The business plan

OBJECTIVE: The business plan is the key ingredient for a successful business and is often ignored. This session shows you how to create an individualized business plan, and provides the tools to make it easy.

• What is a Business Plan?

• Why prepare a business plan?
• What to avoid in your business plan
• Business Plan Format
• Vision statement
• The people
• Business profile
• Economic assessment
• Eight Steps to a Great Business Plan
• Review sample plans
• Focus and refine concept
• Gather data
• Outline the specifics of your business
• Include experience
• Review language and projections
• Put your plan into a compelling form
• Enhance with graphics
• Does Your Plan Include the Following Necessary Factors
• A sound business concept
• Understanding your market
• Healthy, growing and stable industry
• Capable management
• Able financial control
• Consistent business focus
• Mind set to anticipate change
• Plans for online business
• Formulate (and Reformulate) Your Business Plan
• Top Ten Do's and Don'ts

What Is A Business Plan?

The primary value of your business plan will be to create a written outline that evaluates all aspects of the economic viability of your business venture including a description and analysis of your business prospects. We believe that preparing and maintaining a business plan is important for any business regardless of its size or nature. But it will not ensure your success. If you maintain a correct assessment of the changing economics of your business, your plan will provide a useful roadmap as well as a financing tool. But if you have miscalculated the potential, then your business plan could become a roadmap leading to failure.

Since the My Own Business, Inc. course is broken down into fifteen of the most important topics to consider in starting or operating a business, your business plan can easily be organized into this same format. Included in this session, and in each of the following sessions, there is a one-page business plan template, which you can fill in and print. (Session 2 contains templates for both Sessions 1 and 2.) When you put these all together, you will have completed your personalized, overall plan.

Search engines, libraries and bookstores provide sources that sell ready-made plans for specific businesses. But it is our recommendation that you be sole author of your plan. Write out the plan yourself, in your own words.

Each of the Business Plan Sections can be downloaded from our Web site and provide you with a single, attractively presented document.

Keep in mind that creating a business plan is an essential step for any prudent entrepreneur to take, regardless of the size of the business. This step is too often skipped, but we have made it easy for you by providing this ready format to build your plan as you progress through this course.

Be aware now that most start-up entrepreneurs are reluctant to write down their business plan. It is, therefore, strongly recommended that you complete each segment of the plan as you progress through this course. We make it easy for you by providing sample plans for both product and service businesses and also an attractive blank form that you can download onto MS Word and customize yourself.

Do not expect that all of your plan's initial assumptions will be correct. Instead, look at your business plan as an ongoing assessment that you will frequently review and change to conform to actual operating experiences. For example, your cash flow projection should be updated frequently to ensure ongoing liquidity (not running out of cash).

Your business plan will become your roadmap to chart the course of your business. But at the outset you cannot predict all of changing conditions that will surface. So after you have opened for business, it is important that you periodically review and update you plan.

Why Prepare A Business Plan? Your business plan is going to be useful in a number of ways.         First and foremost, it will define and focus your objective using appropriate information and analysis.        You can use it as a selling tool in dealing with important relationships including your lenders, investors and             banks.         Your business plan can uncover omissions and/or weaknesses in your planning process.         You can use the plan to solicit opinions and advice from people, including those in your intended field of                  business, who will freely give you invaluable advice. Too often, entrepreneurs forge ahead ("My Way!")                    without the benefit of input from experts who could save them from potentially disastrous mistakes. "My Way"          is a great song, but in practice can result in unnecessary hardships. To help get started in lining up                            appointments, you can fill in and use the following template. We have also provided a larger blank template            for you to use at the end of this session. People to see include your investors, family members, banker,                    lawyer, attorney, business mentors, trusted business friends, potential customers, competitors (distant ones),          potential landlords, and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

What to Avoid in Your Business Plan

Place some reasonable limits on long-term, future projections. (Long-term means over one year.) Better to stick with short-term objectives and modify the plan as your business progresses. Too often, long-range planning becomes meaningless because the reality of your business can be different from your initial concept.

Avoid optimism. In fact, to offset optimism, be extremely conservative in predicting capital requirements, timelines, sales and profits. Few business plans correctly anticipate how much money and time will be required.

Avoid language or explanations that are difficult to understand. Do not ignore spelling out what your strategies will be in the event of business adversities.

Don't depend entirely on the uniqueness of your business or even a patented invention. Success comes to those who start businesses with great economics and not necessarily great inventions.

