Courier Mail

July 11, 2008 02:22pm

NEARLY half of Australian businesses have been affected by the fallout from the global crunch but the worst could still around the corner, a credit insurance company says.

Atradius Australia and New Zealand managing director David Huey said payment defaults and insurance claims reported to his firm had doubled since last year.

“Our enquiry rate for new business has also doubled, in part due to the high-profile insolvencies like Beechwood Homes, which has meant that industry segments like construction have been looking at insuring themselves against non payment,” Mr Huey said.

Companies in United States had the highest response in a 14-country survey.

About 68 per cent of US firms said they had been affected by the credit crunch, followed by Mexico, at 60 per cent.

Other nations where companies said the credit crisis had a high impact were Italy with 58 per cent, the UK, 46 per cent, Spain, 44 per cent and Australia/New Zealand, 43 per cent.

The Atradius credit crisis survey analysed comments from 2,500 respondents about their company’s experiences and the likely effect of tougher financial conditions.

“Factors that may be contributing to these reports include reliance on the building and construction or the financial services industry for GDP growth, a relatively large percentage of GDP tied to trade with the United States or heavy use of receivable securitisation,” Mr Huey said.

Restrictive credit and increased default payments would dampen growth and raise business defaults globally for the rest of 2008 and into 2009, the survey said.

Some 71 per cent of companies said an increase in payment defaults was their biggest concern, 67 per cent worried about restrictions in sales growth and 65 per cent feared increased capital costs.

Mr Huey said it was essential for a healthy company to be aware of how to protect themselves from risk exposure.

“The credit crisis is highlighting the importance of protecting your cashflow,” he said.

“The reality is that without good cashflow your business will be in jeopardy.” 

By Claire Heaney

April 21, 2008 10:48am

CASH-strapped small businesses know a website will open them up to the world - but too often they skimp on marketing and it fails.

Internet expert Jasmine Batra said it did not have to be so difficult.

“A website can be such a level-playing field and small business can compete against the big corporates,” she said.

Ms Batra, the director of Arrow Internet Marketing, said there were measures businesses could take to optimise their presence on the internet.

Her own company was ranked first for searches on google.com.au for “SEO (search engine optimisation)company” thanks to clever use of optimisation.

Ms Batra said experts could identify what people were searching for and how best the small business could tap into that demand.

One step was to find out what search words people were using when looking for goods or services.

It helped, she said, to put yourself in their shoes. For instance, were people searching for “used baby goods” or “second hand baby goods”.

She said when websites were developed they generally had access to tools to track who was visiting the site.

Traffic statistics can not only show how many people are visiting but how long they stayed.

Ms Batra said people should look at this information at least once a month.

“I like to look at my traffic stats every week,” she said.

“There are lots of insights in them. If you were running a retail store you would be interested to know how many people walked in the door.”

She said people could install Google Analytics which would help them find out where their visitors were coming from and how they interacted with the site.

She said it also was important to manage the content of the site, keeping it up-to-date and relevant.

Google has more than 300 criteria when ranking websites. Blogging, RSS feeds and repeating key words were all advantageous and would optimise a site.

It was pointless for a business to spend a lot of money on a site and not market it Ms Batra said.

“They need to be spending money on the online marketing of the site as well,” she said.

It was also important to identify your target market.

If, for example, you were targeting Generation Y, you might be interested in pursuing bookmarking and social networking sites such as MySpace, Flickr and Del.ici.ous.

“There are a lot of opportunities to make the most of it,” she said.

She said some businesses might find Pay Per Click promotions, such as Google AdWords, effective.

Businesses might like to run Google Adwords in the short term, at particular times of the year in their business cycle.

But she said it was important for businesses to know how much the service was costing them and how much it cost to get each client or sell each product.

Some clients offering professional services had found Google AdWords beneficial.

Ms Batra said one of her clients, which sold solar panels, had been able to work out that using AdWords it cost it $30 to sell a $1500 panel.

- Jasmine Batra will be a speaker at the 7th annual CeBIT Australia’s Exhibition at Darling Harbour, Sydney, May 20-22, on issues such as eMarketing and search engine optimisation. CeBIT features more than 750 technology solution providers. For more on CeBIT go to www.cebit.com.au. For more on Arrow Internet Marketing go to

Who is eligible 

You are eligible if:

• You are buying/building their first property as a person, not as a company or trust;
• You (or a joint applicant) are an Australian citizen or permanent resident;
• You or your spouse have not previously owned an interest in land in Australia that had a residence on it prior to July 1 2000.

