Australia's service economy is booming, representing 70% of GDP and growing strongly. Key drivers of growth include outsourcing, technological advances, and rising Asian demand. The document highlights several innovative Australian companies that are successfully exporting services globally and redefining industries such as graphic design, tasks and errands, and online retail through new digital business models.

1. ISSUE 22 SUMMER 2016 THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF NAB
LONDON CALLING • PHO-NOMENAL ENTERPRISE • ANIMAL KINGDOMS
THE SERVICE
REVOLUTION
–
Our blooming
service economy
Canva’s CEO on
taking on the world
Behind the scenes
with local innovators
TASK
MASTERSFrom moving house to moving millions.
The Airtasker boys explain how they did it.

2. AD TO COME

3. CONTENTS
1
SUMMER 2016
NAB.COM.AU/BV
BUSINESS VIEW ISSUE 22 SUMMER 2016
04
03 WELCOME
Cindy Batchelor from NAB Business
on the service economy.
04 NUMBER CRUNCH
A snapshot of the key drivers in
Australia’s service economy.
06 EMPORIUM
A look at trade with our oldest trading
partner, the United Kingdom.
07 ALAN OSTER
The NAB Group Chief Economist on why
Australia’s service economy is booming.
08 WEALTH
The low road: balancing investment
risk and return.
10 CEO SEAT
Canva CEO Melanie Perkins on what's
behind her $230 million success.
11 BALANCE
Why mental health matters for
business owners.
12 AT YOUR SERVICE
Three entrepreneurs who are redefining
service with digital innovation.
16 TRANSITIONS
Miners are making the switch from
fly-in fly-out to small business owners.
18 INNOVATION
The Airtasker founders on how they
turned small tasks into big money.
22 FAST MOVING FASTUCAS
Hard work and hustle underlie the
Fastucas' corporate travel revolution.
24 SHIPPING SEA TREASURES
The Craig Mostyn Group has its eye on
seafoodandtheChineseweddingmarket.
26 24 HOURS WITH… JERRY MAI
We spend a day with Jerry Mai as she
brings Vietnamese pho to the people.
29 FRISKY BUSINESS
Pets are big business and we speak to
ownerstappingintotheanimalkingdom.
32 CAMPER COMMUNITY
How social media became pivotal to
Patriot Campers.
34 VOX POP
What it takes to be a successful business
owner in today’s service economy.
36 BACK STORY
How Sean Ashby took underwear brand
aussieBum to the world.
08
“You have
to believe in
your vision
for a long time
before anyone
else will.”
MELANIE PERKINS,
CANVA
10
3229
A131040-1016
22

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BUSINESS VIEW
WELCOME
T
he Economist once famously
described services as anything
sold in trade that could not be
dropped on your foot. The rise and
rise of Australia’s service economy has
been an important development in our
national economic story. Today the
services sector represents 70 per cent of
Australia’s GDP1
and continues to grow
strongly. We’re exporting $66.2 billion
in services and the value of total trade
in this sector is now sitting at $142.5
billion – up 9.1 per cent on 2015.2
In addition to this kind of growth, it’s
so encouraging to see the innovation
that’s ever-present in this booming
sector. And in this edition of Business
View, we’re showcasing some of the best
and brightest entrepreneurs who are
lighting up the services arena.
Melanie Perkins of Canva says
technology has made geography
almost irrelevant when it comes to
creating and launching a successful and
disruptive service business (page 10).
Her online graphic design platform has
become an international success story
used by more than 10 million people
in 179 countries and is a true example
of how smart young Australians are
exporting service excellence.
Important information: While care has been taken in preparing this material, National Australia
Bank Limited ABN 12 004 044 937 (NAB) does not warrant or represent that the information,
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recommend that you seek professional advice from a registered tax agent. © Copyright 2016 National
Australia Bank Limited ABN 12 004 044 937. All articles are correct as of 17 October 2016
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nab.com.au/bv
Likewise, Airtasker’s co-founders,
Tim Fung and Jonathan Lui, are
showing us how it’s done in the new
economy (pages 18 to 21). Their business
is built entirely on the idea that there’s
a market for every service you can
imagine – from installing your TV to
chasing a possum from your roof. With
$45 million in transactions a year,
they’re living proof of the demand
for services.
The online delivery company foodora,
online furniture and homewares
superstore Zanui and virtual reality
gurus LENS Immersive (see pages 12
to 15) also show that it pays to think
differently about services and harness
the power of technology to innovate
and I believe we’ll see even more
creativity in this sector as new ways of
doing business emerge.
Reskilling from more traditional
industries to service-based business
is another trend to consider as the
service sector grows and develops.
Trent Brown, for example, made the
move from Rio Tinto’s iron ore mine to
setting up his own plumbing business
while Christine McKay, who worked as
a crane operator in the resources sector
for many years, called time on the fly-in
Cindy Batchelor
Executive General Manager
NAB Business
fly-out life and set up a Cheesecake
Shop franchise in Perth (pages 16 to 17).
It’s so exciting to see this kind of
adaptability and left-field thinking in
the services sector. It’s ultimately all
about better service for customers –
and as part of a service industry myself,
I’m looking forward to how the sector
develops in the future.
1
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Trade in Services
Australia 2015. dfat.gov.au, visited 16.10.2016.
2
Ibid.

6. BUSINESS VIEW
NUMBER CRUNCH
BUSINESS VIEW
NUMBER CRUNCH
Australia’s exports
of services rose
to $66.2 billion
in 20153
WHERE WE’VE COME FROM
Since the days of Federation the services sector has accounted
for a large share of the Australian economy.
WHERE TODAY’S GROWTH LIES
Our fastest movers
(Growth over 2014-15)3
THE STATE OF PLAY FOR EXPORTS OF AUSTRALIAN SERVICES
Our biggest customers ($A millions, 2015)3
One look at the numbers confirms what we all suspected:
Australia’s service economy is booming.
Our largest services exports
(Five largest service exports in 2014-15)2
Education-relatedtravelservices
1. Butlin, N.G. 1962, Australian Domestic Product, Investment and Foreign Borrowing – 1861-1938/39
cited in Productivity Commission, Australia’s Service Sector: A Study in Diversity. pc.gov.au
The value of total
trade in services
rose to $142.5
billion in 20153
As far back as 1900-01, services accounted for the majority of Australia’s economic output.1
Today the services sector represents a significant part of the Australian economy accounting for 70% of GDP.2
26.8%
India
22.2%
Taiwan
19.8%
China
18.7%
USA
12.7%
France
$18.2
billion
$14.8
billion
$4.7
billion
$4.3
billion
$3.6
billion
Recreationaltravelservices
Professionalservices
Businesstravelservices
Financialservices
AT YOUR SERVICE
USA
$7,888
UK
$5,012
India
$3,038
NZ
$4,144
China
$9,840
54%
70%
Today
1900-01
A SNAPSHOT OF AUSTRALIA’S SERVICE ECONOMY
9.1% 10%
2. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), The importance of services trade
to Australia. dfat.gov.au 3. DFAT, Trade in Services Australia 2015, dfat.gov.au
4
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7. 5
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10,000,000
9.4%
7.0%
4.6%
4.5%
WHAT’S DRIVING GROWTH IN SERVICES?
WHO’S ON THE MARCH
(Growth in industry value added by services industry, 2013-14 to 2014-15)5
Of service sector
workers boast
post-secondary
qualifications.7
4. Budget 2016-17, Budget overview, budget.gov.au 5. ABS, Australian System of National Accounts, 2014-15, abs.gov.au
6. CEDA, Australia’s Future Workforce?, June 2015. adminpanel.ceda.com.au 7. Productivity Commission, Australia’s Service Sector: A Study in Diversity. pc.gov.au
People are employed in the services sector in Australia.6
Outsourcing of professional services
Rise of dual income households
Technological advances enabling trade
Rising Asian demand
Increased life expectancy
The low Aussie dollar
APPROXIMATELY
MORE THAN
Household and business services
jobs created in 2015.4
300,000 Information Media and Telecommunications
Accommodation and Food Services
Financial and Insurance Services
Health Care and Social Assistance
TODAY MOST AUSTRALIANS WORK IN THE SERVICES SECTOR – AND THEY’RE HIGHLY SKILLED
Of Australia’s high-skilled workforce,
including blue and white collar workers,
work in service industries.7
Workers in the social services and business
services industries boast degree qualifications.7
Of service sector
employees work in
high-skilled jobs.759%
54%
4 out of 5
2 out of 5

