The Internet. You can’t live with it? You can no longer live without it! Millions of searches and electronic mail messages are undertaken on the Internet each day. E-mail is quickly taking the place of regular, or, 'snail mail', and increasingly fax and voice mail too.

The Internet is up 24 hours a day, allowing instant access to your brochure and property information even whilst you are sleeping. E-mail works just like regular mail, but is more immediate, and can be simultaneously sent to many people. It takes only seconds to reach its destination, whether this is just across town, or across the world.

Envelopes, stamps, and visits to the post office are not required when sending e-mail. However, as both the Internet and e-mail rely on the written word, many standard letter-writing rules still apply. Grammar and spelling are important considerations.

The 7 Golden Rules

1. Treat others how you would like to be treated yourself. You are dealing with people, not machines.
2. Don’t write anything in an e-mail that you would not say face to face. Words can come back to haunt you.
3. Think twice about what you have written, and whom you are sending it to.

Read the rest of the golden rules in the full article on Do's and dont's on the net

Across Australia it's tourism award time again as regions in every state and territory start their search for the best of the best. It's a great opportunity for recognition from peers, your local community and potential guests but you'd be amazed at the number of small accommodation providers who think that awards success is only for larger businesses. In this article I'd like to bust a few of the myths around awards and talk about how entering awards can be great for your business!
Myth number one – "My business is too small to win"
Myth number two – "I don't stand a chance"
Myth number three – "Awards only go to older, established businesses"

So don't be put off by the awards myths. There are real benefits for you and your business.
Entering awards is a great way of increasing your profile in the tourism community because it's usually the most progressive, innovative operators who tend to put in the time and effort to enter awards. 

Smart operators also know that regardless of whether they win or lose the very process of filling out an award submission can bring big business rewards. Many regular participants use the awards submission process as their annual business planning exercise. The hours spent identifying target markets, analysing revenue and detailing all the innovations introduced in the last twelve month can be a real eye opener. The submission process can also help identify lucrative new markets, give you bright ideas for new services or point out where the business is underperforming. Find out more about the TakeABreak Awards and have a look in our Trophy Cabinet to see the awards TakeABreak has won.

Learn how to plan your day
Have you ever wished you had more time in the day, in your week, or even in your life? Have you tried and tested many methods to make changes but they all come to zero? The problem is that most people spend their time being busy, rather being productive, meaning that they spend their day on ‘time wasters’!
Has your goal been to achieve more with less? Yet you haven’t found the time to write down your goals, let alone achieve them? Why is it that some people find it easy to set and achieve goals, whilst others find it a struggle or ‘all to hard’ to do at all?
The Reality Check

1. Do you feel pressured or overwhelmed by your workload?
2. Could you be delegating some of your work to staff?
3. Do you take work home to do after dinner or over the weekend?
4. Do you need additional resources to complete tasks?
5. Can some of your deadlines be rescheduled?
   Read the full 10 questions to evaluate your time management skills

Read the full article on time management and efficient workflow.

Tourism is an industry, just like any other industry, and it can bring enormous benefits to your local community. Often those who see tourism as bringing an unwanted seasonal influx of visitors, argue that tourism only benefits those involved directly in the tourism industry - namely accommodation providers (hotels, motels, resorts), services (restaurants, gift shops, retail stores, petrol stations) tour operators (attractions and transport). This article outlines a range of ways that tourism can bring benefit to the wider community and is something that you can put forward to improve community support of your industry in your own local area.