If the you are married or living in a de facto relationship for more than two years, neither your or your spouse can have owned a home, individually or with any other person.

What type of property is eligible?

It does not matter if you are building a new home or purchasing an established home. The home can be a house, unit, flat or any other type of self-contained, fixed dwelling that meets local planning standards.

The transaction is eligible if:

• The contract to buy a home in Queensland was made on or after 1 July 2000; or
• The owners of the land in Queensland made a comprehensive building contract on or after 1 July 2000 to have a home built; or
• An owner builder started building a home in Queensland on or after 1 July 2000.

When is the grant payable?

The grant is paid:

• For the purchase of a home - when the title is registered in the purchaser’s name; or
• For the construction of a home - when the building is ready for occupation as a home.

It is important to note that all applicants must occupy the home as their principal place of residence within one year of this event.

For more detailed information visit the Office of State Revenue Website at  www.osr.qld.gov.au or speak to one of the Team at Finance Know How.

Finance Know How has access to 100% home loans, and with the new QLD budget releasing the abolishment of Stamp and Mortgage Duty in QLD from July 1 2008, it has never been easier to get your first home!

Stephen McMahon in the hearldsun.com.au reports on June 5 2008:ANOTHER interest rate rise to 7.5 per cent towards the end of the year is firmly on the Reserve Bank’s radar after yesterday’s stronger-than-expected growth figures.

Despite high inflation and four interest rate rises since August, the RBA will be concerned that economic growth is not slowing enough.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday reported that gross domestic product grew 0.6 per cent in the March quarter - double economists’ consensus forecast, taking the annual rate to 3.6 per cent.

Most economists had been expecting the rate to be closer to 3 per cent.

On Tuesday, the RBA left rates on hold at a 12-year high of 7.25 per cent for the third consecutive month.

However, investors on the Sydney Futures Exchange see a 100 per cent chance of an interest rate rise by November, up from just below 70 per cent on Tuesday.

Ten out of 17 industry sectors reported growth of 1 per cent or more in the quarter, pushing the annual GDP rate to 3.6 per cent.

Economists said the improvement in the farm sector after years of drought was helped by the surge in food prices over the past 12 months.

But it was strong growth in construction, household and government spending that were the driving forces behind the economy’s 17th year of growth.

Commonwealth Bank economist John Peters said growth was down from last year’s cracking pace of 4 per cent-plus, but the slowing trajectory would not be enough to stop interest rates going up again, most likely in August or September.

He said a massive inflow of $30 billion to $40 billion from the commodity price increases over the next few months, added to the Budget tax cuts and the recovery of the farming sector, would outweigh higher interest rates and petrol prices.

“This all combines to boost the risks of another interest rate rise,” Mr Peters said.

The pace of economic growth in the March quarter shocked economists, beat the estimates of all 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Two economists had even gone as far as forecasting negative growth.

But NAB senior economist Jeff Oughton said all of the forward indicators were for slowing economic growth, and with the lags in monetary policy he said the RBA had done enough and rates should stay on hold for the rest of the year.

“The full effects of the interest rate tightenings in November, February and March have yet to flow through the economy,” Mr Oughton said.

He expects the tax cuts and riches flowing from mining to be outweighed by the RBA’s actions to date.

“There is an order of things - first you put up interest rates, then the economy slows and finally inflation comes down - and that is the progression we are in the midst of,” Mr Oughton said.

But he admits the NAB forecasts for rates on hold could be upset by stronger global economic growth and higher petrol and food prices flowing through into pressure for wage increases.

The stronger-than-expected GDP growth sent the Australian dollar to a top of US95.83 in late trading.

But the Aussie’s burst of momentum in recent months is expected to be crimped by the renewed strength of the US dollar following comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

On Tuesday Mr Bernanke signalled that the next move for US interest rates was likely to be up, in a bid to counter inflation.

In response to the global credit crunch, the Fed has cut US rates by 2.25 per cent since September to a low of 2 per cent.