The Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale concepts have well and truly arrived in Australia with retailers embracing this latest retail event to stimulate what has been an economically lack lustre year.

Why ‘Black Friday’?

For many Australians, Black Friday is just confusing – shouldn’t Black Friday’ be on Friday 13th? In the US, the Black Friday sales follow Thanksgiving in a similar way to the Australian Boxing Day sales. The Black Friday sales also lay a clear runway to Christmas, stimulating consumer spending.

I was having lunch with one a client last week, he had invited me out for a casual Friday lunch, no particular reason. I enjoy a Friday lunch as much as the next person!

He bounced into the restaurant, big grin, high-fived me and sat down. He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world, which I knew not to be true. But he was clearly feeling good when he met me.

 Interest rates in Australia have never been this low, and yet there is little excitement in the marketplace right now. Mortgage borrowers would usually be jumping for joy, and yet there is little buzz around the place. Consumer confidence is weak, and shows no signs of improving significantly in the near future.

Though there are differing opinions from the big banks over the current trend of consumer spending, NABs view (that seems to align with the RBA decisions of late) is that there is no real sign of growth in consumption as a result of tax and interest rate cuts.

The Government has resurrected its plan to remove access to the main residence exemption for non-residents – a move that will impact on expats and foreign residents.

Back in the 2017-18 Federal Budget, the Government announced that it would remove the ability for non-resident taxpayers to claim the main residence exemption. The unpopular measures were introduced into Parliament but stymied. An election later, a recomposition of Parliament, and the Government has again introduced the reforms but in a modified form. 

With 2020 just around the corner, advancements in technology and how they relate to our businesses are a hot topic and one that can leave you wondering how in the world your company is every going to survive without a robot sitting at your reception desk.

There is one part to the story that will never change in a world that feels like it is spinning faster and faster.

If your business requires you to go to work every day and cannot survive if you step away from it for a week or so, what you have is not a business, it is just like Chris’s – a job. And it may even be a job that pays you less than someone else would pay you to do the same job in your area of expertise. You may even have staff working for you, it doesn’t mean you have scaled successfully.