Boost Your Social Media Presence

---

Featured in the Sydney Morning Herald

November 2, 2011 — 2.34pm

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Australia’s economic position is "enviable” compared with other countries dogged by fiscal jitters. Despite slipping five places in the latest World Bank Doing Business rankings, Australia remains the second easiest place in the world to start a business after New Zealand.

So anyone who launches a small business here has an enhanced chance of fast progress. Imagine going full-swing, striking a chord and generating a torrent of cash in under a year.

Two go-getters who did just that explain how.

Face value

Surry Hills-based entrepreneur Shona Mackin, 35, was working for a firm where she did not fit. Mackin found the work – consulting for the firm and running its call centre - "ridiculously frustrating", she says.

One day, her boss told her that she "was too talented and too expensive" for her job then offered her a redundancy. She took it.

Instantly, the can-do Mackin set out to build a flexible business that would let her work anywhere, any time.

The same day she lost her job – Monday June 6 this year - on a shoestring she launched her consultancy that manages clients’ Facebook walls.

Advertisement

“We picked a name, secured the domains and, that afternoon, the socialface Facebook page was set up - and at 8.05 pm we were thanking the people who got behind us and Liked us before we had even got the chance to get a post up.”

Next day at North Bondi RSL, she carved out a strategy. Her start-up’s name was registered the following Tuesday. "And on Wednesday we had four clients."

Within a month, she was making more than in her old job.

Projected annual turnover, which she wants “to smash out of the ball park” is about $150,000 and accelerating. She is aiming for “at least $500,000” in this first year, helped by director Tim Bryden and developer Emma Terracini.

One day, her boss told her that she "was too talented and too expensive" for her job then offered her a redundancy. She took it.

Mackin's key success secrets are determination and consistency - underpinned by a systematic review process.

“Each week we sit down and take a look at where we are, where we want to be, what we need to get there, what we should start doing, stop doing and keep doing,” she says.

Gadget magic

Queensland-based Ross Patten, 42, sells an Australian-made $25 kitchen gadget called the Rice Cube. The gadget - a small plastic box designed to make “sushi in seconds” - can carve anything from rice to butter into a bite-sized cube.

Patten, whose background is in law and advertising, invested a fat wodge of savings in the product. Keen to deal with retailers direct, he then skipped hiring a distributor, with mixed benefits.

"It's like doubling your money but doubling your work," he says.

His hands-on approach proved effective. After nailing his first sale in July 2009, he quickly gained dizzying momentum. By Christmas, he was already in profit.

Now, the business, which the high-flier runs off a single laptop, sells to 42 countries, he says, adding that he has even made a sale in Afghanistan.

He devised his gadget while unsuccessfully auditioning for the 2010 series of cooking show MasterChef.

Patten had been standing in Coles in his hometown, Peregian, when the idea of squishing rice into shape just popped into his head. He returned to his garage, grabbed some timber and a roll of gaffer tape and, presto!

One reason that the garage guru has prospered, he reckons, is that he steered clear of outsourcing, which he warns against.

“In Australia we have all the talent and tools to compete, if you play it smart. I've seen countless situations of inventors and companies come completely undone by outsourcing the simplest of things to foreign firms, only to have lost everything to a breakdown in communication or a misread brief on product requirements. Cheap is never happy.”