small business stats

I found these ABS figures interesting and hopeful:

There were 1,963,907 actively trading businesses in Australia
in June 2006, up 1.3% from a year earlier,

Of these, the vast majority are small businesses based on
either their employment or turnover:

* Almost 1.9 million businesses (96% of the total) employed
less than 20 people (this figure includes 1.1 million
businesses who did not employ staff).

* Over 1.8 million businesses (94% of the total) had annual
turnover of less then $2 million.

Close to two-thirds (65%)
of businesses operating in 2003 were still operating three
years later. Of the businesses which did not survive, 43%
exited during 2003-04, 33% during 2004-05, and the remaining
24% during 2005-06.

what's in a name

It's curious the link you feel with someone simply on the basis of sharing a name with them:

Andrew Kelly, a young man of Irish parentage arrived at Antler Creek in the fall of 1862, where he tried mining. A baker by trade, Kelly opened a bakery and Coffee Shop on Williams Creek, and later on Grouse Creek, where he and his wife also kept a boarding house. Remaining on Grouse Creek for 4 years, the Kellys', with their 2 children returned to Barkerville where Andrew opened the Kelly Hotel in 1871. The hotel flourished, and the Kellys' enjoyed the results of their hard labour. All this while Andrew Kelly had kept a zestful interest in the mining of the area, and had shares in several local mines. Andrew Kelly and his wife moved to Victoria to live at Oak Bay in 1905, where they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on 1916.

Treasure chest

We've been struggling with the size of the treasure chest (unsolicted manuscripts). But there's exciting news. We've appointed a Guardian of the Treasure chest, who will remain anonymous of course, and will log, sort, prepare, read, and encourage discussion and review.

fashionable business metaphors

not only "roadmap" and "roadmapping" but also "mud map"

300

I'm fascinated, amazed and stunned that Hollywood can make a film about 300 men challenging the army of a mighty empire and identify the USA with the 300 - not the mighty empire.

Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe reviewed the film thus: "Imagine a large cast trapped in a series of screensavers. It could be ancient Greece. It could be somebody's hard drive."

legal logjam

No progress with the pool - logjammed with legals. The pool company we used has built 128 pools this year. 100 too many according to an old hand in the industry. P. - md of the pool company - is still on the tools and still making every decision. For the size of the company there's no managment structure that I can see. Just a few girls in the office and a never answered mobile I'm sure remaining on the tools makes him a hero with his trades but it doesn't get pools built properly. Building management takes time and trouble and effort and desire - as I'm learning in my business group. Most businesses bloom and then crumble.

explosion

We'll our pool problem is now in the hands of our solictors. Nasty. We just couldn't get Peter to return our calls. Then he rang up twice in rapid succession - attack me, then hung up and then repeated the process.

One thing has struck me about this is that there is a characteristic, not necessarily typical but characteristic, tradesman's/workingman's outlook with complaints. The belief is that: "because I am working hard I am justfied in being rude and unresponsive." Hard work justifies all. And it doesn't mean they are working hard on your behalf. They're just working hard (presumeably on their own behalf) It is the protestant work ethic in this country gone screwy.

A truck driver was blocking the street. I suggested (very pleasantly) that he move on just a few feet, (a mean maybe two or three feet) and then the cars behind could turn the corner but "CAN'T YOU SEE I'M WORKING! I'M DOING A JOB.**%$## OFF."