8. BUSINESS VIEW
EMPORIUM
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KEY RESOURCES
The United Kingdom is one of the best places
in the world to do business, according to the
World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.
It has ranked 6th in the world in 2014 and
2015 thanks, in part, to the slashing of red
tape, a promise to reduce corporation tax to
18 per cent, and an increase in the number
and quality of apprentices available for hire.1
Online resources available to help Australian
businesses enter the UK market include:
• British High Commission Canberra
• UK Trade and Investment
• HM Revenue Customs
• Confederation of British Industry
• London Chamber of Commerce
• Trading Standards
• Intellectual Property Office2
Capital: London
Population: 65.1 million (2015)
2-way trade with Australia: $21.1
billion (2014-15)
Australian exports: $8.6 billion
UK imports: $12.6 billion
Trade rank: The UK is our 7th largest
two-way trading partner
GDP: $US 2,761 billion (2016)
GDP growth 2016: 1.9%
Sources: UK fact sheet country brief,
Department of Foreign Affairs Trade (DFAT),
dfat.gov.au, visited 11.10.16.
OUR OLDEST
TRADING
RELATIONSHIP
ENTERS NEW ERA
Australia has become increasingly attractive
to British investors in recent years with United
Kingdom investments accounting for the highest
growth by value of any foreign investor over
2010-14. It’s a trend that has seen the UK
become our second largest foreign investor.
T I MO T H Y C OL L I N S
DOINGBUSINESSINTHEUK
• UK business culture tends to be more formal
than it is in Australia. Be mindful to not be
overly familiar with people you have just met.
• The ‘old boy’ network is alive and well in many
older companies, but business culture is
becoming more progressive and egalitarian.
• Only use ‘English,’ ‘Scot,’ ‘Welsh,’ or ‘Irish’
when you are certain of a person’s heritage.
The British tend to be proud of their
national heritage.
• It is unusual for a UK company to agree to
a ‘cold’ meeting. Be prepared to introduce
yourself – and your proposal – a few weeks
before the meeting date.
MAJOR SERVICES EXPORTED ($A millions, 2015)
Australia’s major services exports to the UK totalled
$5,012 million in 2015, with travel ruling the roost.
1. Travel services .........................................$2,614
2. Other business services ..............................$813
3. Financial services .......................................$806
4. Transport services .......................................$287
5. Telecommunications, computer
information services ...............................$286
6. Personal, cultural recreational ................$78
7. Intellectual property .....................................$71
8. Government services ....................................$43
9. Insurance pension services ......................$11
10. Construction services ...................................$1
MAJOR SERVICES IMPORTED ($A millions, 2015)
Australia’s major services imports from the UK
totalled $7,273 million in 2015, with travel at the top.
1. Travel services .........................................$3,121
2. Other business services ...........................$1,351
3. Financial services .......................................$655
4. Transport services .......................................$622
5. Insurance pension services ....................$517
6. Personal, cultural recreational ..............$402
7. Telecommunications, computer
information services ...............................$318
8. Intellectual property ...................................$192
9. Government services ....................................$83
10. Maintenance repair services ..................$11
Source: DFAT, Trade Services Australia 2015, dfat.gov.au,
visited 11.10.16.
Services trade is a key element of our
bilateral trade relationship, according to
the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade (DFAT), which described the UK as
Australia’s third largest services export
market in 2014-15.
And the Australia-UK trading
relationship looks set to continue its
upward trajectory: the two governments
recently committed to the establishment
of a bilateral Trade Working Group tasked
with preparing for a post-Brexit economy.
1
Elliott, L. Britain named sixth best country for doing business, The Guardian, 28.10.2015. theguardian.com, visited 16.10.2016.
2
Australian Trade Commission, austrade.gov.au, visited 11.10.16.

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OSTER
OSTER
While the 24-hour news cycle may
talk down Australia’s transition from a
commodity to service economy, the figures
tell a different, and very positive, story.
A L A N O S T E R N A B G R OU P C H I E F EC ONOM I S T
T
he good news is Australia’s transition
from a commodity- to a service-
based economy is doing a lot better
than most people think. NAB’s September
2016 Business Conditions and Confidence
survey shows that while the mining sector
is contracting and retail and wholesale have
weakened in some areas, there is real strength
in domestic personal recreational services,
including local tourism. This sector accounts
for one third of the economy and it is booming.
Taking into account trading, profits and
sales, the current long-run average for
business conditions is around +5 index points.
In personal recreational services conditions
averaged +18 in the third quarter. The other
sectors doing particularly well are finance,
property and business services (or real estate)
which are sitting at about +17 index points,
and construction, at +7 index points.
BURSTING THE
MANUFACTURING
ECONOMY MYTH
If we compare jobs by industry in 2008
with June 2016, manufacturing has lost
about 160,000 jobs according to our data.
Health and social assistance on the other
hand, essentially private sector health, has
added around 480,000 jobs. This sector
is responsible for around 1.8 million
jobs nationally while manufacturing
doesn’t reach one million. Mining may
be 9 per cent of GDP but it accounts
for just 2 per cent of jobs. After health,
the next biggest job increase areas are
scientific and professionals, followed by
education and training.
EASTERN STATES RIDING
HIGH ON SERVICE WAVE
Unsurprisingly, when broken down by
states, what we see is the reverse of the
commodities boom. In 2016, New South
Wales has seen business conditions average
+16 index points. Victoria is +13 and the
other mainland states tend to be around the
+5 mark, except for Western Australia, which
is -7 index points. In Western Australia,
which is still in commodities mode, we
expect a lot of employment to go when the
liquefied natural gas (LNG) platforms are
built; the rough rule is 14 people to build a
platform and just one to run it.
NON-DISCRETIONARY
SERVICES THRIVE
The service sectors that are booming
can be divided along discretionary and
non-discretionary spend lines. Most
Australians will purchase anything they think
they have to – and often that means services
rather than ‘things’. Education and health
are the strongest performers, and it’s no
coincidence that they’re considered
non-negotiable purchases for most
Australians. Utilities are the same: you
may complain that your power bill has gone
through the roof but you will pay it.
EXPORTING HEALTH
AND EDUCATION
Our biggest exported service is still tourism,
mainly people coming from China to
Australia. However, education is in the mix
and growing with Chinese and other Asian
nationalities coming to be educated and,
while here, buying property. That trajectory
shows no sign of slowing.
Going forward, the Asian market is
particularly interested in Australian health
as well as education services. NAB’s survey
suggests conditions in consumer services are
averaging around +18 index points. However,
for those in private sector pure health,
business conditions are closer to +40.
GLOBAL COMPETITION FOR
SERVICE DOLLAR
Most Western economies are making the same
transitions as Australia. In the United States,
health is where most jobs are being created
and China is moving in a similar direction.
Broken into three sectors, China’s
primary production stands at about 10.5
per cent (Australia’s is 1.5 per cent) of
GDP. Its secondary industries, including
manufacturing and industrial production,
used to be almost 50 per cent but today are
nearer 40 per cent. And its tertiary, or service,
sector was 40 per cent but is now over 50
per cent. It’s clear that China has that same
driver out of industrial production into the
service sector as Western economies.
Here in Australia, while in some sectors
and regions there is lag and times have
been tough, the transition story is generally
working well.
Transport Utilities
BusinessConditionsandConfidence (September 2016 Trend)
Mining
Wholesale
Retail
Manufacturing
Construction
Finance/Prop Business
Rec. Personal
All
-20-25 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20Conditions Confidence
MY
Source: National Australia Bank – September 2016

10. WEALTH
8
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K I M B E R L E Y G A S K I N
Corporate bonds
Considered a sound fixed-term investment
(unless you decide to sell), corporate
bonds generate regular income and will
return your principal upon maturity. You’ll
generally receive interest that can be fixed
or floating.
You can buy corporate bonds through
a public offer or through a securities
exchange. Read the prospectus carefully
to make sure you understand the key risks
and timing of payments.
Remember that although bonds are
considered less risky than shares, you
might not get anything back if the company
goes broke. They’re also unlikely to
increase in value during your investment.
Shares
If you’re looking for an ownership interest
in a company, shares can be a solid
long-term investment. As a growth asset,
shares increase in value, generate income
from dividends, and are easily traded.
Keep an eye on the market and
economy. Dividends are subject to
company performance and can rise and
fall dramatically. Buying and selling shares
requires careful analysis – there are many
ways to go about it, so talking to a broker
or financial planner should be your first
port of call.
Investment property
Property is generally considered to be
a safe capital growth investment. Even
relatively affordable properties are likely
to increase in value over time. There are
monthly rental returns and, if your property
is negatively geared, the additional
deductions may be able to offset tax on
other incomes.
Property is one of the few investments
that can be insured against risk, like fire and
damage. However, unlike other investment
options, property incurs plenty of one-off
and ongoing costs: stamp duty and other
taxes, legal fees, maintenance, rates and
rent-free periods to name but a few!
THE LOW ROAD:
BALANCING
INVESTMENT
RISK AND
RETURNEvery business owner needs a
plan for investing their profits
effectively – and in a low
interest rate environment, it’s
time to start looking for return.
W
hen your business is in growth
mode, it’s exciting to see funds
start to build in your business
account – rather than being constantly
drained away. But with success comes a
new conundrum: how should you invest your
profits to build long-term wealth?
It can be tempting to let your proceeds
accrue in a bank account – but there are other
options that combine security and wealth
building. Selecting a range of investment
options can help you manage risk and generate
income. Iain Rogers, General Manager, Wealth
at NAB, says running a successful business
involves ensuring invested capital works hard.
“This can also be true when planning to
maximise personal wealth,” he comments.
With the right research and advice – and
some strategic smarts – business owners
can afford to invest their surplus cash. And
with interest rates at a low, it’s a good time
to look at some of the other investment
structures on the market. Says Rogers:
“Investing successfully in any area requires
balancing risks, and there are numerous
options available that control the downside
while delivering higher yields. But these
options should be undertaken with advice.”
THREE INVESTMENT
ALTERNATIVES
Whether you’re thinking about investing a
little or a lot, there are a range of different
investment options to help you reach your
long-term financial goals.

11. BUSINESS VIEW
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MANAGING RISK AND RETURN
As a business owner, it’s critical to have
a robust strategy in place to help shape
your investment decisions. Think about your
short-term (one to three years) and long-term
(three to five years) goals and the financial
return you’d like to achieve. Working closely
with a financial planner can really help
you identify your objectives, find the right
strategy and solutions – and stay on course.
Rogers says selecting investments is just
one element of a successful wealth plan.
“Ensuring the correct ownership structures
and asset classes are held will have a major
influence on outcomes,” he adds.
Finding the right balance of assets to
deliver the returns you need can be a
challenge. Generally, a combination of
growth assets (like shares) and defensive
assets (like bonds) is a popular way to go.
Decide how much you’re willing to invest
in the steadier, defensive assets versus
the riskier, higher growth assets. Factor in
market volatility for your stage of life, and
you should be able to determine how much
you can afford to invest.
“Understanding and sticking to investment
timeframes allows for more certainty in
investment outcomes, and can moderate the
impact of market volatility,” says Rogers.
GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT
There are many ways to spread the level of
risk across your portfolio.
For example, perhaps you want to invest
your money across a range of growth and
defensive assets. In this case, if your growth
assets underperform, while your defensive
assets perform steadily, the impact on the
overall value of your investment portfolio will
be reduced.
Another way is to invest in a range of
markets. You could also use several different
investment managers to provide different, yet
complimentary, market insights. Comments
Rogers: “Not having all of your eggs in one
basket is still sage advice, and applies to
asset classes and countries, investment
managers and investments themselves.”
All growth assets carry varying levels of
risk, but as a general rule look for assets that
have the ability to grow in value, give you
easy access to funds, and produce additional
income over time.
“There are a range of different investment
options to help you reach your long-term
financial goals.”
Any advice contained in this
article has been prepared
without taking into account
your objectives, financial
situation or needs. Please
consider whether the
advice is appropriate for
your circumstances.

