Archive for August, 2013

Erica Fanning Interior Styling fans the flames of fortune

Friday, August 30th, 2013

Erica Fanning established the self-titled Erica Fanning Interior Styling in Sydney in 2012 with the intention of being able to provide interior decorating services to anyone in Australia and beyond via e-decorating. E-decorating sees people send Fanning their room dimensions via email and getting a complete room design package back, complete with places where clients can purchase everything needed to complete the room’s proposed look.

For more on this story, click here.

Australian businesses continue to outsource online services

Thursday, August 29th, 2013

Australian businesses, much like the rest of the world, have found that outsourcing many activities that can be done online is turning out to be quite lucrative for business.

Global freelancing company oDesk says Australian enterprises are increasingly outsourcing tasks online as the company passes $US1 billion worth of projects.

Matt Cooper, vice president of enterprise and international at oDesk, told StartupSmart blog that passing the project work milestone is a sign that outsourcing work online has entered the mainstream.

“It’s a big thing for us to break that one billion barrier milestone, but the bigger story is that online work is officially out of beta,” Cooper says. “It’s very early still, but it’s a nice recognition that this is really starting to break into the mainstream.”

The figures released by oDesk show Australians have been outsourcing both technical and non-technical tasks over the last two years.

“This is driven by the huge demand for technical talent. I’m in San Francisco but everywhere you go you see articles about the Australian tech talent shortage,” Cooper says.

Outsourcing growth by the numbers:

  • Game development – outsourcing has grown by 437%
  • Engineering and technical design – outsourcing has grown by 276%
  • Mobile app development – outsourcing has grown by 258%
  • Human resources – outsourcing has grown by 227%
  • Payroll and recruiting – outsourcing has grown by 227%
  • legal – outsourcing has grown by 267%.

“The growth in Australians outsourcing legal was an interesting one for us,” Cooper says. “As more and more companies look to grow internationally, they need legal support and talent in a range of countries.”

Cooper says the growth across non-technical tasks in Australia is part of a worldwide trend.

“It’s indicative of a broader trend that online work is no longer tech. When you look at our business in 2008 and 2009, it was almost entirely technical work, but we’ve seen rapid expansion into legal, finance, writing and translations,” Cooper says.

To read more on this story, click here.

Bowerhouse becomes online powerhouse in homewares

Wednesday, August 28th, 2013

Perth, Western Australia’s Natalie Long spent years in the fashion industry before setting off in a new direction and creating her own homewares brand and online store Bowerhouse.

She designs her own homewares for Bowerhouse, which has been in operation since 2012.

To read more on this story, click here.

 

 

 

Tickle the Imagination magazine’s founder tickled pink at success

Tuesday, August 27th, 2013

Tanya Collier, founder of Tickle the Imagination Magazine, had always had a love for design and creating things. So after many twists and turns, she finally decided to put her efforts into Tickle the Imagination.

After moving around for a few years, Collier and her family settled in Perth, Western Australia and she got down to the business of running her own online publication, which features designers and makers.

To read more on this story, click here.

Australian Business Review gives step by step tutuorial for using LinkedIn to promote your small business

Monday, August 26th, 2013

The Australian Business Review has published a comprehensive strategy to using LinkedIn to market your small business using the social networking platform.

Currently available in 44 countries and 17 languages LinkedIn remains a relevant platform the world over, the publications says.

To read more on this story and see the Australian Business Review’s tutorial for using LinkedIn to market your business, click here.

The Baby Emporium has it all for your wee one

Friday, August 23rd, 2013

Started by Melissa Lichocik in 2012 in Perth, Western Australia, The Baby Emporium sells modern and innovative baby products online.

Having her own children inspired Lichocik to stay home and start her own online business. An avid online shopper, Lichocik appreciated the variety of the baby products she was able to find online and decided to bring them all into one convenient online space.

To read more about this story, click here.

New Australian startups favour coffee shops over traditional offices

Thursday, August 22nd, 2013

New research has shown that many of Australia’s new startup businesses — particularly online stores — favour the environment of their local coffee shop or other ‘third place’ (a place for doing business aside from the home or office).

The younger a business owner is, the more likely he or she is to do business in these so-called third places. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, 52% of Baby Boomers feel that doing business in a coffee shop is unprofessional while 45% of Gen X professionals agreed. Only 38% of Generation Y professionals shared this view.

But while the future of business seems to be going the way of working in cafes, there are some drawbacks, including:

  • concerns around the privacy of conversations and documents;
  • security of belongings;
  • noisy customers, and;
  • being perceived as unprofessional.
To read more on this story, click here.

BigCommerce is big success in Australia

Wednesday, August 21st, 2013

Young entrepreneurs Mitchell Harper and Eddie Machaalani are making eCommerce easy for small businesses.

Founded in 2009 and with offices in Sydney and Texas, BigCommerce revealed last year that the company now powers more than 20,000 online stores for retailers, who have processed sales of more than $350,000,000.

To read more on this story, click here.

Learn Cake Decorating Online: simple name, simple premise, great results

Tuesday, August 20th, 2013

Established in New South Wales in 2012 by Louise Vansleve, Learn Cake Decorating Online does exactly what its name implies and teaches people how to decorate cakes from the comfort of wherever it is they happen to like doing their baking.

Vansleve was struck with the idea for the online business while trying to make the perfect cake for her young daughter and instinctively knew that other people would be interested in learning this skill.

To read more on this story, click here.

Australia boasts significant entrepreneurship

Monday, August 19th, 2013

Not only is entrepreneurship alive and well in Australia, it is, in fact, thriving, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which ranks Australia second behind only the United States in the world amongst developed nations to those looking to start a new business in general and among women entrepreneurs, also.

Some notable Australian entrepreneurs include:

Nick D’Aloisio – Summly

Summly condenses news articles to make them easier to read on smaller tablets and smartphones.

D’Aloisio created the app at just 15 years of age. Yahoo! purchased it for $30 million.

Matt Barrie – Freelancer

Freelancer is a job board for people seeking freelance work.

Richard Chua – Talent100

Talent100 was created by then-high school student Richard Chua, now 27, to help high school students score well on tests and get into the college of their choice.

You tell the company what score you need to get to be accepted into your desired college, and Talent100 breaks this down into achievable goals. So far, the company has brought in more than 1.5 million dollars.

Amanda Lintott – Career Driven

Career Driven is a recruitment company specializing in the car and automotive sector, including sales. They are hoping to break into motor shows in the years ahead to continue growing their business.

Sarah and Emily Hamilton – Bellabox

Monthly subscriptions to beauty boxes are huge in the United States and are getting big in Australia, too.

Sarah and Emily Hamilton created Bellabox — similar to the U.S.’s Birchbox — back in 2011 and have seen incredible success thus far. They are hoping to turn the company into a worldwide business in the coming years.

To read more on this story, click here.