A survey by Telstra of 500 Aussie businesses has revealed some alarming facts around the tortoise like take up of new technologies by small business.

- 10% of Businesses with less than 20 employees do not use a desktop PC (approx 90,000 businesses)
- 25% do not use a standard mobile phone
- 45% do not use a smart phone (a phone which is typically web and email enabled)
- 50% of Aussie businesses without a website

Telstra has described half of Aussie business to be cautious or not interested in new technology.  Whilst this may be a sufficient position short term, over the next few years with the growth of the NBN and invaribaly more competition, all Aussie businesses will need to become alot more savvy about new technology, and what it means to them.

A New Year, and a new set of rules and regulations that SME's need to be across to ensure they maintain compliance within their business.

Aside from the introduction of the new Paid Parental leave scheme, the most significant change is the change to consumer law.  We now have a brand new single, national consumer law: the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

The key has been to create One Law, which is Easy to Understand, can be Better Enforced, setting out Clear Obligations for businesses.

The main changes being implemented in the ACL are:

• a single set of definitions and interpretative provisions
• a new national law on unfair contract terms
• a single set of provisions about unfair practices and fair trading
• new national consumer guarantees provisions
• a new national regime for unsolicited consumer agreements
• simple, national rules for lay-by agreements
• a new national product safety legislative regime
• new national provisions on information standards, which apply to services as well as goods

Following on from news in the UK that SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) websites are not well optimised for search engines like Google, research conducted last year by Research International suggests that 75 per cent (3 out of 4) of small businesses, of which there are around 1.6 million in Australia, do not have a 'stand-alone' website.

The research reveals that small businesses are just not embracing the web, and the access it could provide them to a far larger marketplace for their business.

40 per cent of the businesses surveyed by Research International are not using email or the internet at all for business, whilst only 26 per cent have ventured into the world of ecommerce.

Tim Wolfenden, Director at MakeItCheaper.com.au comments: "Online and ecommerce can seem a world away for many small business owners, who just don't have the time to figure out what it means or the benefits it could provide to their business.

Over the past 6-months we have seen a significant increase in businesses coming to us via our own website, looking for information and wanting simple advice on how they can reduce costs in their business.

This is clearly a good first step, hopefully in time they will grow the confidence to improve their own online presence, and maybe even start to acquire customers online."