Business Plan Format

The Business Plan format is a systematic assessment of all the factors critical to your business purpose and goals. Here are some suggested topics you can tailor into your plan:

A Vision Statement: This will be a concise outline of your business purpose and goals.

The People: By far, the most important ingredient for your success will be yourself. Focus on how your prior experiences will be applicable to your new business. Prepare a résumé of yourself and one for each person who will be involved with you in starting the business. Be factual and avoid hype. This part of your Business Plan will be read very carefully by those with whom you will be having relationships, including lenders, investors and vendors. Templates for preparing résumés are available in your library, Kinko's, bookstores and the Internet under " résumés."

Session 2 of our Business Expansion course, Getting your team in place, provides detailed recommendations on delegating authority, employee motivation, training and other key management tools.

However, you cannot be someone who you are not. If you lack the ability to perform a key function, include this in your business plan. For example, if you lack the ability to train staff, include an explanation how you will compensate for this deficiency. You could add a partner to your plan (discussed in Section 4) or plan to hire key people who will provide skills you don't have. Include biographies of all your intended management.

Your Business Profile: Define and describe your intended business and exactly how you plan to go about it. Try to stay focused on the specialized market you intend to serve. As a rule, specialists do better than non-specialists.

Economic Assessment: Provide a complete assessment of the economic environment in which your business will become a part. Explain how your business will be appropriate for the regulatory agencies and demographics with which you will be dealing. If appropriate, provide demographic studies and traffic flow data normally available from local planning departments.

Cash Flow Assessment: Include a one-year cash flow that will incorporate your capital requirements (covered in Session 11). Include your assessment of what could go wrong and how you would plan to handle problems.

Marketing Plan and Expansion Plans: Your expansion plan should describe how you plan to test markets and products before rolling out. Refer to helpful government Web sites such as the Small Business Administration. See "Resources" on the home page of this Web site.

Damage Control Plan: All businesses will experience episodes of distress. Survival will depend on how well you are prepared to cope with them. Your damage control plan should anticipate potential threats to your business and how you plan to overcome them. Here are three examples:

• Plan for 35% loss of sales: During economic downturns, your survival will depend on your ability to maintain liquidity for a period of at least 12 months. Can your Damage Control cash flow plan show how to avoid running out of cash? Session 11 will explain cash flow control.


• Plan for a catastrophic incident: Businesses can be overturned by unforeseen disasters which can be avoided by maintaining appropriate insurance. You will need the assistance of a qualified business insurance agent.


• Plan for product obsolescence: If your business is in a rapidly changing technology area such as Netflix's home delivered DVDs, you will need to plan now to keep a step ahead of technical changes or advancements.

In addition, a very popular software is Palo Alto's Business Plan Pro (U.P. $99), a user-friendly business plan software with very wide range of sample plans already included. 10% off for MOBI users on Business Plan Pro here.

For a more advanced template, especially useful if you are looking for partners or investors, we recommend the Ultimate Business Plan Template (U.P. $97) from Growthink. We have negotiated a special 50% discount for MOBI users.

Eight Steps To A Great Business Plan

Start-up entrepreneurs often have difficulty writing out business plans. This discipline is going to help you in many ways so don't skip this planning tool! To make it easier, here are eight steps that will produce a worthwhile plan:

1. Review the two sample plans furnished in this session.
2. Focus and refine your concept based on the data you have compiled.
3. Gather all the data you can on the feasibility and the specifics of your business concept.
4. Outline the specifics of your business. Using a "what, where, why, how" approach might be useful.
5. Include your experience, education and personal information.
6. Fill in the templates at the end of each session with clear language and realistic projections.
7. Print off the business plan templates from each session into an MS Word document.
8. You may wish to enhance your presentation with bar charts, pie charts and graphics.

Does Your Plan Include the Following Necessary Factors

A Sound Business Concept: The single most common mistake made by entrepreneurs is not selecting the right business initially. The best way to learn about your prospective business is to work for someone else in that business before beginning your own. There can be a huge gap between your concept of a fine business and reality.

Understanding of Your Market: A good way to test your understanding is to test market your product or service before your start. You think you have a great kite that will capture the imagination of kite fliers throughout the world? Then craft some of them and try selling them first.

A Healthy, Growing and Stable Industry: Remember that some of the great inventions of all time, like airplanes and cars, did not result in economic benefit for many of those who tried to exploit these great advances. For example, the cumulative earnings of all airlines since Wilber Wright flew that first plane are less than zero. Success comes to those who find businesses with great economics and not necessarily great inventions or advances to mankind.

