30under30 2012

Businesses that are stuck in the pre-digital age have a prayer of hope thanks to Michael Woods, the creative director of Media Saints. A full-service digital development company, Media Saints produces games, mobile apps and even feature films for clients.

If you're a frequent traveller who is also a concerned cat owner, Ebony Centazzo's retreat is as good as a hotel...for your feline companions, that is. Cat Napping Suburban Retreat opened last year, in a warehouse replete with beds, toys and scratching posts for each individual guest, with a playpen, fish tank, and outdoor viewing to spare.

When asked how Terem Technologies was funded, Scott Middleton replies, "by customers." Without capital or credit, he generated his cash flow by pre-selling services to customers and using the sales to build the full business. And it helps that Middleton is a grand master of software development.

For Ross Scutts, the satisfaction of succeeding on one's own is never enough. That's why he founded the Young Entrepreneur's Club, a support network for business innovators who want to be around like-minded individuals.

Lingerie queen and repeat 30under30 winner Chanel Costabir is branching out with a new service called Sheer Novice, expanding on her conviction that sexy undergarments need not be the exclusive domain of women. Her new service, that is, is tailored specifically for the men who love them.

Marcus Lim loves the home trades (from plumbing to landscaping to masonry) and wants to make the market for them more efficient and less fragmented. Lim is the co-founder and director of operations of OneFlare, which lets homeowners post their needed jobs and compare quotes from servicemen in their area.

Sales are not just the key to survival, says Jake Howard; they're essential for a business to expand and dominate its market. Sales Pipeline, Howard's Perth-based company, uses leads generation, database building, telemarketing, and other strategies to grow a business' brand awareness and thus grow the business itself.

The removalist industry runs in his family, yet Patrick Hamilton is his own man. Urban Moves came into being to offer more efficient moving and better prices to those with a ton of furniture and just more than an inkling of despair.

Most marketers say they have 'social media experience'. Mike Watkins has eight years of it. Knowing Facebook inside-out pretty much from its inception has made the founder of Digiocial into a guru among gurus. Brand Temper is Watkins' latest innovation for helping brands to gauge their social media influence.

Joel Deakin, the director of the online customised menswear business George & King, is issuing a challenge to bricks and mortar shops. "Our suits and shirts combine luxurious fabrics with personalised details to capture your individual character," says Deakin.

Born in France, made in Perth, Olivier Mamet makes his mark as an animator and video producer by thinking Outside Of The proverbial Box. So proverbial, in fact, that he named his company OOTB Communication.

David Dixon's journey started with one girl, an orphan in Uganda who was unable to pay her school fees. As Dixon helped her pursue her education, he learned just how much odds are stacked against young women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa. It's common for girls to miss school during their periods, and facing sexual assault is more common than graduating. Many don't attend school at all. Dixon is fighting the odds and making education achievable...One Girl at a time.

OnTheGo manufactures customised sportswear for diverse sporting and fitness activities, and makes it available for government, not-for-profit, and corporate organisations. It's a brand that's philanthropic, adventurous, even risk-taking, and inextricably tied to the personality of its founder, the 22-year-old entrepreneur, avid cyclist and self-described 'Young Life Champion', Mick Spencer.

It took a broken bed in Dubai, a near-death experience in New York and a fact-finding trip to China for Jason Ballo to realise his true calling was at home. With Ballo Furniture, he designs and manufactures all of his own furniture pieces and sells them through his online shop to guarantee the best prices.

Energetic, unique, crazy, fun, childish. That is how Adrian Rokman characterises the nature of his work. Then again, at Allsportz, kid's play is everything, and as general manager, Rokman is having a blast being the biggest kid around.

A single 'Like' is a great first step toward greater brand awareness, and Abs Elmaz can't understand why more brands aren't on board. The Melbourne entrepreneur founded Social House Media to capitalise on Facebook as a channel for promotional marketing.

Newcastle's Leeanne Towse is teaching women of all backgrounds across the Hunter Valley to get vertical. The dance instructor is the founder of mPole, a studio franchise sharing a name with its signature contraption (and former SMART 100 innovation), a sturdy yet mobile dance pole that's easy to set up for performances.