A colleague of mine, Claire Heaney, who runs the Business Owner section of the Herald Sun, has asked me to let readers know about a survey she is running for women in small business. She is inviting people to fill out the survey and go into the draw to win a range of prizezs (including a $5000 Herald Sun advertising package). Here are the details from Claire:

SMALL Business is big business in Victoria.
There are something like 1.2million small businesses operating in Australia.
And many of these micro businesses are run by women.
Women like you and me.
Many of them have pursued a career and then when they have started a family they have realised, often painfully, that a corporate career in incompatible with their new goals to be a wife and mother to their growing brood.
Often they have been able to tap into the skills and networks and build a new business. It might be exploiting their well honed skills or perhaps going out on a limb.
Perhaps, in their new role as a mother, they have seen a gap in the market and developed a service or product to make life a bit easier.
It is this segment of the small business population that needs to have a voice.
They have the opportunity with the Herald Sun-RACV Business Insurance survey currently being run at www.heraldsun.com.au/businesssurvey
The Small Business Issues Survey builds on the Business Owner pages that appear in the Herald Sun each Thursday.
The survey, open until June 12, will take about 10 minutes.
Those successfully completing the survey will go into the draw to receive a great prize hamper.
The package includes a $5000 Herald Sun advertising package, a conference at beautiful Inverloch to the value of $4000 and a Tom Tom GPS navigation system to make sure you are on the right track.