Capable Management: Look for people you like and admire, who have good ethical values, have complementary skills and are smarter than you. Plan to hire people who have the skills that you lack. Define your unique ability and seek out others who turn your weaknesses into strengths.

Able Financial Control: You will learn later the importance of becoming qualified in accounting, computer software and cash flow management. Most entrepreneurs do not come from accounting backgrounds and must go back to school to learn these skills. Would you bet your savings in a game where you don't know how to keep score? People mistakenly do it in business all the time.

Financial Management Skills: Build a qualified team to evaluate the best options for utilizing retained earnings. This information is contained in Session 6 of our Business Expansion course.

A Consistent Business Focus: As a rule, people who specialize in a product or service will do better than people who do not specialize. Focus your efforts on something that you can do so well that you will not be competing solely on the basis of price.

A Mind set to Anticipate Change: Don't commit yourself too early. Your first plan should be written in pencil, not in ink. Keep a fluid mind set and be aggressive in making revisions as warranted by changing circumstances and expanding knowledge.

Include Plans for Conducting Business Online: According to the January 2005 Trend/Forecasting Report of The Dilenschneider Group, in the U.S. alone, the 2004 holiday season online shopping jumped by more than 25% from 2003. (In 2005 it jumped another 25%!) Consumer and business-to-business online sales are set to expand exponentially in the coming decade, and small retailers can reach an ever-increasing pool of customers. Be sure to see the how-to details in the following Session 12, E-commerce.

Formulate (and Reformulate) Your Business Plan

Donald N. Sull, associate professor of management practice at the London Business School, in an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, offers some practical suggestions on managing inevitable risks while pursuing opportunities. Here is a capsulation of his suggestions on how to formulate (and reformulate) your business plan:

• Be flexible early in the process and keep it fluid. Don't commit too early. Expect your first plan to be provisional and subject to revision.
• Ask yourself if your experience or expertise gives you the right to an opinion on your specific opportunity.
• Identify your potential deal killers: variables that are likely to prove fatal to the venture.
• Clearly identify what you see as the key drivers of success. What are you betting on here?
• Raise money only in sufficient amount to finance the experiment or evaluation you next envision, with a cushion for contingencies.
• Delay hiring key managers until initial rounds of experimentation have produced a stable business model.
• At some point, take the plunge and test your product or service on a small scare in the real world through customer research, test marketing, or prototypes.
• Test and refine your business model before expanding your operations.

Top Ten Do's and Don'ts

THE TOP TEN DO'S Prepare a complete business plan for any business you are considering. Use the business plan templates furnished in each session. Complete sections of your business plan as you proceed through the course. Research (use search engines) to find business plans that are available on the Internet. Package your business plan in an attractive kit as a selling tool. Submit your business plan to experts in your intended business for their advice. Spell out your strategies on how you intend to handle adversities. Spell out the strengths and weaknesses of your management team. Include a monthly one-year cash flow projection. Freely and frequently modify your business plans to account for changing conditions.

THE TOP TEN DON'TS Be optimistic (on the high side) in estimating future sales. Be optimistic (on the low side) in estimating future costs. Disregard or discount weaknesses in your plan. Spell them out. Stress long-term projections. Better to focus on projections for your first year. Depend entirely on the uniqueness of your business or the success of an invention. Project yourself as someone you're not. Be brutally realistic. Be everything to everybody. Highly focused specialists usually do best. Proceed without adequate financial and accounting know-how. Base your business plan on a wonderful concept. Test it first. Pursue a business not substantiated by your business plan analysis.

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9 Key Things Successful Business Partners Always Do

Are you going into business with the right person?

What's more important to a new venture than a great business idea? Finding the right business partners.

I've heard this again and again from successful entrepreneurs, and I've lost count of how many investors tell me that they put their money behind people--as much or more than ideas. Still, so many people go about this the other way around. It's especially sad to hear the stories of founding teams that had truly amazing ideas but who fell apart on a personal level.

Take Zipcar, the rent-by-the-hour car service that was founded in 2000, went public in 2011, and was later acquired by Avis Budget Group for nearly $500 million. You won't find the names of its original founders, Robin Chase and Antje Danielson, anywhere on Zipcar's website now; its About Us page briefly tells the company's story without naming them. The reason? Chase and Danielson left the company years ago.According to a new article in The Verge, the two women haven't even spoken in a decade.