12. 10
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BUSINESS VIEW
CEO
U
sed by more than 10 million
customers in 179 countries, including
corporate teams from Lonely Planet
and Huffington Post, Canva has attracted
$US27 million in backing from high net
worth individuals and investment funds.
The venture is Melanie Perkins’ second
foray into the startup scene – at age 19 she
launched Fusion Books, an online design
system for schools to create yearbooks, which
has become the largest publisher of its kind
in Australia.
At 29 years old you’ve already founded
two successful enterprises. Was doing
your own thing your destiny or did a more
conventional career path ever beckon?
I think I probably wanted to be almost
everything at some stage when I was growing
up. Throughout high school I interned at a
lot of different places – a PR agency, a radio
station, a sports store, through to spraying
on tattoos at carnivals. I chose my degree in
Arts and Commerce to give myself as many
options as possible.
What gave you the impetus – and the
courage – to start a business so young?
While I was studying, I was tutoring students
to use programs like InDesign and Photoshop.
Millennial entrepreneur Melanie Perkins is the powerhouse
behind Canva, an online graphic design platform which allows
anyone to create their own professional quality designs.
But I noticed most people found them hard to
learn and harder to use. It was then I realised
the future of design being entirely different –
online, collaborative and simple.
My boyfriend and co-founder, Cliff Obrecht,
and I were university students, with no money
and no engineering or business experience.
We didn’t know what a startup was, let alone
know anyone who was in one. We just had
a problem that we wanted to solve and an
absurd amount of determination.
I don’t really consider it to have been a risk
or something that needed courage. I was at
uni and thought that if things didn’t work out
I could always go back and finish my studies.
You’ve turned Canva into an international
operation that was valued at $230 million
in mid-2015. What attributes are needed
to convert a smart proposition into
a viable enterprise?
Sheer determination! I was fortunate to learn
how powerful it could be so young in life. I’ve
poured my heart and soul into everything I’ve
done and I’ve come to realise that if I work
really, really hard I’ll usually succeed – or at
least learn a lot along the way.
Canva has attracted more than $US27
million in funding from venture capitalists
who turn down hundreds of pitches each year.
What’s the secret to getting them to
get out the cheque book?
Persistence. Our first round of investment was
raised after a year of meeting investors, six
months in San Francisco and 100 revisions to
our pitch deck. We were really struggling to get
things rolling and it took an incredible amount
of willpower to see it through.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of
rejections for anyone doing a startup: investors,
potential team members, early customers.
Every single time we experienced a rejection
we revised our offering to answer the questions
or concerns that had been raised. You have to
believe in your vision for a long time before
anyone else will.
Not so long ago, Australia was considered the
end of the earth for wannabe IT entrepreneurs.
Has this changed and is it now possible to
launch and run a global high tech company
from Down Under?
The exciting thing about technology is it has
made geography almost irrelevant. The United
States has been our biggest market since the
day we launched and we had users signing
up from all over the world very early on. We’re
available in eight languages and plan to be in 20
by the end of the year – all out of Australia.
‘SHEER DETERMINATION’
BEHIND $230 MILLION
SUCCESS
S Y LV I A P E N N I NG T ON

13. 11
SUMMER 2016
NAB.COM.AU/BV
BALANCE
F
or years, Leanne Faulkner was the
kind of entrepreneur the media loves to
celebrate. After a series of demanding
corporate jobs and a stint lecturing in business
at a university, she started her own business.
“One of my children suffered from eczema
and none of the standard treatments were
working,” Faulkner recalls. “So I made some
soap from goats milk, which cleared it up.
“I made some more and supplied it to
some local shops. After a while, my husband
said, ‘You should take this seriously. Write one
of those strategic plans you’ve spent years
teaching others how to create’.”
In 2004, Billie Goat Soap was officially
launched. “I went from running the business
from my kitchen table to having a factory,
employing 20 people during peak periods
and supplying 2,000 retailers,” she says.
“The company was winning awards and I
was being featured in the press as an up and
coming entrepreneur.”
Then in 2011 sales slumped and so
did Faulkner. “It seemed like the business
Leanne Faulkner was riding a wave of success building a fast-growing start-up
until the business slowed and the stress took its toll on her health. Now she’s
helping others learn how to cope with the pressure.
was failing, which I interpreted as meaning
I was a failure. I’d sit crying in my car trying
to get myself together before walking into
the office. I was obsessed with trying to turn
things around and ignored my family.
“I wasn’t sleeping. Eventually, I broke
down and couldn’t face going in anymore.
I was ultimately diagnosed with situational
depression. Luckily, my husband had a
business background and was able to take
charge for three months while I recovered.”
Faulkner sold Billie Goat Soap in early
2012. Given her experience, she then
decided to target the underserved market
of small business owners facing mental
health challenges. “I had spent lots of time
Googling late at night, looking for assistance
for those in my situation,” Faulkner says.
“There were lots of options for employees
but hardly any for business owners. Plus, a
lot of the usual solutions aren’t on the table
for those running a business. It’s often more
difficult for a business owner to take some
stress leave than an employee. Usually,
N IG E L B O W E N
they don’t have access to an employee
assistance plan.”
Faulkner observes some business owners
make things even worse by buying into the
myth that they need to be all things to all
people. “Entrepreneurs are portrayed as
always being resilient go-getters. I know I had
to spend a lot of time coming to terms with
not living up to that stereotype.”
Although there’s been little research
conducted on the mental health of Australia’s
small business owners, Faulkner believes it’s
no better and possibly worse than that of the
general population. “We know that every year
one in five Australians will confront a mental
health issue. Over half of small business
owners are males in the 30 to 50 age group
and this is a demographic that has seen an
increase in suicide rates.”
In 2013, Faulkner launched Fortitude at
Work. Since then she’s worked with those
who work with business owners – solicitors,
accountants, the Australian Tax Office.
“If a small business owner is not coping
well, everyone notices: their employees,
suppliers, customers and bank manager. My
business is about training those dealing with
small business owners. I provide education
about what they can do to help. I also spend
a lot of time lobbying for more mental health
resources to be made available to small
business owners.”
Support is available for those who may be distressed by
phoning Lifeline 13 11 14 or beyondblue 1300 224 636.
TAKE THE PRESSURE DOWN
ADVICE FOR BUSINESS PEOPLE UNDER STRESS
1. RECOGNISE THAT YOU’RE NOT ALONE
Lots of other business owners have gone through
the same thing, even if it’s something many are
reluctant to disclose.
2. REALISE THERE IS HELP AVAILABLE
You can talk to friends and family members. You
can consult your doctor. There are organisations
that devote a lot of attention to workplace mental
health, such as Heads Up and the Black Dog
Institute. There are also more general options,
such as Men’s Shed Australia and Lifeline.
3. BE AWARE THERE’S A LOT MORE AWARENESS
NOWADAYS ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
For example, if you contact the Australian Tax
Office and explain you’re going through a tough
time, they may be able to do things such as shift
deadlines for BAS payments. Finally, be aware
mental health challenges are survivable.

14. 12
SUMMER 2016
NAB.COM.AU/BV
As Australia embraces
digital, the business
services sector is
booming. Nimble and
tech-savvy service
providers are helping
businesses reach their
customers by bridging
the gaps.
Adam Turner
A
s the distinction between the physical and digital
worlds continues to blur, a new breed of business
service provider is making a significant mark ­
on the Australian corporate landscape as companies
around the country strive to meet the needs of the
21st century customer.
A number of innovative Australian businesses are
paving the way here as last-mile service providers –
whether by helping manufacturers sell furniture online,
enabling restaurants to home-deliver fine dining or
equipping businesses to reach customers through
virtual reality.
Rather than just shifting boxes or pumping data
across the country and around the world, these last-mile
service partners are redefining what service is. Instead
of tackling individual pain points in service delivery,
they’re building holistic platforms to handle every
aspect of engaging and delighting the end customer.
They’re finding success by truly understanding the
needs of their business partners and delivering them
cutting-edge services.
DIGITAL

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SUMMER 2016
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T OON GY SSEL S
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, FOODORA
HAVING LIVED offtakeawaypizzaduringlatenightsin
theoffice,ToonGysselssawanopportunityforAustralian
restaurantstoofferhomedeliverytoo–buttheywould
needabusinesspartnerlikefoodorainordertodeliver
thatexperience.
Founded in Germany, foodora launched in Sydney
in 2015 with the promise of 30-minute delivery with
a flat $5 delivery rate. It has since expanded to cover
Melbourne and Brisbane, catering to restaurants looking
to offer quality meals, including catering for dinner
parties and the romantic night in.
Acting as a last-mile service provider comes with
its challenges when you’re working in a sector which
traditionally hasn’t required a business partner in order
to serve its customers. Working with food also demands
higher levels of service than if you were simply moving
parcels from door to door.
CHANGING THE PARADIGM
While the first 50 restaurants took a long time to win
over, foodora now partners with more than 1,000 across
the country and deliveries are growing 35 per cent
month on month. The company’s success required both
restaurants and customers to change the way they think
about home delivery, says Gyssels, foodora’s Co-Founder
and Chief Executive Officer.
“When you talk about food delivery it usually has bad
connotations, so a restaurant’s first response was often
‘Why would we want to look like a mediocre takeaway
pizza shop?’ and you can’t blame them,” Gyssels says.
“Their biggest concern was how it reflected on their
brand – including the quality of the experience that
home delivery could provide and whether food would be
transported the right way.”
Apart from the issue of reputation, restaurants have
also traditionally avoided home delivery due to the
complexities of managing it efficiently. This required
foodora to sell both restaurants and their customers on
the convenience of its delivery service.
UBER SERVICE
foodora’s platform consists of three main apps: one letting
customers place orders, a second letting restaurants
receive orders and a third letting drivers accept delivery
jobs similar to the Uber model. Tackling a specialist sector
like food delivery requires more than just technical know-
how, so foodora also employs ex-chefs and others with
first-hand experience in the hospitality industry.
“You absolutely need this kind of industry-specific
expertise, in whatever field you tackle, otherwise many
of your assumptions are going to be wrong,” Gyssels says.
“You might be smart and have a good idea that works
in theory, but you still need to engage people who have
experience at the front line.”
foodora’s valuepropositionforrestaurants isn’tjust
outsourcing its homedeliveryservice,it’s alsomaintaining
aneffectiveonlinepresenceincluding thecomplexities of
searchenginemarketing andoptimisation.
“We are bringing these restaurants fully into the online
world,” Gyssels says. “A lot of them already have websites
and some are really good at managing social media, but
they still struggle when it comes to things like search
engine marketing and optimisation. We have dedicated
people to handle these at foodora to ensure potential
customers find our restaurants.”
Regardless of the sector you operate in, anyone looking
to tackle business services must consider scalability from
the very beginning, Gyssels advises.
“You can’t just rely on simple spreadsheet calculations;
scalability is about more than operations and processes,”
he says.
“Your approach to scalability needs to be very practical
and hands-on, thinking about how you’ll keep the
business running smoothly once things take off and
you’re ready to take it to the next level.”

