check it out now!
So many business owners spend time and effort investing in the health of their business…neglecting their own health along the way! The latest from Ms Mad Woman, Melina Schamroth, is a timely reminder for all to keep an eye on what those long hours in the home office is doing to our waistlines…
Have a fantastic weekend!
A look at what you may be doing to annoy your connections.
For some reason, when we network online, we really forget how to communicate with the person on the other end of the computer. In fact we forget that there even is a real person on the other end of the computer. Basic real life etiquette flies out of the window as we try and do everything at a trillion miles an hour to get connected, friended, followed and now pinned to as many people as possible.
But slow down, connection collector, relax, and be more meaningful in your approach, and avoid some of the things that I see all too often that really bug me. If you want to develop a business relationship with your connection, don’t get off on the wrong foot. Read more
How do you come up with something new to write about frequently enough to build a successful blog? As blogs become more common, so too does the problem of blogger’s block: that awkward moment when you feel as though you’ve run out of things to say.
Coming up with enough material to write a weekly post is a big challenge for many people – so unless you have a background or passion for writing, be careful about the frequency you commit to. Read more
Ever had your car, house or store broken into?
I’ve recently had the online equivalent. I’ve had someone break into my website causing my email to be disabled and disrupting things for a couple of days and I’m finding myself hacked off by hackers.
And for what end? A cheap thrill? A test run of hacking prowess? Something more sinister? Read more
Between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube, there’s so many social media pies that small business owners feel the pressure to get involved in. Daily commentary tells us constantly why it’s the best way to reach out to new customers and build relationships with current ones, and I don’t blame business owners for feeling slightly overwhelmed – after all, you’ve got a business to run in between all those tweets and likes!
And just to add more to your social media to-do list, the newest kid on the social media block is having a moment in the sun, posting some incredible growth figures. Pinterest, once a niche network loved by brides-to-be has just blown Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined out of the water for referral traffic in January. Read more
There’s a bit of an ‘in’ joke going around the more nerdier circles of online marketing lately that the only ones using Google Plus – Google’s new(ish) social platform – are Google employees and businesses who have no idea what to do with it.
This is an exaggeration, of course, and to dismiss it as a platform which nobody is using would be folly. After all, just a few days ago Google Plus hit the 100 million users mark.
The statement mainly highlights three facts:
- Google Plus definitely hasn’t got the user numbers of Facebook
- It hasn’t become the giant killer most predicted it was trying to be (We’ve discussed the Google Plus vs Facebook question here)
- People signed up purely because it was the new kid on the block. Read more
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