Australia Small Business IDEAS
The winning formula that goes into creating a business that not only succeeds but prospers financially isn’t easy to replicate. Otherwise everyone would be doing it.
But sometimes startups go on to change lives, making their founders millions in the process. Here are the stories of five Australian business ideas that grew into multi-million dollar business ventures.
1. Envato
An ambition to travel overseas for an extended period of time was what initially drove an Australian couple to build an online business that last year turned over in excess of $50 million.
Collis Ta’eed and his wife, Cyan, wanted a business that would allow them to quit their successful freelance life and run a business from their laptops while enjoying some overseas travel, so they launched Envato with their best mate Jun Rung in 2006.
Envato’s earnings have skyrocketed since making just $10 on the first day of business. Today, the business launches, promotes and operates multiple online marketplaces which facilitate the exchange of digital goods from thousands of independent sellers and digital authors to both amateur and professional web designers, creative agencies and digital web properties.
It’s also the creator of several online marketplaces, including ThemeForest, CodeCanyon, Videohive and GraphicRiver – all market leaders.
2. Invoice2Go
He’d enjoyed the security of the role so mentally buried his desire to quit on a daily basis, but admits he hadn’t been able to give his business idea any oxygen.
But after being fired and thrown out of the building, he was able to get cracking on his business idea – a more cost-effective invoicing system for small business owners.
Even in those early days, he knew his idea was going to change the way people do business, launching the desktop version of Invoice2Go within a matter of weeks of losing his job. The mobile app version followed, which propelled the business to new heights.
Today, more than a million small businesses have used Invoice2Go as a way to invoice their customers. The company has been valued at $US100 million ($A125m) after $US35 million in funding, and is one of the highest grossing apps in the app store.
3. Airtasker
Australian tech startup Airtasker has made a name for itself online by offering users the chance to outsource menial tasks like picking up dry cleaning or performing household chores.
The site has been used for tasks as diverse as paying someone to stand in a six hour queue for the Game of Thrones exhibition, to a Sydney surgeon who used Airtasker to find someone to fly to the US and pick up an engagement ring.
Airtasker says that businesses could use Airtasker to scale quickly by accessing a huge army of people all over the country for tasks ranging from market research, promotions to deliveries. The business last year acquired Melbourne-based odd jobs outsourcing rival Occasional Butler
4. Carman’s Muesli
Carolyn Cresswell bought Carman’s Fine Foods for $1000 more than two decades ago and moved it into her Melbourne kitchen.
She’s worked hard since then and successfully beat the multinationals, with retail sales of Carman’s products topping the muesli category across Coles and Woolworths.