16. 14
SUMMER 2016
NAB.COM.AU/BV
Y OSU K E H A L L
MANAGING DIRECTOR, ZANUI
AFTER FIGHTING his way through crowded homemaker
centres on the weekend only to wait weeks for his new
sofa to be delivered, Yosuke Hall knew there must
be a better way for furniture makers to reach
their customers.
Hall joined Zanui in 2012 with the aim of changing
the way manufacturers approach retail, and helped
establish an Australian online furniture and homewares
superstore which today offers some 40,000 products
across 500 brands. Now managing director, he says
one of the biggest challenges in getting Zanui off the
ground was convincing brands to diversify away from
traditional bricks and mortar sales channels to the
advantages of online.
“When we started, online furniture retail was still in
its infancy and no-one was doing it to any sort of real
scale,” Hall says. “We had to build up a critical mass of
brands in order to make Zanui an attractive destination
for online shoppers.”
“One of the early staff members we brought on was a
buyer who had worked with one of the big retailers and
was also interested in the shift towards online. A few
people like that, who really know the industry, can
save you from spinning your wheels – especially in
the early days.”
A FULL-SERVICE RETAIL PARTNER
While some furniture and homewares makers could
already see the potential of online as a sales channel,
others were apprehensive and concerned it would
undermine business with their offline retail partners.
The key to winning them over, Hall says, was positioning
Zanui as a full-service retail partner rather than just
simply an online shopfront.
“We work with a lot of suppliers, wholesalers and
partners who have tried starting a website of their own,
so they appreciate that there’s much more to it than
simply getting up a few web pages,” Hall says.
“Search engine marketing and optimisation are a
science in themselves, but even that’s only a small part of
the total package.”
Zanui also handles logistics, arranges deliveries direct
from the manufacturer to shoppers via an online portal
open to suppliers, plus maintains its own warehouse
– buying some brands into stock as well as offering a
private label range of Zanui furniture. On top of this it
takes care of customer service and post-sales support,
such as dealing with delivery issues and returns.
QUALITY SERVICE KEY
The business has mapped out its entire process from
a customer placing an order to the parcel arriving
in their hands, Hall says, in order to offer a smooth
customer experience. It also relies on a wide range of key
performance indicators to keep its finger on the pulse
and continually improve processes.
“Above all else, customer service is one area that we
pride ourselves on,” Hall says.
“If customers have a bad experience with online
purchases they’re very quick to write about it, whether it
be on social media or on review websites.
“As an online business, we need to make sure that
our customers – manufacturers and shoppers – have a
fantastic experience because we’re in a very competitive
market and it’s a key way to differentiate ourselves.”

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SUMMER 2016
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DIGITAL
T R AV IS R ICE
CO-FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF CONTENT, LENS IMMERSIVE
COMBINING THE talents of Hollywood with cutting-
edge online video delivery, LENS Immersive ensures
businesses don’t lose their way in the brave new world of
virtual reality.
An explosion in budget headsets and 360-degree
video cameras has significantly lowered the barrier to
entry for businesses looking to employ virtual reality
(VR) to reach customers. It’s tempting for businesses to
jump in the deep end but, as with any content creation,
success requires both the tools and the talent, says LENS
Immersive Director of Content Travis Rice.
Two years ago Rice and fellow LENS Immersive co-
founder Yan Chen saw an opportunity to help businesses
deliver high-quality virtual reality experiences, from
assisting with 360-degree video production to providing
a secure and bandwidth-efficient content delivery
platform. The key to serving these businesses is to truly
understand what they and their customers need and
value, Rice says, so you can become a valued partner
rather than simply a basic service provider.
SERVICE ON STEROIDS
“VR is an emerging field and we’re still doing lots of
customer education,” Rice says. “Over time we’ve found
more and more businesses are coming to us asking how
they can save on bandwidth and deliver 4K content to
users stuck on very low internet speeds, so that’s become
our primary focus.
“They’re also looking for a secure way to deliver
content and monetise it, so we’ve pivoted to address those
needs and become a full virtual reality platform with
a compression technology which allows them to offer a
great VR experience over a slow internet connection.”
With a wide range of VR headsets hitting the market,
LENS Immersive aims to be technology agnostic –
educating businesses on the options at their disposal and
helping them choose the best tools for the job.
Rather than just helping businesses create and deliver
VR content, LENS Immersive also strives to ensure end
users have a great experience so they’ll come back
for more.
This includes addressing the issue of motion sickness
which some people experience when watching some VR
content. It’s a queasiness that’s often due to low-quality
video, headsets or delivery methods, Rice says, which
is where LENS Immersive’s production and delivery
experience can make the difference.
AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Delivering engaging virtual reality content is more than a
technological challenge, and Rice and Chen call upon their
own experience in artistic direction, curation, and movie
and videogame production. LENS Immersive also works
with film production teams and engages a wide range of
content production advisors from around the world.
Building up this global network of advisory teams from
day one has helped the business to think global – keeping
its finger on the pulse of the industry, expanding into new
territories and recognising the full value it can offer to
customers, Rice says.
“This global network alsohelpedus seethebig
pictureandcometotheearlyrealisationthatwe’re
aninfrastructurecompanyratherthanjusta content
productioncompany,”hesays.“Wearen’tjustbuilding
a platformfordeliveryof video,we’rebuilding core
infrastructureforthenextphaseof theentireinternet.
“Once you can see where you fit into the big picture it’s
easier to spot the opportunities to meet a genuine need
and become an important partner to your customers.”

18. STRAP
MINERS MAKE THE SWITCH
FROM FLY-IN FLY-OUT TO SMALL
BUSINESS OWNERS
Sylvia Pennington
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SUMMER 2016
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TRANSITIONS
T
heslowdowninAustralia’soncebooming resources
industryhasseenthousandsofmining workers
begintolookelsewhereforopportunities.The
smallbusinesssectoroffersawealthofpossibilities for
thosepreparedtobypassthecertaintyof a paychequeand
tackletherisksandchallengesofsailing theirownship.
Trent Brown has been sailing his own ship successfully
since late 2015. The 28-year-old West Australian is the
proprietor of Southwest Plumbing and Gas, a domestic and
commercial plumbing business based in Dunsborough, in
the Margaret River district south of Perth.
Brown spent the previous five years working nine days
on, five days off, as a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) deep watering
technician for Rio Tinto at its Marandoo iron ore mine in
the Pilbara, 1,000 kilometres north east of Perth.
While the remuneration and entitlements were
attractive, the long hours and isolation took a
progressive toll.
“It got to a stage where I had to go, ‘Righto, what do I
want to do, where do I want to be?’” Brown says.
“It was a big call leaving Rio because of the salary
and package they offer – you were essentially locking
yourself into a guaranteed income, work-away scenario.
But it was pretty stressful because of the amount of time
that you actually spent away. You’re drawn away from
your mates, your hobbies, your family … eventually I just
said, ‘That’s enough, I’ve done it’.”
LAYING THE GROUNDWORK
Brown spent 18 months working and making contacts
during his stints back home before reaching the point
where he felt his plumbing business was sufficiently
established for him to make a go of it full time.
He says the extensive training and large project
experience he received at the mine site helped provide
him with the skills and confidence to tackle larger
contracts under his own steam.
The bulk of Southwest Plumbing and Gas’s work is in
the new housing market and industrial spheres, rather
than routine maintenance.
“I did learn a lot from working away, particularly in the
areas of safety and planning,” Brown says.
“In the mines, everything is focused on safety and there
were opportunities for further education – I completed
my Master Plumbers qualification while I was with Rio
and that’s helped me understand more about running a
business and planning and executing major jobs.”
Stepping away from a secure income for the uncharted
waters of self-employment and small business can be
nerve wracking, but once you’ve decided to do so, backing
yourself is paramount, Brown believes.
“When you start running your own business, you don’t
know – I could be busy for the next four months, or steady,
or quiet,” he says.
“Obviouslytakingthatbigstepforwardisahuge
commitmentsoyou’vegottohavethedrivetosay,‘I’mdoing
it,I’vegottomakethiswork,thisiswhereIwanttobe’.”
FROM CRANES TO CHEESECAKE
Former crane operator for the resources sector Christine
McKay shares Brown’s optimism and can-do approach.
She called time on FIFO work two years ago, after more
than a decade on mine sites across WA, and is preparing
for her next chapter in the small business sector, as
the owner of a Cheesecake Shop franchise in the Perth
suburb of Ellenbrook.
Purchased earlier in the year for around $400,000, the
store is slated to open in late 2016 and will employ up to
10 staff, as well as McKay herself.
While the scope of work will be very different from her
previous gig, the long hours and hard yakka she may be
required to put in, particularly in the early days, hold few
fears for McKay.
“I’m used to doing 12 hour days and 12 and a half day
fortnights,” she says.
“I just want to get it going because I think we’re going
to do really, really well. We’ve got the right spot and
everything in place and now we’re waiting to make
it happen.”
Purchase of the franchise was financed through NAB.
The assistance and advice provided by NAB business
banker Jason Sutherland has been helpful in the set-up
stage, says McKay.
“We’ve been with NAB for a long time as personal
customers and it was a natural choice to go with them as a
business customer,” she says.
“They’re a good team and have been very supportive
and cooperative.”
With the mining sector losing steam, the small business sector is
offering a wealth of opportunities to former workers in the industry
who see the possibilities in starting their own enterprises.

