How often do you find that January seems to disappear pretty quickly once you get back from the holidays, finally get your team back into work mode and you finally get your head around a regular routine of business again? Motivation can often need a bit of a wind up in the first few weeks! But the new year is always a brilliant time to re-assess your business structure and strategy…

There are banks in the United States who have recently re-imagined the way they do business. Capital One Bank have decided to build on what ING Direct rolled out a few years ago – increasing the number of established cafes where customers can have their banking and finance questions answered in a casual atmosphere representing something more like a digital co-working space than a bank….

There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,

There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole….

You know how it goes, Henry has to go and try and fix the hole, but doesn’t know how to.

Ok bear with me – I haven’t lost my mind with the downhill race towards Christmas. This little childhood rhyme actually tells the story of a lot of small business owners I chat with regularly.

There is a hole in their business bucket, and they are struggling to find the right resource, process or advice to know how to fix it.

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.