Stupid mistakes every start-up owner makes
Posted: April 18, 2013 Filed under: Brisbane Times, Canberra Times, Fairfax Media, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WA Today | Tags: blunders, mistakes, start-up, start-ups, startup Leave a commentThe hilarious star of the spoof start-up Vooza deliberately acts dumb and promotes stupid behaviour. Witness the recent Vooza video advising budding start-up gurus to pretend to be birds.
Presumably, your start-up pursues more intelligent strategies. Still, doubtless, you commit your share of mistakes. Read at the Sydney Morning Herald..
How to flip your start-up
Posted: November 28, 2012 Filed under: Brisbane Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WA Today | Tags: Chomp, flip, sell, Stamped, start-up, start-up success, startup, Yammer Leave a commentEven if your start-up is just scraping along, you can always dream about flipping it for a fortune. It happens.
In February, Apple bought the Australian discovery start-up Chomp for $US50 million. In June, Microsoft bought the social enterprise start-up Yammer for a dazzling $US1.2 billion. And on October 25, Yahoo snapped up the New York City-based smartphone app maker Stamped for a secret sum.
Here, two start-up experts tell how to raise your chances of getting bought out and joining the ranks of Chomp, Yammer and Stamped.
Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald.
The ultralight start-up: how to launch a business without clout or capital
Posted: June 14, 2012 Filed under: Brisbane Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WA Today | Tags: Bllomberg, business, funding, shoestring start-up, small business, small business money, start-up, start-up success, start-ups, startup Leave a commentLaunching a start-up is easier than ever. But, because entry barriers verge on non-existent and everyone wants to be the next Facebook, Twitter or Dropbox, competition is fierce.
The intensity raises the question of how you stand out, especially if you lack clout or capital. A new business guide by Bloomberg business wiz Jason Baptiste, The Ultralight Startup, shows that you do not need an MBA, a trust fund, or even experience running your own firm to become a tech world star.
One of Baptiste’s success tips is that you should build a product you need – Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley built an early model of his product because he wanted to keep in touch with ex-colleagues. Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald..
Beat the jitters: startup cash crunch secrets
Posted: September 27, 2011 Filed under: Sydney Morning Herald | Tags: banks, cash, credit, funding, money, startup, startups, venture capital Leave a commentIf you thought starting a business means tonnes of crushingly tedious admin, think again. In Australia – the world’s second fastest country for starting up after New Zealand – the process takes two days, according to the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
The question is how, after your snappy start, you adapt to running your business with no salary. How, unless you have a rich spouse, do you avoid going broke amid “financial armageddon” talk?
Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald…
How I turned $5000 into one of Asia’s biggest travel websites
Posted: May 14, 2011 Filed under: Brisbane Times, Business, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Travel, WA Today | Tags: business, make money, shoestring, startup, travel Leave a commentThe dream is compelling. In it, you shift your business to a low-overheads tropical paradise then work remotely amid the scent of frangipani and the hypnotic hubbub of frogs.
Instead of just fantasising, Hornsby-raised Stuart McDonald, 39, and his journalist wife Samantha pursued the dream, heading east in 1997. Now the Bali-based couple only return for family trips. “We came as backpackers and liked it so much we stayed,” McDonald says, his Aussie twang still strong. Read more at the Age…
www.theage.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/how-i-turned-5000-into-one-of-asias-biggest-travel-websites-20100609-xvqw.html#ixzz1MIj0eGSE
How to save money when starting your business
Posted: May 14, 2011 Filed under: Brisbane Times, Business, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WA Today | Tags: budget, cheap, cost cuts, economy, save money, small business, startup Leave a commentCost cuts can seem like hard work – a masochistic measure best left to beleaguered British and German politicians. But making cuts boosts your bank balance and demands less effort than working harder, or smarter – however you do that. With cuts, you must just be observant: pinpoint the areas where costs can be shaved, then whittle away.
So that you can find the best deals across a range of expenses with little fuss, here is a round-up of some price comparison hubs, most of which have an Aussie slant. The list covers everything from Bankwest to broadband.
The leads should be especially handy if you run a startup that has scant cash splashing around. Prepare to get clicking and scrimping. Read more at the Age…
Monks, punks and pixels: daft ideas that made millions
Posted: May 12, 2011 Filed under: Business, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age | Tags: business, crazy, creative, daft, enterprise, ideas, odd, startup, wacky Leave a commentNever underestimate the power of a daft idea. Oddball entrepreneurs have made millions from products that appeared preposterous.
When the planets align right, droves of consumers will buy the craziest thingamajigs, irrespective of taste or utility. If you are canny, you too could successfully plug a product with a touch of the funhouse, or madhouse, about it.
For a sense of the opposition, discover some of the most unlikely commercial winners ever devised. The hits that must once have looked like surefire flops embody the idea that you should zig when rivals zag. Read more at the Age…
Why I quit my MTV dream job
Posted: May 12, 2011 Filed under: Business, The Age | Tags: business, mtv, startup, the loop Leave a commentIn the thick of the global financial crisis they quit their MTV dream jobs. All-night events fuelled by free booze had worn thin on aspiring entrepreneurs Pip Jamieson and Matt Fayle.
Jamieson was business strategy and development manager for MTV Networks Australia, before taking over as head of marketing for MTV Networks New Zealand.
Since Jamieson and Fayle quit, the creative industry networking site they then founded with their joint savings, The Loop, has exploded. Brands including Pacific Magazines, Discovery Networks and SBS have joined the network to headhunt talent. The Loop boasts over 6,000 members and traffic growing 45 per cent week-on-week, according to Jamieson, 31: a Bondi-based “Kiwi Pom” with a first-class Edinburgh University economics degree, who once wished she studied media. Read more at the Age…
www.theage.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/why-i-quit-my-mtv-dream-job-20101019-16s3r.html
David Wilson journalism 