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SUMMER 2016
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INNOVATION
I
nJune, Seven West Media led a funding
round for Airtasker that raised $22 million.
That brought the total amount of capital the
company has raised since launching in 2012 to $32
million.1
Its co-founders, Tim Fung and Jonathan
‘Jono’ Lui, have certainly come a long way since the
days when they were ferrying customers’ fast food
orders around.
AMAYSIM GRACE
Tim Fung and Jonathan Lui met while studying
at the University of New South Wales. It wasn’t
surprising they were around the same age.
However, they were amazed to discover how much
else they had in common.
“We’ve both got two sisters. Tim’s father and both
my parents are Hong Kong Chinese. We were both
born and raised in Australia,” Lui says.
More importantly, while Fung studied
marketing and Lui telecommunications, they
were both ambitious and entrepreneurial. Post
graduation, both went to work for prestigious
corporations offering glittering career paths. But
they soon resigned themselves to becoming the
first hires at a scrappy startup.
“Tim was working at Macquarie Bank. He quit to
be the first employee at Amaysim, the Australian
telco founded in 2010 that now turns over more
than $200 million a year,” says Lui. “Then he
convinced me it was a great opportunity and
that I should leave IBM and join the team, which
soon grew to around 150 people. We both learnt
an incredible amount from the five founders of
Amaysim. Several of them are still our mentors to
this day. We helped the Amaysim guys build their
business up. Then, in late 2011, we resolved we
would try to do the same thing they had.”
The gruelling task that moving house
can be was the inspiration for the online
marketplace startup that’s now grown to
be a household name and is attracting big
investment. Business View spoke to the
co-founders of Airtasker, Tim Fung and
Jonathan Lui, about their journey.
Nigel Bowen
BIG MONEY
TURNING
SMALL
TASKS
INTO

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Airtasker's
Jonathan Lui (left)
and Tim Fung.

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INNOVATION
MOVING ON
The now legendary Airtasker origin story
involves the then 28-year-old Fung asking the
then 27-year-old Lui, along with several of his
other mates, to help him move house.
“Weallagreedtohelpoutbutwekeptsaying,
‘We’reallbusy.We’dprefertojustgiveyousome
moneysoyoucanpaysomeonetomoveallyour
stufftoyournewflat’,”saysLui.“TimandI
thought,‘Actually,that’snotabadideafor
abusiness’.”
“We did some research and discovered
nobody seemed to be offering anything like
it in Australia. There was TaskRabbit, which
had launched in 2008 in the United States, but
it was operating more as a labour hire agency,
effectively employing people then selling
their services.
“Wedidn’tviewthatasascalableproposition,
atleastnotforpeoplelikeuswithlimitedaccess
tocapital.Wedecidedtogowiththemarketplace
model.Peoplewouldposttasksonourplatform
andotherpeoplewouldbidonthem.”
Starting an online marketplace may seem a
logical enough business idea in 2016. However,
as Lui points out, that wasn't the case in a
country that was then rather less focused on
agility and innovation. “You have to remember
that this was before startups became cool,” he
says. “It was before anyone had heard of the
sharing economy. There was only eBay. That’s
how we sold our idea, as the eBay of tasks, where
we’d take a 15 per cent cut of the transaction.”
Fung and Lui tapped friends and family for
funds to turn the lights on at their new venture.
They then found their Amaysim background
allowed them, somewhat to their surprise, to
secure $1.5 million early on.
“At that point Airtasker wasn’t much more
than a PowerPoint presentation,” Lui laughs. “It
was unheard of in those days to raise that kind
of money. But there were some investors who
knew us from our time at Amaysim. They chose
to back us.”
TEETHING PROBLEMS
Airtasker’s co-founders did pretty much
everything in the early days. That included
the tasks posted on their platform. “We’d be
driving around Sydney at 2am, picking up
KFC and delivering it to people’s houses,” Lui
recalls. “That was good because it gave us an
understanding of what the pain points were
for people using Airtasker. It provided insights
into how we could improve processes, make the
experience smoother for both those posting
and providing the task.”
“We're not supplanting
a labour force. We're
creating a whole
new industry.”
JONATHAN LUI
Those insights were useful but they didn’t
provide much help with the existential threat
that soon confronted Airtasker. Lots of people
had signed up to do small jobs but few were
being posted. It wasn’t a surprising outcome
given Airtasker was a new business with a
limited marketing budget attempting to get
people to do something they had no experience
doing. Nonetheless, it led to what Fung views
as an embarrassing and costly mistake. Lui
prefers to remember it as a valuable learning
experience.
Fung and Lui decided to abandon their
original business model. They hit up large
companies, including some run by personal
friends, for work. Soon there were plenty of
jobs coming in – such as huge letterbox drops
for real estate companies – but managing them
soon turned into a nightmare.
Most of the people doing the tasks – chiefly
school and university students – were honest
and hardworking. But not 100 per cent of them.
Vetting all those entrusted with completing
tasks was impossible. When, to take just one
real-life example, boxes of pamphlets were
discovered to have been thrown in a bin
rather than delivered, Fung and Lui were left
to explain how that happened to angry clients
threatening not to pay.

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“It was a good learning for us,” Lui says.
“We went from doing single food deliveries
to co-ordinating the logistics for 40 people
doing flyer drops across Australia. I saw it
as an experiment. But, yes, it became clear
we needed to get back to being eBay rather
than trying to manage a retail store.
Still it set us up to partner with
large businesses later on in a way
that didn’t involve Tim and I taking
responsibility for ensuring tasks were
completed satisfactorily.”
HITTING ON THE MAGIC FORMULA
After its early misadventures, Airtasker
acquired a couple of Australian
competitors – Occasional Butler and
TaskBox – that had launched around the
same time. It entered into some lucrative
partnerships with other ‘digital economy’
businesses, such as EatNow, DeliveryHero
and UberX. It also joined forces with
News Corp’s CareerOne, one of Australia’s
biggest employment websites and part of
Monster Worldwide Inc, the world’s largest
job network.
“We now share the tasks advertised
on Airtasker on the CareerOne site,” Lui
says. “The people going on CareerOne are
between jobs and looking to earn some
money, so there’s an obvious synergy there.
With the likes of EatNow or
DeliveryHero, we can help supply
the labour those companies need to,
for example, provide merchandise
to restaurants or deliver food. That
sometimes involves us tweaking our
offering. We may need to offer food
delivery jobs at a set fee of $10 rather than
have people bid on them.
Nonetheless, it’s still the company and
the person delivering the food interacting
in that eBay-like way.”
ONE FINAL TASK: WORLD DOMINATION
It’s been a while since Fung and Lui have had
to deliver fried chicken or oversee leaflet
deliveries. “We recently welcomed our
600,000th registered member,” Lui says.
“We’ve got about 35 staff. We’re seeing
$45 million of transactions a year.”
In a sense, within four years of launching,
Airtasker has succeeded in establishing
itself as the 800-pound gorilla of Australian
task marketplaces.
“Yes, it would be possible for a local company
to launch a competing online marketplace.
Or for one of the big foreign players to try to
expand into Australia,” Lui says. “That’s not
something we’re complacent about, which
is why we’re always trying to stay two steps
ahead of the game. However, we’ve developed
a lot of intellectual property around how to
make this kind of online marketplace work.
“We’ve assembled a great team. We’re
building brand awareness. Plus we’ve got
more than 200,000 reviews of people who’ve
completed tasks. That helps people have
peace of mind using our platform. They can
know they’re hiring someone who has proven
themselves to be responsible. Given all that, I
think it gets a little harder for a competitor to
come into the market.”
If the big players that have invested in
Airtasker – Seven West Media, NRMA,
Australian venture capital fund Exto Partners
and Shanghai-based Morning Crest Capital
– have their way, it will enter other online
marketplaces of the world.
While Lui’s not about to show his hand about
his company’s plans for world domination,
he does admit the “blue-sky vision is to be a
global business”. “Australia is a great market
for us. It’s a wealthy country. It has a good
mix of higher-income, time-poor people and
underemployed but skilled people looking to
earn extra income. That is not necessarily the
situation in other parts of the world. Plus, if we
expanded overseas there would be language
and cultural barriers.
“We’d need to develop different services
and features tailored to local markets. But
none of those are insurmountable problems.
As you’d expect, we’re looking at the two
markets everyone gets excited about – the US
and Asia. The dream is to expand within the
next few years.”
1
Kimmorley, S., Airtasker just raised $22 million, and now it wants to
become an Australian household name, Business Insider Australia,
07.06.2016. businessinsider.com.au, visited 16.10.2016.
CREATING A NEW INDUSTRY
As Lui sees it, Airtasker is a force for good.
“The first point I’d make is that we’re not
supplanting an existing labour force,” he says.
“What we’re doing is creating a whole new
industry. A few years ago, you couldn’t get
someone to come around to your house to
change a light fitting or chase a possum out of
your roof – not easily and at an affordable price
anyway. Now you can.
“Secondly, there are a lot of people that
find it difficult to access a conventional job.
That can be because they’re an older person
or an inexperienced, younger one. Airtasker
provides a way for those people to be part of the
workforce, to earn money and stay active.
“When we started Airtasker it was mainly
school and uni students but now we get a lot
of semi-retired people. Another interesting
development is that Airtasker isn’t just
something people do on a moonlighting basis
anymore. There are a lot of people now working
full-time hours doing tasks and making a good
living out of it.”
Airtasker has also worked with insurance
companies to minimise some of the issues
that can crop up when either business owners
or individual citizens hire independent
contractors.
“Let’s say you engage someone through our
platform to paint your lounge room or reception
area and they knock over a can of paint, ruining
your carpet,” Lui says. “Airtasker workers are
covered for third-party liability. So the people
using our platform know that if an accident
happens – and they inevitably do sometimes –
they are covered.
“We’re also liaising with insurance companies
to develop income protection products for our
workers. These kind of policies will ensure
they’re not left in a difficult situation if they, say,
fracture their wrist and are unable to complete
any tasks for a couple of weeks.”

