Link: http://acetalentnet.com.au/docs/business_mums.pdf

as featured in the "Inspired" magazine, Autumn/Winter 2008
by Fran Molloy

For former management consultant Denise Hall, the flexibility she needed as a mum has become the key to her success; her business is based on supplying talented consultants, who work as ‘free agents,’ to organisations who need their skills for a short-term project, often in project-based fields like organisational development and training.

She channelled her inner entrepreneur and with another mum as business partner, established aCE talentNET. With her extensive experience as an international management consultant, Denise could have had her pick of top executive positions; but she felt that, as a single mum, she needed a certain level of flexibility, and that is difficult within a large corporation.

Now, she works about 25 hours a week – during school hours – and is able to earn a good income, while keeping an active role in
parenting her daughter.

“You don’t have to bust a boiler to make it work,” she says, adding that she sees many parents caught up in inefficient work settings
that waste the time they could be spending with their children.

Efficiency and responsibility are key to making her business work – and her team is not bound by office hours. “We structure our
days around what needs to be done – the work to be done is addressed rather than the hours that need to be filled.”

Technology helps to make most of Denise’s work location-independent – and she has a lot of trust and respect for her team of co-workers.

for the full article... read on

Link: http://www.clomedia.com/talent.php?pt=a&aid=2417

by Brian Summerfield for clomedia.com

When clomedia.com asked management guru and The One Minute Manager author Ken Blanchard what he thought the future of learning held, he outlined — literally — the overarching trends he sees impacting the industry in the years ahead.

Here are his predictions:

I. Changing Demographics
A. Finding different work arrangements for baby boomers other than retirement
B. Developing Gen X and Gen Y more rapidly to become leaders and managers

II. Changing Technologies
A. Engaging digital natives (younger generations) in creating the kind of learning experiences they are drawn to already
B. Increasing isolation and alienation because more people are working from home

III. Changing Workplace
A. Increasing need to provide just-in-time solutions to problems rather than just-in-case training

read on...

Link: http://changethis.com/pdf/49.05.NineElements.pdf

by Robert Rudzki for changethis.com

"No company is created to fail. Yet the odds are stacked against corporations surviving more than a few decades. … A new, nine-element framework can help you diagnose your organization’s health; and address the factors that increase corporate life expectancy.”

read on...

Link: http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/2008/10/14/profitable-home-businesses-ent-fin-cx_mf_1014mostprofitablehomebiz.html?partner=smallbusiness_newsletter

And you guessed it, "consulting" is in the top ten...
Whilst this is US based data, I'd be fairly confident that similar views would also work in Australia... have a read and see for yourself

Who needs a nasty commute when you can make a decent buck but a few feet from your kitchen? Over half of all U.S. businesses are now based out of an owner's home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With the economy shedding jobs, the ranks of the self-employed may well keep swelling. Plenty more entrepreneurs may look to eliminate rent and fuel costs to pinch pennies.

With the help of Sageworks, a Raleigh, N.C.-based private-company data provider, Forbes.com has assembled a list of the 10 most profitable businesses--on a pretax basis--that could be run out of a home. The data were drawn from eight years worth of financial statements (nearly an entire business cycle) for tens of thousands of privately held U.S. companies with annual revenues under $1 million and bucketed by Internal Revenue Service classifications. Average pretax profits ranged from 8% to 14%.

Facilitators--from brokerages to consultancies--nabbed five of the 10 spots; creators, such as specialty design shops, earned three; and repair outfits rounded out the rest. To be sure, not all will fare equally (or well) in the economic downturn.

read on...
and if you prefer to see this information in picture, click here...

As for consultants... Two big challenges mentioned: marketing and pricing your services. That's where the services of aCE talentNET come in to their own...

Link: http://changethis.com/pdf/48.05.SuccessPhilosophy.pdf

Finding Clarity of Purpose and Achieving Arete Through Philosophical Examination - Joshua Goldman & Jason Shen for ChangeThis.com

This manifesto will facilitate your philosophical examination as you iron out what you believe and why you believe it. We do this by providing a philosophical toolkit, as well as a framework for considering the principal areas of philosophy.

read on...