I interviewed Chase for a book I co-authored with Jon Burgstone, so I knew some of Zipcar's story, but The Verge account adds some context. The story drives home the keys to how most successful business partners work together and what wrecks the chemistry between others.

Here are nine proven best practices for business partners:

1. Have a successful history together before founding a company.

This is by far the most important item on the list--the one thing from which everything else will flow (or won't). Great business partners almost always have had a prior history of working with each other. The more closely they've worked together, the better.

If you think you've found a promising person to pair up with but you don't have that kind of history, then get it. Work on small projects together, or at the very least, spend a lot of time together before you agree to do anything. You don't want the first time you have to work through a disagreement to be at a crucial point in the early life of your company.

Chase and Danielson knew each other because their kids played together on a playground. They were friends, or at least friendly, but they had never worked together before. They went from the excitement of a conversation about a cool business idea to holding their first Zipcar meeting within a matter of days, according to The Verge. That fact seems to have led to a lot of other issues.

2. Agree on vision.

Nothing derails a new venture like having business partners working at cross-purposes. So, it's crucial that co-founders agree on the vision--both their short-term understanding of the company's value proposition, and their long-term understanding of how they think the venture fits into the world.

Chase and Danielson seem to have gotten this part right. Their vision was aligned, at least in their earliest days. I remember one thing that struck me when I interviewed Chase a few years ago is that she and Danielson were both outsiders to the automobile industry--to the point that Chase didn't even like to drive.

"Conscious consumers, both [Danielson] and Chase agreed on wanting to drastically reduce reliance on single-owner cars," The Verge reported, "and thought that a company founded on that principle could be a lucrative one given America's growing interest in environmentalism."

3. Have the hard talks about money.

It's tempting when you start a new venture to skip some of the tough conversations. You're excited about the idea, and frankly you don't know whether you're starting the equivalent of Facebook or Friendster, so it can even seem counterproductive to get hung up on money. Some founders dodge the whole thing by just saying they'll split their equity, 50-50.

That can be a recipe for disaster, however, and it's apparently what Chase and Danielson did at first. Both did eventually make millions from the sale of the company, but not the kind of insane payout you might expect. From The Verge:

"Robin and I didn't get along very well," Danielson says. "She wanted extra shares, and I said, 'Look, you can get extra shares through employee stock options, but we started this together [so] we are going to have it 50/50.'" According to Danielson, that push for more assets, and more power, was their primary source of conflict.

(The Verge says Danielson's 50 percent stake was whittled down to 1.3 percent after multiple funding rounds, and that she received about $6.3 million after the $491 million Zipcar sale. It also opines that "Chase's stake had dwindled from over 30 percent to less than three.")

4. Decide who the real leader is.

In almost every successful business partnership I've studied, there's usually one visionary leader and one person who is more of a whiz at execution. I call them the Big Idea Person and the Get Stuff Done Person. Both roles are absolutely crucial; a big idea without execution is worth very little. However, there has to be some recognition that when the partners disagree on something, that one founder has the tiebreaker--the right to be, at least, "first among equals."

It's hard to reconstruct what happened with Zipcar, but it seems likely that Chase and Danielson never really resolved this before launching, according to The Verge:

The rift continued to deepen, and Danielson says she was rarely consulted on decisions, even though the company's core was composed of only a handful of people at the time. "It looked like Antje was not being brought into the discussions," says Paul Covell, a product manager at Google who was Zipcar's first engineer. "There were more conversations happening without her than with her."

5. Ensure you understand each others' commitment.

It's a great advantage not to have other commitments tugging at you when you launch a new venture. However, that's rarely the case, and frankly it can be reckless to quit your day job before figuring out whether a venture will really work.

In the case of Zipcar, both Chase and Danielson were mothers with small children. However, only Chase was able to devote 100 percent to Zipcar at the start: "Because Danielson's family relied solely on her income, she needed to keep her job," according to The Verge. Even though Danielson says she worked about 30 hours per week on Zipcar, it seems that this imbalance was an issue from the start.

6. Have compatible, vital skills.

This is related to the decision about who the real leader is. A venture founded by two programmers isn't doomed, of course, any more than a company launched by two industry experts. However, if both business partners have the same skills, you're probably going to need to seek outside help. That can cost a lot, in terms of time, money, synergy, and lots of other assets that can be in short supply in a startup.

This also seems to have been one of the issues with Chase and Danielson. Chase had graduated from the business school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while Danielson was more of a pure academic who had originally come to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to work on a postdoctoral degree at Harvard. Although some people praised Danielson's work, critics quoted in the article say she brought an interesting vision but not enough unique skills.

