Last month, serviced office provider Servcorp asked 7,500 international businesspeople from more than 24 nations to identity which countries they believe are surviving the crisis best.

Both international and Australian businesspeople voted Australia first, followed by China and Singapore.

The top concerns of Australian businesspeople during the economic downturn were reported as being low morale in the media, followed by the Australian Government’s response to the crisis.

The full results can be obtained from ServCorp.

herVoice has just been advised by our friends in Canberra that the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, Chris Bowen,  released a public consultation paper last week entitled The Australian Consumer Law – Consultation on draft provisions on unfair contract terms

Interested parties are invited to comment on the draft provisions.

Closing date is this Friday, 22 May.

As  a political advocate from way back, herVoice does wonder why the timeframe is so tight…could there be any precious nuggets in there that the Govt or financial services industry are hoping to gloss over?

Moving on, if you’re interested in the subject and would like to comment,  please click on the link above, which will take you to the relevant page on Treasury’s website.

Despite his spin doctors’ trumpeting about parental leave, increased pensions and the other warm and fuzzy feel-goods in yesterday’s Federal Budget, Treasurer Swan finally came clean in his post-Budget address to the National Press Club yesterday.

Amongst other dire predictions, he told his audience that “more small businesses will have gone under” before things improve.   He then spoke about the government’s top priorities.  Lending a helping hand to the small business sector didn’t make the list.

In contrast to the opinions of many corporate analysts who are as far removed from the coalface as are Rudd and Swan, herVoice believes this Budget offers little more than a slap in the face to small business owners.

Can anyone explain the use of a 50% rebate on capital investments to a small business owner who is in danger of losing their home because of the downturn? 

How will the rebate help Australians keep their jobs when most of the big ticket items that the rebate applies to are manufactured overseas? 

How will expanding the Export Market Development Grant program assist SMEs struggling financially to maintain production, let alone investigate new export markets?

To make matter worse, both schemes can only be utilised by SMEs that have spare cash to invest on new capital items or offshore marketing.  It can then take a year or more for those same SMEs to receive their rebate.

On a more positive note, there are a few strategies SMEs can implement to stay afloat despite our government’s disdain for the grassroots business environment. 

Firstly, if you don’t have one already, develop a business plan. Then implement it. 

Continue your marketing.  Build strong networks.  Keep your cash flowing. 

Look for new niches in your market, to stay ahead of your competition. 

And above all, stay positive - despite the seriousness of the current situation, a recovery is forecast to commence in 2010 -11.  

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

It’s just a shame that the small business sector will reach it despite, rather than because of our Federal Government’s short-sighted and populist fiscal policy.

You’ve no doubt heard the highlights of the 2009 Budget brought down last Tuesday. But, what does it mean for your small business? Ask your questions here and we’ll help point you in the right direction to find answers. In the meantime here are a couple of resources: Dyamic Business and Smart Company have both covered the main issues that impact small business.

I do have a question for you though:

Is the Rudd Government doing enough to aid small business?

Take part in this national poll and tell us. We’ll share the results next week.

Tonight opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull will reply to the budget from the Liberals point of view. We’ve managed to get a copy of the response to the budget from Shadow Minister for Small Business, Steven Ciobo.

Click here to to read Shadow Minister Steven Biobo’s response to the budget.

We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Australia remains one of the easiest nations for entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, winning ninth place on an annual index of 122 countries, according to Los Angeles-based independent economic think tank the Milken Institute. 

But it’s not all good news. 

The picture drawn in the MiIken Institute’s report is in fact a damning and very concerning one.  In the one area that is most controlled by Government, our macroeconomic sector, we came a miserable 46th, beaten by, amongst others, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, the UK, Estonia, Chile, Panama and Macedonia.

So what we have, in effect, is an SME sector that is propped up almost entirely by a reliance on private sector institutional goodwill, rather than by good public fiscal policy - a risky situation for SMEs to say the least.

It’s telling that Milken’s found Canada, with its stable equity market and a sound economic policy framework, the number one nation. 

Read the full story here:  Australia 9th best place for entrepreneurs

herVoice just found a great free resource on the ACCC’s website - “The Little Black Book of Scams - your guide to scams, swindles, rorts and rip-offs“.   You can download a copy, or the ACCC will mail you a printed copy.  Typical scams targeted at small business are on page  34.