What is the 30under30?
30under30 is an Anthill initiative launched in early 2008 to encourage and promote entrepreneurship among young Australians.
Each year, we invite our readers to nominate young Australian entrepreneurs deserving of recognition for their outstanding entrepreneurial endeavours. More.
Steve McLeod, VIC (b. 1984)
Name: Steve McLeod
Age: 29 (Born: May 1984)
Gender: Male
State: VIC
Known for: Fire and Safety Australia
When Steve McLeod was in the fire brigade, he saw many deaths and serious injuries which he believed could have been prevented. On top of that, he also noticed that many Australian companies were getting generic safety that was not specifically tailored to their industry.
This is when he decided to focus his life on preventing these emergencies and founded Fire and Safety Australia in 2007 from his own savings.
At just 23, McLeod reeled in large corporate clients against competitors twice his age and experience. All he had was his passion to convince them.
He landed deals with Bluescope Steel, Virgin, Cement Australia among others, who over half a decade later still remain clients because McLeod’s passion still burns as hot as it did back in 2007.
FSA has generated a buzz as the only industry player that offers a full 100% money back guarantee for all their training. No terms, no conditions, just passionate and enthusiastic training.
Furthermore, never being one to miss an unexpected opportunity, McLeod was training at a mine site when he uncovered an opportunity to contract out fire-fighters to the mining industry.
He noticed that many mines had trouble retaining emergency services workers and plugged this gap with highly skilled consistent personnel. This now earns over $2.5million per annum in revenue.
Despite the fact that he is in the safety industry, McLeod has suffered some pitfalls of his own, especially with staff. He sometimes hired the wrong people and kept them on for too long, hence losing clients, revenue and good staff members too.
McLeod says he has now learnt to hire slowly and fire quickly saying, “I now instantly fire anyone who does not live up to our values. This causes minutes of pain but saves years of problems.”
McLeod is a two time 30under30s winner and since last year, Fire and Safety Australia has been on quite a row adding the Melbourne South East Small Business Award 2012 and the Monash City Council Small Business Award 2012 to their trophy cabinet.
The 23 year old ‘kid’ has taken a business from $0 to $8.5 million, employing over 50 people, being among the top 10 in the industry and being named the 12th fastest growing company in Australia (check the above photo) with 5 years of 100%+ growth. Not so kiddish huh?
Anthill asks: Steve McLeod, what is your super-power?
PASSION. PASSION. PASSION. I am a 10/10 for business passion and I never let up. I see our vision and communicate it passionately to our team and inspire our team to greatness! I can never be too passionate about my business and its direction and influence on the world!
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