"It wasn't like she was doing any irreplaceable task," one early employee told The Verge.

7. Have compatible styles.

You probably don't want two partners with the exact same leadership styles and personalities, but you do want people who are compatible with each other. For example, between you and a potential business partner, who is the dreamer who likes to start late and work until 3 a.m.? Who is the motivated morning person who can handle emergency customer calls before sunrise? Who is the person who is fastidious about finances, and who is the one who has the natural charisma and sales ability?

This divergence seems to have been another of the issues with Chase and Danielson. According to The Verge, "Danielson's strengths didn't work in her favor. She was an astute academic and a passionate environmentalist, but one without a shred of business experience."

8. Decide how to fill other positions.

Second only to choosing business partners, the decisions on whom to hire for early positions are among the most important to the life of a young company.

It's striking to notice how many of the early employees at Zipcar were related to Chase. Her husband was the first chief technology officer, and her brother served as director of business development. In fact, Danielson points to this issue as the ultimate turning point in the early history of the company. According to her, in 2001 she voted to give Chase the right to hire and fire without consulting Zipcar's board of directors.

"Two hours later, she was firing me," Danielson told The Verge. (Chase takes issue with this account, calling Danielson's description of the situation "fascinating.")

9. Have a plan for happily ever after.

Few companies last forever; fewer founders can successfully navigate the transition from leading a small, dynamic company to one that grows into a big player, employing hundreds. In fact, the skills that lead to success in the first kind of venture often are the exact opposite of the kind that lead to success later. Meanwhile, if you're starting a venture with someone you have a good relationship with, is that relationship strong enough to survive whatever the endgame of your venture turns out to be?

For what it's worth, both Chase and Danielson have moved on and seem to be happy and content with their endeavors. These days, Danielson is an administrator at Tufts University, where her bio mentions Zipcar almost as an afterthought. Chase enjoyed more acclaim. Time named her one of the 100 most interesting people in the world in 2009. She went on to found a successful French car-sharing company called Buzzcar, and is founder and CEO of Veniam Works, a Portuguese company specializing in vehicle communications.

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Do you have the right knowledge about your business relations in order to create profitability for your company?

The precise factor creating a profitable business relationship is often buried in the detail. Today’s technology provides substantial business possibilities to those with the time and opportunity to delve deep into the mine of business data available. It is not only about storing information, and automating the different stages of the business process, but, first and foremost, it is about streamlining the management of your company’s credit customers.

At Soliditet, we have built up an entire business sector devoted to providing our customers with help in exactly this area. We call it Soliditet Solutions. Here we have pooled a team of highly skilled, experienced business advisors and analysts – a team we are really proud of.

Regardless of whether you belong to company management, or hold another management position, our advisors have the expertise to unearth knowledge and information about your customers you didn’t know you had. The Soliditet Solutions team are equipped with the latest tools in order to analyse patterns and behaviour around customer bases and transactions. We do everything we can to give you the tools to create profitability.

Your business objectives – our knowledge and delivery

ur solutions are adapted according to your requirements and resources, as well as changes in external factors. In addition, we can offer specialised models and analyses within prospecting, credit granting, management of existing customers, and customers referred to collection. Let us take the role of your personal business advisor, to help you reach your business goals. Give us a call today.

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Why is key person insurance important for your business?

Does your business include someone whose contribution is vital to the survival of your company? If yes, then key person insurance should be a part of your business continuity and succession plan—especially if you're a small business owner.

If a key member of your team passes away or becomes disabled, your bottom line may suffer in the short-term, and over the long-term, you may have to find a replacement or even shut down your business. However, with the benefits payable from a key person life or disability insurance plan, you could:

• Recruit, hire and train a replacement
• Pay off debt and deal with creditors
• Alleviate lenders' concerns about your company's financial health
• Reassure customers, employees and investors that the business will continue operating

What's more, if you and your family rely on your business as a primary source of income, key person insurance can help ensure that the business will continue to provide a secure financial future.

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Plan to cut airline workers’ pensions passes regulatory hurdle

A proposal to cut retired workers’ pensions as part of an overall plan to plug a €750 million hole in Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme (IASS) has passed a key regulatory hurdle.

The trustees of the IASS, the insolvent retirement fund operated jointly by Aer Lingus and Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), have told the airline that the Pensions Authority has approved proposals to tackle its €750 million deficit and end a four-year-long dispute.