24. TECHNOLOGY
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Hard work and hustle have helped
Melbourne cousins Ross and David Fastuca
secure a string of corporate customers
and win multi-million dollar backing for
Travelport Locomote, their travel platform.
Sylvia Pennington
L
aunched in 2014, Travelport Locomote aims to make
it simpler and cheaper for companies to manage the
process of approving and arranging business travel
and processing expense claims.
Demand for their software from the likes of Allianz,
Japan Airlines, World Vision and Medibank has seen the
shoestring startup of cousins Ross and David Fastuca
morph into a thriving software company employing a
staff of 65.
Travelport, a publicly-listed United States travel
technology provider which runs booking systems for
airlines and travel agents, took a majority stake in the
venture last December.
Thehardwork neededtogettheir fledglingenterprise
off thegroundandintothefacesofinvestorsand
household-namecustomers held fewfearsfor the Fastucas.
Both grew up witnessing grandparents and parents
make the sacrifices familiar to thousands of Italian
Australians whose forebears migrated after 1949, with
hungry stomachs and hopes of a better life.
FAST MOVING
FASTUCAS

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Travelport
Locomote's
David (left) and
Ross Fastuca.
buildingonlinestoresandwebsitesforothersandgetstuck
intocreatingascalableandsaleableproductoftheirown.
“We spoke to them and said, ‘We want to be a product
company. We’ve got all the right skills and a few ideas,
but we’re not sure what industry to tackle’. And they
said, ‘Hey, have a look at the travel industry and see
what you can do. I know travel companies are using old
technology’,” Ross says.
Mentored by Weinman and Sher, both foundation
investors in Travelport Locomote, the cousins developed a
blueprint for their system after the investors introduced
them to many corporates and they gained feedback from
the business community before anything was built.
“Before we even wrote a line of code, we went out and
told as many people as we could,” Ross says. “We ended
up getting an introduction into a major mining company.
We presented the solution to them and they signed the
contract to say, ‘If you build this thing, we will use it’. That
helped us, having a big organisation that encouraged
us to push the product out. We wanted to know we had
solved the right problems for corporate travel before we
began building.”
It’s a strike-it-lucky success story that was a serious
slog in the making.
“ItsoundseasynowwhenItalkaboutitbutinrealityit
wasmonthsandmonthsofeffortandtripstoSydneywhere
wedidn’thavethatmuchmoneytospendbutwedidwhat
wasneededtomakesurewecouldgetthisdone,”Rosssays.
With Travelport’s backing, the company has set its
sights on the global market, with staff numbers expected
to swell to 100 by year’s end.
“We want to be the best corporate travel platform in
the world – that’s our goal,” Ross says. “People say it’s a
big dream, but that’s fine. We aim that high. We believe
we’ve got a platform that can reshape and change the way
corporates look at their business travel.”
VALUE IN NETWORKING
A NAB business client since inception, Travelport
Locomote is a regular user of the bank’s co-working
centre in Melbourne’s Docklands, The Village.
The space is a boon to start-ups which can’t spring for
facilities of their own, says Ross.
“We’ve done all our events at the NAB Village. We go
there and have our strategic meetings and out-of-the-
office meetings. Sometimes I go there when I need to
take a day out of the office. I’ll go and sit there; I love the
creative space.
“I probably get more work done there than I do in our
office, and you always meet some other business there.
We’ve taken a few other companies to meet there and
every time people say, ‘This is great, we should use this
space – it’s a cool spot’.”
“As a child, we lived at the milk bar where my dad
worked so I’d be up in the morning at 5am and Dad would
be working,” Ross Fastuca recalls. “He’d make me a toasted
sandwich, and I’d sit on the bench with him. I’d see him
work all the way through to 9 or 10 o’clock at night, seven
days a week, and Mum worked there as well. They ended
up growing the business into a very successful one which
employed 15 people, just through sheer persistence,
hustle and hard work, building relationships and being
prominent figures in the community.
“Dad had the opportunity to build this further but chose
family first – especially to ensure he was there to help my
brother John who had muscular dystrophy. My mother and
father were amazing role models growing up, my brother
was an inspiration with his strength and my big sister
would always look out for us.”
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PULL
The idea of toiling for wages or working 9 to 5 goes against
the grain for the next generation, say the Fastucas.
“Working 9 to 5 never made sense to David and I – we’re
not made that way,” Ross says. “As an entrepreneur, you
have that drive for something more, and seeing our
families work really hard all their lives was a big influence
in giving us that drive.”
The cousins had joined forces previously on a succession
of ventures including a graphic design agency founded
while they were still in high school, a t-shirt business, a
digital agency and a nightclub.
“We’ve dabbled in lots of things, but technology and
software development was always a passion of ours,”
Ross says.
AnintroductiontoserialentrepreneursPhilipWeinman
andCliveSheratanetworkingeventin2012providedthe
inspirationandencouragementtheduoneededtostop

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F
rom the deep blue waters of Australia’s
southern oceans, two of Craig Mostyn
Group’s (CMG) luxury seafood exports
are grown and reaped: the coveted southern
rock lobster and world-renowned Jade Tiger
Abalone. The thriving business, founded in
Australia by Craig Mostyn in 1923, today also
exports scallops, crab and other fresh and
frozen seafood to the world.
In the six years that Mark Wray was Chief
Financial Officer of CMG, turnover doubled for
the seafood division, driven by his pursuit of
local experts in China and strong marketing
efforts. Today, Wray is the group's Chief
Executive Officer. He says the business now
has annual seafood exports of more than 1,000
metric tonnes, distributed to Hong Kong, China,
CHERISHED SEAFOOD DELICACIES
CMG’s southern rock lobster is acknowledged
the world over as a unique delicacy, renowned
for its bright red colour, taste and excellent
transportability. Its trademarked Jade Tiger
Abalone has been exclusively bred for its sweet
taste, medium texture and distinctive jade
green shell.
Of China’s five sea treasures, CMG’s southern
rock lobster and Jade Tiger Abalone are two
of the most celebrated. The high-end wedding
market in China revels in the presentation and
enjoyment of these treasures as symbols of
elegance and prosperity.
Export success for the business stems
from not only having unique luxury products
but also from hiring a dedicated team with
intimate knowledge of business practices,
language and culture in niche export
markets – enabling them to build local market
knowledge and distribution partnerships.
Tight supply chain control also ensures
CMG’s Seafood Division can continue to
deliver quality products from Australia in
excellent condition onto wedding banquet
tables in China. The business has taken steps
to encourage Australian seafood farmers to
Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, the Middle
East and the United States.
Wray believes seafood export success
is about understanding your market and
ensuring you have processes in place to enable
freshness and consistent quality.
“The fishermen head out in wet weather gear
on their big boats in wild seas,” he explains.
“As soon as the boats come in, live seafood
is packed right there at the port into foam
cartons and onto planes bound directly for
China’s Shanghai wet markets. Numerous
sub-distributors also take them out to
restaurants having wedding parties and other
celebratory events. When export markets
want to eat the product raw, such as sashimi,
freshness is everything.”
SHIPPING AUSTRALIAN
SEA TREASURES TO ASIA
Tarnee Jacobson Igor Sapina
For the seafood division of the Craig Mostyn Group, one of Australia’s leading
food and agribusiness firms, the fastest growing pillar is the export of live
southern rock lobster and abalone into the Chinese luxury wedding market.
AGRIBUSINESS

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work amicably to operate with contractual
relationships for several years, guaranteeing
supply at the front and back end.
“Longer term export success for CMG is
about locking down boats, quotas and sales
contracts over the long-term,” explains Wray.
“You also need to understand China, where
there are lots of people who have been in
business for a long time. Understanding the
local market is what we’re focusing on at
the moment.”
CHANGING TIDES OF MANAGEMENT
Exponential growth and change in any business
requires a focused investment in talent. Today
the management team is focused on injecting
the business’ intrinsic entrepreneurial spirit,
inherited from the founders of Craig Mostyn,
into a renewed talent base for their export
business. They have recently invested in a new
breed of young talent, including ex Rio Tinto,
Master of Business Administration (MBA) and
Harvard graduates, with a breadth of export
experience, local language skills and corporate
knowledge in global markets.
Wray says CMG’s management structure
emulates a collegiate culture that gives
younger employees full accountability as well
as the freedom to get things done.
“We have a new breed of people coming
through, and it’s a renewal focus, regarding the
employee team structure,” comments Wray.
“For a diversified export business, you should
employ at least 10 per cent of the team from
corporate backgrounds, because they have
sound knowledge of process and the business
tools you need, as well as a corporate discipline.”
CMG’s relentless pursuit of local market
knowledge, coupled with a desire to exhaust the
China opportunity via genuine understanding,
are the driving platforms for seeking talent.
“We need to do more, and are doing more,
around the front end in China,” says Wray. “It’s
about understanding end-user behaviour. For
example, who are the five biggest wedding
companies in Shanghai? We are hiring ex-Rio
[Tinto] professionals who speak Chinese and
we are already penetrating new cities in the
wedding market.”
SELLING THE SEAFOOD STORY
Packaging their multiple seafood brands to tell
their brand story and steer the business into
new export markets is the firm’s next focus
area for long-term sales growth. The business
is investing in brand experts and recently
spent half a million dollars on marketing to
fine tune the brand story and market products
to different cultures.
In the age of disruption, consumers in
China are increasingly using social media to
recommend products they are using, such as
WeChat with 806 million active accounts,1
and everyone in the supply chain is aware
they need to be able to answer key consumer
questions: Did you really produce this? Is it
safe and good for you?
Looking forward, CMG aims to double
its lobster and abalone exports through
understanding the customer, ensuring
consumers are aware of their seafood
story and through operational and supply
chain efficiency.
“It’s no secret – CMG wants growth,” says
Wray. “We want to be Australia’s largest
exporter of luxury seafood. We know the
world wants our products – and CMG has
the people, structures and processes in place
to do it.”
1
Statista, WeChat statistics, Q2 2016. statista.com, visited 16.10.2016

