The top 10 most popular profiles on SmartCompany in 2017

Australia is home to an incredibly diverse community of business owners and leaders and each year SmartCompany attempts to celebrate — and draw inspiration from — their achievements through profiles and longer interviews.

This year has been no exception, as we’ve spent time talking to founders and leaders growing businesses in retail, property development, virtual reality, food production, manufacturing, fitness and health, recruitment and software development — to name just a few.

Of those profiles, here’s a list of the top 10 most well read articles for you to revisit, plus five profiles from our archives that SmartCompany readers have enjoyed this year.

From 2017:

1. How Aldi Australia managing director Bronwyn Post motivates her team of more than 1000 employees
2. Esther founder Talita Estelle explains how her brand’s community will protect the $5 million online retailer from Amazon
3. How two uni students built $20 million development firm Oz Property Group after finding post-GFC property value
4. Why entrepreneur Justin Butterworth sold his house and took 16 months off to fix Australia’s “broken” rental market
5. Why Aldi Australia executive Joanne Brown strives to develop emotional intelligence in her team of 500 workers
6. Zero Latency co-founder Tim Ruse on how he turned a “hobby” into a $12 million virtual reality business
7. How Adelaide Green Clean founder Jordan Walsh turned a side business into a $12 million sustainable cleaning company
8. S1T2 co-founder Tash Tan on what it takes to build a million-dollar business in an industry where no one is an expert—yet
9. How Redsbaby founders Meagan and Brett Redelman turned $40,000 in savings into a $6 million pram company
10. How Kristy Chong built $3 million underwear business Modibodi and marketed a “taboo” product

From the archives:

1. How HiSmile founders Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic used social media to turn teeth whitening into a $10 million business
2. How Steven Marks transformed Guzman y Gomez from a loss-making fast food chain to a $150 million empire
3. How Aesop chief executive Michael O’Keeffe helped craft a $250 million business model
4. How this entrepreneur created a $10 million clothing brand by targeting the “forgotten man”
5. How Alex Houseman went from door knocking to getting his dairy free ice-cream Over the Moo stocked in Woolworths

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