Entrepreneurs may grumble about the amount of red tape they have to deal with, but it’s fair to say that the federal and, indeed, some state governments haven’t been entirely hostile to start-ups.
There are grants such as those for clean energy and tourism, as well as help with research and development costs.
Commercialisation Australia is dispensing funding to promising start-ups after a pointless, politically-motivated freeze last year and the state governments are pitching in with some interesting initiatives, such as NSW’s Startup House.
On top of this, there’s the not insignificant matter of the economy – unemployment’s low, as are interest rates, the public debt is manageable and most other industrialised countries would want our rate of GDP growth.
Sure, the Australian government has no specific start-up plan – unlike the US or UK – and much of the focus still appears to be on the big end of town. But conditions, considering the continued turbulence caused by the GFC, could be far worse for budding entrepreneurs.
The trend of falling technology costs isn’t a new one but it’s something that many start-ups will be able to take advantage of in 2013.
With little more than a computer and some website development and admin costs, you can get a business up and running.
Templates for terms of trade and shareholder agreement documents are readily available online for nothing, while the process of getting an ABN and registering your business name nationally is now pretty straightforward.
Free cloud-based applications such as Dropbox can store your data while several start-ups have found their best marketing campaigns have cost them next to nothing thanks to Facebook.
In short, unless you need a large amount of equipment or a big team, the cost of starting up is a diminishing barrier, especially if you’re able to work on your business in your spare time while earning a regular wage.
However, be aware that there are still hidden costs to launching your own business, as this checklist outlines.
Increasingly, your customers aren’t likely to be found just in the vicinity of your business. The internet allows you to sell to a global marketplace almost instantly.
You may want to go a step further and concentrate on a particular export opportunity. Not surprisingly, the most lucrative avenues are to be found in south-east Asia.
A report last week by workplace services provider Regus, found that 63% of Australian firms that export overseas have increased profits compared to just 36% of companies that trade domestically.
That doesn’t mean that the export opportunity is clear-cut – you still have to provide a quality product to customers looking for something a bit different.
“Australia is an expensive country so you’re not going to compete by selling low-value goods into other markets,” says Ian Murray, executive director of the Export Council of Australia. “To be successful, you need to position yourself at the premium end.”
“There’s a whole raft of areas you can get into, but you need to create quality products because you won’t be able to compete as a low-cost producer.”