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Igor Sapina
24 HOURS WITH…
JERRY MAI
Chef Jerry Mai is co-owner of
Melbourne’s popular Pho Nom eateries
with brother David Mai. Their vision was
to bring authentic Vietnamese hawker
food to the masses, opening Pho Nom
Emporium in 2014 followed by Pho
Nom Collins Street last year.
H
aving worked for many of Melbourne’s top
Asian-inspired restaurants – including
Longrain, Gingerboy and Dandelion – as well as
at Australian chef David Thompson’s acclaimed London
Nahm restaurant (the first Thai eatery to be awarded
a Michelin star), Mai set up Pho Nom to serve premium
quality food at speed and with an affordable price tag.
As well as sharing the traditional food she grew up
eating with her family, Pho Nom is an expression of one
of Mai’s other passions: supporting local farmers and
ethically-farmed free range produce.
7.30am: I start the day with my usual: an
espresso coffee plus a Vitamin D tablet and
a Berocca.
8.00am: I head into the stores. Today it’s Collins
Street first. I like starting here because it’s nice
and peaceful when I get in. I use the time to
check on what I need to do for the day, like anything I
might need to call a farmer about. We deal directly with
our farmers a lot; it’s one of the things I’m passionate
about. For our beef, for example, we have three different
Victorian producers: Warialda Beef, who supply our
bones and brisket, Little Creek, who top up our bones
when we need them, and Sher Wagyu, who supply our
topside and rump. For our free range chickens and eggs
it’s Milawa. We’ve developed some great relationships,
1

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24 HOURS WITH …
particularly through farmers’ markets. This morning I
chat with Russell [Mickle] from Milawa and Craig
[Jenkins] from Little Creek.
When we opened Pho Nom, I was adamant these were
the kinds of producers I wanted to work with; we wanted
to support local farmers and ethically-farmed produce.
That meant we had to go to several different farmers to
get the quantities we needed – we go through a couple of
hundred kilos of beef bones a week, and the same with
our chicken bones [for our stock]. With our chickens
we use up to 120 between the two stores, and around
48 dozen eggs a week. So this sometimes takes some
juggling. If you go through stock standard producers you
can call them and get produce delivered the next day but
if you’re dealing with farmers like we do you have to stay
in close touch to make sure you can get enough supply.
9am: The staff start coming in so I always have a
chat with them to see if there any issues I need to
deal with. I have a meeting with my brother David
– he’s usually based at Collins Street – then I jump on the
tram and head down to the Emporium Melbourne store.
11am: The Emporium store is two and a half
years old so it’s very stable. My staff here know
exactly what’s needed and do it very well; at
each venue we make everything on site. The shopping
centre opens at 10am and people come in from then for
their pho and banh mi. Ten years ago when I said people
will be having pho for breakfast nobody believed me.
They said, “You’re dreaming”. I grew up eating pho for
breakfast – it’s normal for me. We now sell 100 and
something bowls of pho each day at Emporium, and
just a bit less at Collins Street.
Today as usual I help out with lunch service. It’s really
busy from 11 through to 2.30, 3 o’clock. When we were
planning Pho Nom we wanted to give people something
high quality but quick. Our waiting time is only three to
five minutes – it’s all about setting up the right processes
and training staff really well.
3pm: After service I sit down with my laptop and
get through some admin, make a few calls and
organise emails, and do some research. We’re
doing a lot of pop-up events at the moment and I do
2 3
4
1. Jerry at Pho Nom, Collins Street.
2. Chatting with staff.
3. On the phone with farmers
and suppliers.
4. A morning meeting with her
brother, David.

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24 HOURS WITH …
various shows and cooking demonstrations. For me the
shows are about the producers. I love being able to show
off great produce.
What we’re trying to do at Pho Nom is introduce
mainstream customers to a paddock-to-plate experience,
taking the idea of eating good produce mainstream. We
have customers who eat with us four, five times a week.
If you can afford to eat a bowl of pho that’s barely $12
made from free range beef and chicken, cooked with
no MSG, and if I can have people coming in every day to
eat, then hopefully they’ll say, “Hold on, I can afford to
eat free range. I should eat free range, I should support
local farmers”. That’s why we opened a quick service
restaurant – to make it ‘everyday’.
It’s all about supply and demand. If there’s a high
demand for what I do then my farmers will become in
demand and the more money goes back into my local
farmers’ pockets. The more people want it, the more
farmers grow it. That’s what we’re trying to do: show you
don’t have to go to a special restaurant to eat well. You can
eat well every day.
4.30pm: I head back to Collins Street to catch up
with David and see how service was. We work
well together. I do the food and he looks after
customer service. He’s so good at that – he’s very
charismatic and he remembers names! People will walk
in and he’ll go, “Peter, fried chicken banh mi mate?”
I have a chat to my mum on the phone. She’s been a
massive inspiration for me. She’s an amazing cook and I’ll
still call for advice, how do you do this stock or whatever.
My father was born and raised in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,
and later met my mother in Vietnam. They left Vietnam
and found refuge in a Thai camp for three years before
coming to Australia.
6pm: Ifinishupatthestore,headhomeandget
startedondinner.Tonightit’sporkchopsfroma
producerweworkwith,GreenvalePork.Some
daysit’saroast,sometimesanoodlestirfryorwhatever
Icanrummageoutofthefridgeandwhateverveggiesor
herbswe’vegotgrowinginourlittlegarden.Atthemoment
itslotsofmizuna,coriander,rocket,chili,silverbeet.
8pm: After dinner it’s recipe writing. I’m always
topping up recipes. For the last three weeks I’ve
been working towards the Royal Melbourne
Show pop-up and Women in Food and Agriculture lunch
but I also have some other possible ventures I’m working
on so I’ve been madly writing recipes for the past few
months. I pour some wine and get to it.
10pm: I finish up because I can’t stare at my
laptop anymore. I’ve been a chef for more than
22 years and if someone told me 20 years ago
that when you have your own business and are working
towards additional ventures you’ll spend so much time in
front of a computer I wouldn’t have believed them. I’d
rather be hanging out in the kitchen and cooking that’s
for sure.
5 6
5. Jerry helps out with lunch service.
6. An afternoon catch-up with her
brother, David.

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ANIMAL KINGDOMS
Tiffany Hutton
FRISKY BUSINESSPets are big business. It’s not that their numbers are growing – in fact, with
an increase in apartment living, numbers are dwindling or at best static – it’s
that we’re spending more on them. At last count, the Australian pet industry
was estimated at $8 billion.1
Business View looks at the changing nature of pet
ownership and talks to three businesses tapping into the trend.

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A
ustralia has one of the largest proportions of
pet owners in the world, with dogs our number
one four-legged friend, closely followed by
cats (19 dogs per 100 people and 15 cats, according to
the Australian Veterinary Association2
). We love our
furry companions and increasingly humanise them by
regarding them as family members – and spending on
them accordingly.
Just think about it. Whereas, say, a generation ago, a tin
of food from the supermarket, a couple of bones from the
butcher and a kennel outside might have been considered
perfectly good for Fido, today he’s more likely to be eating
gourmet food tailored to his dietary requirements and
sleeping inside on a bed perfectly suited to a small child.
And when we go away for a few days, instead of asking the
neighbours to drop in and feed the cat, we’re more likely
to send her to a ‘pet resort’ where she’ll be pampered and
pandered to, just like she is at home.
All these goods and services cost money, which many
of us are more than happy to spend. So what about the
businesses that provide them?
HOT DIGGIDDY
It’s no surprise that businesses have popped up to meet
(and even predict) the growing needs and demands of
pet owners. One of these is Diggiddy Doggy Daycare, an
award-winning daycare centre for dogs, established in
2008 by sisters Jeanette and Nicole Farren. Their decision
to create the business was a spontaneous one, according
to Jeanette.
“Nicole’s dog went to a local dog daycare centre at the
time. I still remember the conversation: I called her when
I was on the train to work and said, ‘Why don’t we do one
ourselves?’ It was quite random!”
While the initial idea was an impetuous one, once the
sisters had made the decision they approached it with
sound business sense, taking their time to find a location
in a high demand area, based on market research.
Today, in the new premises they moved to in 2015,
Diggiddy Doggy Daycare offers a day spa, a boutique and a
taxi service as well as day care. It even provides function
hire, to utilise (and monetise) the space on weekends
when the dogs are home with their families. Who hires
a dog daycare centre? Pet industry trainers, for one;
if they are teaching animal care to students, it can be
challenging to find somewhere with a licence for live
animals on the premises.
According to the sisters, the business is much like other
small businesses. “You’re dealing with the same things:
staff, services, products, philosophies. It’s the variants
like dealing with human beings and dogs as well that can
be challenging.”
Typically for a successful small business, the time came
where everything was running smoothly and a decision
had to be made – stay where they were or aim for a more
ambitious business model. Diggiddy Doggy Daycare
is doing the latter, and they’re currently developing a
franchise model which will launch in 2017. Expect to see
one near you soon.
PET ANGEL FUNERALS
Like Diggiddy Doggy Daycare, Pet Angel came to be
because the founder could see the need from a personal
perspective. Director Tom Jorgensen explains (while
walking his dog!) how a newly retired commercial builder
came to set up a pet crematorium:
“Need was the impetus. Need for respect, for grace and
dignity,” he says. “I’m an animal nutter – I’ve always had
dogs or cats or both. The way my last border collie, Sophie,
was treated, I wasn’t happy. I thought ‘I can do this better’
and here we are.”
1 2