The proposals include a section 50 application, which will result in a reduction of the pensions paid to retired workers drawing income from the scheme.

This is the first use of new legislation that allows such clawbacks from pensioners where a fund is insolvent.

All members of the scheme, including current and former employees of both companies, are taking a cut in benefit. Along with this Aer Lingus has pledged to put up €191 million to fund a new defined contribution plan while DAA is offering €72 million.

The airline said it will begin implementing the plan on January 1st.

However, the Retired Aviation Staff Association has pledged to take legal action to reverse the move.

In a statement on Tuesday, it said that members will lose up to six weeks’ income a year as a result of the move.

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Government files supporting brief for Microsoft in US case

In a rare legal move, the Irish Government contributed a supporting legal brief in a significant US case, in which Microsoft is appealing a court order to hand over emails held on an Irish server.

Amicus curiae or “friend of the court” standing allows a party to offer perspective and a position on a case in which it is not directly involved. It is extremely rare for a national government to become an amicus to an international case.

In the amicus briefing, the Government argues: “Ireland has a genuine and legitimate interest in potential infringements by other states of its sovereign rights with respect to its jurisdiction over its territory.”

The State also argues that Ireland is already a party, along with the US, to an existing mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) – agreed between states to allow for assistance in legal cases or law enforcement investigations – that would enable the court to obtain the emails. “Ireland would be pleased to consider, as expeditiously as possible, a request under the treaty, should one be made,” the briefing states.It adds: “Ireland respectfully asserts that foreign courts are obliged to respect Irish sovereignty (and that of all other sovereign states) whether or not Ireland is a party or intervener in the proceedings before them.”

Finally, the briefing suggests that the court may be interested in a recent Irish case, Walsh v National Irish Bank [2013], in which the Irish Supreme Court ruled that the Irish State could seek data held in the branch of an Irish company operating in another state – in this case, the Isle of Man – but only in special circumstances.

In particular, this would be allowable in a case where the branch had no separate corporate identity in the foreign location, and on consideration of whether an order “would violate the law of the foreign sovereign”.

In a statement, Dara Murphy TD, Minister for Data Protection at the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Justice and Equality, confirmed the filing. “The right of individuals to the protection of their personal data is an essential foundation for modern society and the growing digital economy. We must ensure that individuals and organisations can have confidence in the rules and processes that have been put in place to safeguard privacy,” he said.

He noted that there are “important principles of public policy at play” and that the Government agreed to submit an amicus curiae brief to the US court “that focuses on the principles involved in this case and that points to the existing process for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters” which remain the “preferred avenue for such cooperation, including for the transfer of data”.

The original case stems from a New York court warrant for a drug trafficking investigation in 2013 in which Microsoft was told to turn over the contents of an msn.com email account. The emails are held in servers at Microsoft’s Irish data centre.

Microsoft refused to surrender the emails, stating its belief that the court needed to use existing international legal agreements between Ireland and the US and their law enforcement agencies to obtain the emails.

In a case now before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, Microsoft claims the request made directly to the company goes beyond the legal power of the US government and would constitute an international data seizure.

Because of its stance, Microsoft currently stands in breach of the court in a case which has drawn international attention due to its potential implications for data privacy, and for businesses and the future of cloud computing and internet commerce.

Microsoft Ireland managing director Cathriona Hallahan said: We welcome the Government’s decision to engage formally in the process by filing an amicus brief.”

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Christmas retail sales hit record numbers, peak body says; average $2,500 each spent by those over 14

Australians spent in record numbers in the lead-up to Christmas, the peak retail body says, with those aged over 14 spending an average of $2,500 each in the six weeks leading to the event.

The Australian Retailers Association said about $45 billion was spent in the period leading up to Christmas, a slight increase on last year.

The association's chief executive, Russell Zimmerman, said Christmas was an important time for the retail sector.

"A lot of retailers depend upon the Christmas and new year period sales," he said.

"They often get around 60 per cent of their sales at this time of the year so it's an extremely important time for them.

"So here we would be hoping we're on target to achieve the $45 billion and then we get good post-Christmas sales."

He said that represented good news for the economy.

"And again remembering that retail employs around 10 per cent of the working population," he said.

Technology products have been some of the big sellers this year, Mr Zimmerman said.

"One of the things that has [also] sold particularly well in the last couple of days has been perfumes, aftershaves, personal accessories - they have done very, very well," he said.

"The one that is still a big worry to us is the clothing and footwear sector. That seems to have been very soft."

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