Jo Burston is the founder of Job Capital, a company that manages the financial affairs of contractors. The business was named the Officeworks Fastest Growing Start-up at the 2011 StartupSmart Awards.
Jo blogs for StartupSmart on people – managing them, hiring them or simply getting on well with them.
Growing Pains
A former sales guru for Google, Michael Fox is co-founder of Shoes of Prey, which allows women to design their own shoes.
Following a storming start, Michael’s business faces the challenge of getting to the next level. He shares his experiences with StartupSmart.
MumpreneursDr Polly McGee a co-founder of Startup Tasmania, which aids fast-growth start-ups in the state. She’s behind the MumpreneurIDEAS, a workshop for female entrepreneurs, and is a senior lecturer in Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Tasmania.
She is StartupSmart’s resident expert on anything to do with women in business.
Tech TrailblazersA key player in Australia’s tech scene, Niki has the inside knowledge of the next generation of Australian innovators.
Marketing Matters
Serial Start-upNow embarking upon a new entrepreneurial path, Sahil shares his thoughts for StartupSmart’s readers on how to make it second time around.
SEO for Start-ups
Wai Hong Fong is co-founder and chieftain at OZHut, a multi-niche online retailer. He was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2011 StartupSmart Awards.
A self-confessed SEO nerd, Wai Hong blogs on how your business can stand out from the online crowd.
Greening Your Business
Richard Nicol is the director of Building Green Business, which consults with small businesses and householders in implementing sustainability measures.
More than just the token greenie, Richard demonstrates why sustainability should be at the heart of your business.
Innovation Zone
Yvonne Adele had her first introduction to technology as a kid – it was the Commodore 64. Since then she’s been an early adopter and proud geek. Through her business Ideas Culture, she is the inventor of Ideas While You Sleep, an overnight crowd sourced brainstorming service.
Web Strategy
Adam Franklin is marketing manager of Bluewire Media, the web strategy company he started with schoolmate Toby Jenkins.
Adam blogs for StartupSmart on how you can use the internet to maintain and grow your business.
Weekend Reads
Need some light web-based reading for the weekend? Each Friday, StartupSmart publishes a selection of the week’s best entrepreneurial reading from across the web.
Business Book Club
Alan Hargreaves has spent 35 years in financial services and business consulting, in the US, Asia and Australia. He is also a regular speaker, consultant and investor. He is author of the management book, Recharge, published by John Wiley and Sons.
Aussie in the Big Apple
Michael Giles is the founder/CEO of Roboinvest, a tech start-up. Michael, an Australian, is based in New York.
Marc Peskett
Marc Peskett is a director of MPR Group a Melbourne based firm that provides business advisory services as well as tax, outsourced accounting, grants support and financial services to fast growing small to medium enterprises. MPR Group is a member of the Proactive Accountants Network. You can follow Marc on Twitter @mpeskett
Greg Hayes
Greg Hayes is a director of Hayes Knight and specialises in taxation and business planning advice.
Taking the Plunge
Mark Campbell is the director for web strategy at Shooii, a retail start-up that is launching very soon. Mark is passionate about branding, innovation and creating a positive company culture. He shares the highs and lows of planning a new business for StartupSmart.
The Start-up Mindset
He blogs on the lessons he has learnt and continues to learn about the necessary mindset to successfully run a start-up business.
The Bootstrapper
Brad Lindenberg founded Lind Golf which was acquired by OO.com.au. He started the business with $500 no other outside investment. He has more than eight years of eCommerce and start-up experience.
He now runs Lind Ventures and is building BuyReply, an eCommerce platform designed to bridge the online and offline worlds of commerce. Brad shares his experience and insights of founding a start-up with minimal resources. Follow him on Twitter @bradlind.
Home-based start-ups
Cas McCullough is the author of Diving In: Practical Tips for Starting Up and Growing Your Home Based Business. She is also the founder of home-based businesses Mumatopia and Support a Work At Home Person, a 10,000-strong social networking community supporting people who work from home.
Women in Business
Orsi Parkanyi grew up in Eastern Europe (Hungary) in a family of four women. She came to Australia six years ago on her own with a university research scholarship as a 22 year old. Orsi spent the past 10 years investigating current social and environmental issues at various universities around the Globe.
As she’s become more aware of our limitations to save the Planet from an ecological disaster, she’s became more and more passionate about the concept of social entrepreneurship and empowerment of women. She started “Women as Entrepreneurs” (WE) at the end of October 2011 in order to initiate change and start a debate on this topic in Australia.
First-time Tech Entrepreneur
Rebekah Campbell is a music industry entrepreneur. She started out by organising a music festival to raise awareness of New Zealand’s youth suicide epidemic at the age of 19. In 2008, Rebekah came up with the idea for Posse.com whilst promoting a tour for Evermore. Rebekah raised over $3 million from investors Australia and Silicon Valley to kick-start the business. Posse.com launched in music in 2012 and in retail in 2012, with plans to expand to the United States later this year.
Managing Business Risk
Walid El-Khoury is a business coach and advisor at Univero Business Coaching.
Walid works with his clients to develop effective business plans that work. He focuses as much on business growth strategies as he does on managing the risk associated with these strategies.
He brings more than 10 years experience in banking, risk management and consulting. During this time, he saw, first-hand, how “successful” billion-dollar businesses were wiped out because they lacked viability and insight into risk and uncertainty.
He has been a keen business investor with a Ph.D. in Astrophysics, a passion for focused self-education and the ongoing process of improvement. For more interesting business topics, visit Walid’s Business Blog.
Ken Phillips
Ken Phillips is the executive director of Independent Contractors Australia and author of Independence and the Death of Employment.
Mum’s the Word
Amanda Jesnoewski is the owner of Velocity Media + Communications and a copywriter and marketing strategist.
As a mumpreneur with two small children, Amanda juggles an iPhone and a nappy bag, clients and a toddler, a laptop and a baby, telephones and tantrums daily and writes about at her blog Adventures and Misadventures of a Mummypreneur.
Going Solo
Linnet empowers educators to communicate impressively as leaders. She offers individual coaching in the workplace and via skype, in-house workshops and public presentations. Contact Linnet at linnet@wildsky.com.au or follow her on Twitter @wildskycoach to find out how Linnet’s unique skill and use of language as action can open up rich possibilities for you.
Grow, Learn, Create and Lead
Jonathan Weinstock, 34, is a serial entrepreneur, blogger, speaker, avid sports fan, proud father and husband. Jonathan’s expertise lies in helping build companies quickly from the ground up into profitable, sustainable and defensible positions. Jonathan is the founder of Launchtwo People, Sports Grab and MVP Genius and is passionate about seeing people and businesses ‘be better’, ‘do better’ and ‘achieve their potential’. Jonathan is on the board of Entrepreneur’s Organisation, Melbourne chapter and a mentor to start-up incubator Angel Cube. Jonathan’s blog aims to help others “Grow, Learn, Create and Lead” better.