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ANIMAL KINGDOMS
With a lifetime’s building and business expertise under
his belt, and a passion for what he was doing, Jorgensen
created a purpose-built facility. It includes a cremator
designed and built in Florida, a fleet of fitted-out black
vehicles, handmade caskets and urns, and what he refers
to as a chapel, a remembrance room where people can
spend time with their pet before a cremation.
It makes sense that people who treat their animals as
family members during their lives are going to want no
less at the end, and the business has been a success from
the start. Opening in March 2015, it’s now providing 50
cremations a week.
Of course, there is a darker side to the business, and
Jorgensen is frank about it.
“Staffingcanbeachallenge,becauseit’snotforeverybody.
It’ssometimesnotpretty,there’snogettingaroundit.There
isthataspecttoit.”
Nevertheless,hesayshefindsagreatdealofsatisfaction
inprovidingaservicetopeoplewhoaregrievingfortheir
pets–andthebusinessisgrowingat15percentamonth,with
anothercustomcrematoralreadyorderedandonitsway.
a vet practice, a grooming salon, a do-it-yourself (DIY)
dog wash, an adoption centre, pet insurance and a range
of other services.”
Greencross has a strong focus on the human aspect
of pet ownership, as they recognise this drives value
in the sector, even as volume is dwindling. Growth is in
premium products and services such as grooming salons,
insurance, and hotel and walking services. Hutchinson
likens our treatment of pets to how we treat small
children, and if we wouldn’t leave a small child at home
alone, why would we leave a pet?
Of course, it’s not just Australians and New Zealanders
who love their pets. The markets in the United Kingdom
and the United States are booming and it’s there
that Greencross looks for inspiration. It has strong
relationships with large players in those markets,
sharing ideas and innovations.
One of the latest trends is the use of technology,
Hutchinson adds, such as cameras that allow owners to
watch their pets at home. If their dog is doing the right
thing, owners press a button on an app and a mechanism
at home releases a treat!
What next? According to Hutchinson, what’s emerging
is Uber-style businesses designed to connect consumers
and providers with all the services pet-owners need, from
dog walking to sitting and more. Rest assured, whatever
you need for your pet is being developed right now,
even if you didn’t know you needed it.
1, 2. Diggiddy Doggy Daycare.
3. Pet Angel Funerals.
4. Pet Barn, Greencross Limited.
3 4
1
Australian Veterinary Association, Pet ownership
statistics, ava.com.au, visited 11.10.2016
2
RSPCA, How many pets are there in Australia?,
rspca.com.au, visited 11.10.2016
3
Keating, E. City Farmers sale to Greencross
fetches $205 million, Smart Company,
17.06.2014, smartcompany.com.au,
visited 16.10.2016
4
Greencross Limited, greencrosslimited.com.au,
visited 11.10.2016
ACROSS THE GREEN
Alongside the family and niche operators, pets are also
big business. When Petbarn and Greencross Vets merged
in 2013 the deal was worth an estimated $338 million3
and created the largest integrated, consumer-facing pet
care company in Australia and New Zealand.4
Today, ASX-listed Greencross Limited has over 350
business outlets across the two markets. And it’s growing
rapidly, both through acquisition of locations such as
vet practices and retail outlets and through putting new
stores on the ground.
David Hutchinson, Chief Customer Officer, says their
approach is effectively “to curate all the things that a pet
owner needs in an easily accessible way, a one-stop shop.
What we’re doing is creating locations that have a shop,

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MARKETING
The immediacy of social media that lets passion shine
through has been a key part of the success strategy of
premium camper trailer maker Patriot Campers.
Sylvia Pennington
Sharing the journey with camping enthusiasts on
social media has played a key part in the runaway
success of Queensland camper trailer manufacturer
Patriot Campers.
The company’s premium Australian-made trailers
retail for between $40,990 and $59,990 and have
amassed a following of almost 100,000 fans on
Instagram and Facebook.
TheventurehaditsgenesisthreeyearsagowhenPatriot
founderJustinMontesalvoandamatefoundthemselves
sketchingtheirdreamtrailerdesignoverafewbeers,ona
ChristmascampingtriptoQueensland’sStradbrokeIsland.
“We had bought a couple of camper trailers, the best
on the market at the time, but they were too long and too
heavy to take off road easily and they just didn’t suit what
we wanted to do. So we got talking about what we’d do
differently,” Montesalvo says.
Back home,hespentthenextthree monthsturning
theirwishlistintoa blueprintfor acompact,modular,tow-
anywheretrailerwithall thecomfortsand conveniences
of a ‘big rig’.Builtduring downtime athisBrisbane sheet
metal fabricationplant,theprototype wasready tobe put
throughits paces byJuly2014,onanother Stradbroke trip.
BUILDING A
HAPPY CAMPER
COMMUNITY
Justin and
Sarah Montesalvo

35. 33
SUMMER 2016
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DISCOVERING SOMETHING SPECIAL
“The trailer was never meant to be a commercial product
– I was building a camper trailer for me and my mate, that
was it – so it had no branding and no name. But we were
getting stares and honks all the way up the highway,”
Montesalvo recalls.
“We pulled onto the barge and went upstairs to have
breakfast and when we came back down there was a group
of 20 or 30 people around the trailer and a couple of guys
underneath it, poking around, going, ‘What is this thing?’
“That’s when it clicked – that we’d definitely
got something.”
That ‘something’ ended up coming to the attention
of the editor of Camper Trailer Australia, who asked to
review the trailer and suggested Montesalvo enter it in
the Camper Trailer of the Year 2014 competition.
After carrying off first prize – “the judges were blown
away, the whole industry was blown away” – and taking
several orders at a trade show, Montesalvo decided it was
time to go commercial.
HITTING THE SOCIAL TRAIL
Fast forward two years and Patriot Campers has morphed
into a thriving enterprise occupying a 2,000 square metre
premises and employing 32 staff. Montesalvo has plans
to not only increase production capacity and shorten
assembly times but to expand into new overseas markets.
With a tiny marketing budget and no experience,
Montesalvo and his wife Sarah have become self-
taught social media aficionados, sharing their business
adventure and promoting their trailers to fellow lovers of
the great outdoors via Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Patriot was a paid Facebook advertiser for the first
six months but the business’s rapid accumulation of fans
soon made the expenditure unnecessary.
Updates are posted every day or two – frequently
enough to stay tight with Patriot’s community of campers
but not so often that they feel the company is being
rammed down their throats.
“Sarah and I are the only people who control our social
media,” Montesalvo says. “It’s been successful so far
because we’ve become the faces of the brand. I’ve never
marketed anything before but the social media traction
for Patriot has come from the fact that we’ve kept it real.
“We put up photos from our own camping trips, we
promote when things go wrong as well as right. It’s real
life stuff and people can see that we live and breathe it.”
STAYING ON TRACK
Keeping it real doesn’t mean anything goes. Patriot
aims for a family-friendly vibe and risqué photos, ripe
language and innuendo are off limits.
“We do put a lot of thought into what we post,”
Montesalvo says. “Everything’s got to be G-rated. We’re
very cautious about appealing to everybody.”
The immediacy and intimacy of the social channels
allow the family’s passion for their products to shine
through in a way traditional advertising just can’t.
“I can’t wait to get here every morning and I think that
shows through with everything we do. People meet me
when they come to pick up a trailer and they say they feel
like they already know me – I get it all the time now.”
A NAB business customer, Montesalvo says the
advice and assistance he’s received have helped the
business thrive.
“If I need something I speak to our account manager,”
he says. “He’s a great support and can help me with not
only our banking matters but can also put me in touch
with specialists from across the bank to help with our
investment needs.”
I’ve never
marketed
anything
before but the
social media
traction for
Patriot has
come from
the fact that
we’ve kept
it real.

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VOX POP
SERVICE MAESTROS
What does it take to be a successful business owner in today’s service economy?
Business View asked the entrepreneurs interviewed in this issue and found it’s a
combination of hard work, persistence, good people – and looking to the future.
ON LEARNING THE VALUE OF HARD WORK EARLY
My parents have always been hard workers,
so seeing them work every day from sunrise to
sunset has been inspiring; they’ve become my role
models. My parents brought me and my siblings
up with the idea that hard work was part of life
since we were quite young, so we grew up with
that mentality embedded into our personalities
and lifestyles. This helped me view work as part
of life rather than as a burden, which I’ve found
really helpful throughout my professional life, and
especially in my entrepreneurial ventures.
Learning the value of hard work early helps you
realise that you need to set goals for yourself and
plan a way to achieve them. You learn that you’re
not entitled to things, but that you need to earn
what you want, and prove that you deserve it.
Developing a hard-working mindset from
an early age makes you more independent and
self-sufficient, which is a great quality to have
at any stage of life.
When you learn the importance of a good
work ethic while still young, you also learn
that making mistakes is a natural part of work
and therefore you understand their value as a
learning point.
Having my parents as role models gave me
the entrepreneurial drive to think about starting
my own company, and to realise that this wasn’t
a pipe dream but something real and achievable.
Ross Fastuca
Co-Founder and CIO,
Travelport Locomote
ON THE POWER
OF PERSISTENCE
Starting a company requires you to overcome
constant challenges. It’s very easy to give up after
being rejected, but if you keep trying, eventually
you’ll succeed. For example, when we were first
trying to get investors, our pitch deck evolved
constantly. Following each pitch, we took note of
every question an investor asked and worked out
solid answers. Sometimes it was just a matter of
articulating the strategy we had already developed,
other times it required days of brainstorming. Each
time we pitched we were able to communicate our
vision more clearly and the tough questions started
to dwindle. In fact, we ended up revising our pitch
deck more than 100 times.
Melanie Perkins
Co-Founder and CEO, Canva

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BUSINESS VIEW
ONHIRINGTHERIGHTPEOPLE
Everything starts with your people and – thinking
about young, entrepreneurial companies – they
need two things: enjoyment of work and personal
growth. The only way to offer this is by having the
right values and by building your culture around
that. At foodora we work hard, challenge each other
and grow together; doing this with a passionate
group of people is the key to success.
Toon Gyssels
Co-Founder and CEO, foodora
ON LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
It’s about looking beyond service: getting to know
and understand the needs of the customer and
growing from there. What’s their motivation?
And how do we work together to get beyond
short-term goals?
Technology has an incredible reach in
2016 and we are dramatically expanding it.
Continually building on our interconnected
understanding of the tech ecosystem is key
to our growth internationally.
Travis Rice
Co-Founder and Director of Content,
LENS Immersive
ON BEING A FORCE FOR GOOD
We’re enabling people to get things done that they
never thought they could have done affordably
before. At the same time we’re enabling those
with great skills (such as making costumes,
baking cakes or even assembling flat pack
furniture) to earn an income when they might
not be able to work a conventional 9 to 5 job.
Often these workers are retired or perhaps
studying at university so Airtasker has created
new income streams for them, making it
much easier to continue using their skills
and making money in ways they never might
have been able to before.
Jonathan Lui
Co-Founder and COO, Airtasker
ON AUTHENTICITY AND HONESTY
Authenticity is critical because ultimately people
do business with people, not brands. The service
sector is built on connections, where people
help each other. We all have an innate ability to
identify when someone is not being genuine and
now more than ever message congruency is a key
element of business service. If you believe in your
service then customers will believe in you.
The second key area is honesty. How brave
are you as an entrepreneur? A successful
business owner is able to leave their ego at the
door and not hide behind the bravado that
entrepreneurial stereotypes can sometimes
perpetuate. We don’t always see the reality of
business ownership, and if we’re honest there
are many instances where it can be stressful
and just hard work. Honesty is important
because it gives the business owner permission
to reach out and ask for help when times are
tough or business is slow.
Leanne Faulkner
Founder Owner, Fortitude at Work