If you’ve attended any of my events recently, or are subscribed to the Shirlaws ‘Love Business News’, you’ll know that ‘Innovation’ is a currently key focus for Shirlaws globally. After the global recession sparked our ‘Thrive, not Survive’ campaign, we have now evolved into ‘Thrive to Innovation’. Now is the time to use the full...

Last Friday I was honoured to speak at the Overseas Korean Traders Association (OKTA) event in Brisbane, Australia. As I wrote about after my invitation to speak, I was impressed by OKTA’s mission and in particular their intention to educate 100,000 young Korean entrepreneurs – to help change the face of business around the world,...

As an international business coach and speaker who specialises in working with young entrepreneurs (we have things in common!), I would love for every week to include an opportunity to speak to a group of energetic business people who have global awareness. This coming week I have been invited to just such an opportunity, and I’m excited! I...

Paul Graham continues to be one of my favourite business writers – I estimate that I’ve been reading his essays for a decade now. In many ways, even without having met him, pg (and Hacker News, which he built and originally named Startup News) is a key influence in my enthusiasm for tech startups, capital...

I’ve selected a handful of heuristics in my life that I credit with making me happy(ier). Here’s one of the big ones: Never Run for Public Transport. I developed this decision-making framework in my final year of university. (That was a happy year for a lot of reasons, but I don’t want to digress). Brisbane...

Source: Sydney Morning Herald. Most business advisors and business coaches recommend drawing up a business plan, but many SME owners opt to go without. “A business plan would have slowed us down,” Eve John says. “It just seemed a little bit too rigid.” Jacob Aldridge is an international Shirlaws business coach, and has one simple...