brookvaleplus.com

Australian businesses are still yet to enter the world of blogging in any great numbers. Compared to the rest of the world we seem to be a little blogophobic.

Perhaps it is just too much like hard work, or it might be time constraints, but more likely it is because your average business owners and managers fail to realise the opportunity that a blog presents a company in terms of interaction with their customers.

The biggest movement in the world of blogging is definitely coming from the small business community, with quite a few great blogs, right here on the Northern beaches.

The ladies at Women’s Own adventure are doing a great job, as are the team at Enlighten education with their blog on educating teenage girls.

It would also be safe to say that the biggest movement within the small business sector is in the IT industries. Web designers and IT specialists probably make up the largest percentage of bloggers on the scene at the moment.

For a look around some of the better blogs in Brookvale, the Northern Beaches and in Sydney, check out blog.businessinsydney.com. A dedicated directory of business blogs in Sydney.

Billabong and Dats Environmental Services are among the latest companies to settle in the new “focus” business park in Old Pittwater rd, opposite the Warringah Mall. These are just a couple of the latest moves to a new generation of commercial premisis that have been sprouting up in the brookvale area for the last few years. Further testimony to our strong belief that Brookvale will become one of Sydney’s largest business hubs in the next couple of decades.

The Focus development is worth a cool $55 Million and occupies a two-hectare site 122-126 Old Pittwater Road. It is just one of several large commercial developments to have sprung up around brookvale over the last few years.

When it comes to plumbing, draining and gasfitting, there aren’t many around with the experience and dedication of Tim Frawley.

With 25 years under his belt, he has seen just about everything that can happen to a drain, and at just about every possible time of the day, night or weekend. After speaking to Tim for 10 minutes, you begin to wonder if plumbing is a job or a religion. For example, he’ll tell you that the work “plumbing” comes from the Latin word for lead, which is the metal that the Romans famously used to make their water pipes. He’ll also tell you a lot of very interesting stuff about the history of Sydney’s plumbing system, which he knows back to front.

Tim and his team cover Brookvale and the surrounding Northern beaches area from North Sydney all the way to Palm Beach.

You can find them online at http://www.timfrawleyplumbing.com.au

Plumber drainer gasfitter :: Northern Beaches Sydney

I remember back when I was fresh out of University, looking through the papers for a suitable job, writing my resume, and nervously waiting for the phone to ring.

As I remember it, the job section was usually disappointingly small, usually only offering a few positions that I was actually interested in, and I would always find that any job I applied for had about 100 other applications.

So what’s going on now?

I picked up the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday, and found the 1/4 page add on page three had been bought by an employment agency. As had two half page ads, on pages 4 and 5… The further I looked, the more employment ads I saw. It was like picking up a paper version of seek.com.au.

So what’s the story? Why are there so many jobs, and so few skilled workers to fill them all of a sudden?

Could this be the very first ripple effect from the 25% University fee increase in 2005? Perhaps that is a factor,.. but personally I think it is more likely to be a result of the “self employment” boom that has gripped Australia over the last 5 or 10 years. Just about everyone I know either runs their own business, or wants to run their own business because they hate their job.

Why do they hate their jobs you ask? Long hours is high on the list of complaints, and there is no doubt that Australia’s working week is a lot longer than most other countries in similar economic climates. (Namely most of Europe). In fact, most of our conditions are a long way behind European countries. Here are a few examples of other countries and their annual leave requirements:

Australia: As of 27 March 2006, 20 work days (4 weeks). 2 weeks can be “sold” to employer. Additional Long service leave is also payable.

Austria 35 days, for elderly employees 42 days.

Brazil 30 consecutive days, of which 10 can be sold back to the employer

You can see the full table at wkipaedia here.

Another area where we are a long way behind is maternity leave. This is really embarrassing. Australia offers 0 weeks paid maternity leave, while just about every country in Europe offers at least 16 weeks, fully paid, and some give up to 1.5 years. Here’s the details.

You will notice that there are only three countires on the entire list that do not offer their citizens any paid maternity leave. The USA (surprise surprise…), Papua New Guinea, and Australia.