If you've been counting down the days to the Rugby World Cup for a year or more, you'll be fired up and waiting for the first kick-off. But if you, like me, are hardly a follower of rugby, you might have thought it would all be a bit ho-hum.

We are thrilled to hear that Bizbuzz is one of the five finalists for the best small business web site in this year's Netguide Awards. Thank you so much to all who voted for us!

Labour has signalled that if it were to introduce a capital gains tax, one issue that it would consider, would be capital gains on the portion of a dwelling used by a home-based business.

So often statistics are trotted out about the number of businesses which fail in their first however-many years - and I cringe, because many of these businesses don't so much fail, as reinvent themselves.

At present, it's impossible to look at any media and not see something about the Christchurch earthquake (but what I want to say can apply to any disaster).

I love watching small business owners talking to each other - especially new ones.

One of the issues for self-employed people - and it always seems to crop up most around the long summer break - is the way income can fluctuate quite markedly.

It always surprises me that many businesses - big and small - don't seem to think through their email policy before implementing it.

There will be few New Zealanders who are not relieved and delighted to know the government is about to seal a deal which will keep the filming of The Hobbit in this country.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has been offering government-funded business assistance programmes to small businesses for many years - but