30under30 is an Anthill initiative that was 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. Anthill’s editorial team then trawls through hundreds of applications and identifies and profiles the top 30 Australian entrepreneurs under the age of 30. The process culminates in an event held in Melbourne where the 30 winners network and celebrate. We’ve been releasing profiles of this year’s Anthill 30under30 winners via our Twitter account – youngest to oldest. After a brief hiatus for Venture Capital Month, these profiles continue.
Name: Phillip Kingston Age: 24 (b. 1985) State: VIC Industry: Software and website development Company:Kingston Development
Being the first and only child, Phillip Kingston is statistically pre-disposed to be entrepreneurial. But his biggest motivation is to prove his sceptics/doubters wrong.
Kingston started three companies that all made money while he was still a university student. His most successful venture, Kingston Development, is a software and web development company providing low-cost solutions to small businesses around Australia. He employs nine people and has maintained over 20 percent month-to-month revenue growth against the global economic headwind.
As the company’s founder and managing director, Kingston’s role is to keep the marketing fresh and the sales pitch tasty.
“I’m very motivated by people that can’t see, or don’t believe in, my vision,” says Kingston. “I am also motivated to be successful, and a core part of success in today’s world is wealth. But on reflection, I really enjoy people, working with people, communicating, etc. I wish to create a large company full of great people because the energy is really amazing.”
In addition to Kingston Development and his university study load, Kingston manages to squeeze out another 15 hours a week on his two other startups. One is in online mathematics education. The other is in careers advice for year 11 and 12 students.
Kingston considers himself a serial entrepreneur because his passion for starting up new and exciting companies isn’t waning over time. One of Kingston’s earlier startups, Flogd, was featured in the BRW Top 100 Web Startups. He was also a finalist in the Global Student Entrepreneurs Awards.
Having recently graduated from Bachelor of Science and Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne, Kingston is not short of time or ambition to grow his companies even bigger. “I will be employing over 20 people by the end of the year and will have over 150 clients.”
ENTREPRENEURSHIP LESSONS ACCORDING TO PHILLIP
Kingston was involved in a number of failed high-risk, no-revenue model web 2.0 startups.
“We made a number of mistakes – the biggest was changing products – mid-development – to what we ‘thought’ the market wanted.
“We learnt to not worry about the detail and get a product out there fast that solves most of the problem. Waiting to have the perfect product that provides 100 percent of the solution is a costly mistake. Get to 70-80 percent and launch it, then take on feedback.”
MULTIMEDIA
Amir Nissen (founder of Student Entrepreneurs | Agents of Change), interviewed Phillip Kingston while he was the CEO of Flogd.
Tian Yang is the founding member and vice president of Student Entrepreneurs | Agents of Change, an organisation dedicated to creating and cultivating entrepreneurship communities in Australian universities. He is also the sponsorship and partnership manager of the second annual Entrepreneurs Week 2009. Tian is currently completing his Bachelor of Commerce/Media & Communication degree at the University of Melbourne.
A Telstra survey of 1,000 SMBs found nearly three-quarters to be indifferent to the charms of Facebook, Twitter and the like, and 12% believing social media to be a business dampener.
We live in an era of globalisation, sudden business market turmoil, continuous technology evolutions and rapid scientific advances. Things are always changing rapidly and in this new business reality, the one thing that separates champions from losers is innovation. Organisations that continue to pursue innovation weather difficult economic times better and position themselves for more…
Erick Armando’s website, DealsGuide, grabs onto the group-buying boom and takes it to the next logical level. DealsGuide aggregates the daily-deals sites such as Spreets, Wimzy and Scoopon, putting the craze under one roof. Armando launched DealsGuide in 2010 after he and a business partner studied the group-buying phenomenon, looking for the best opening. “Having an impact in whatever industry I am in is a massive motivator,” he says. “This also encourages me to push through what is comfortable and go into the unknown.”
According to research recently undertaken by global online accounting software Xero, Australian SMEs that use online accounting are getting paid 19 days faster nowadays than they were two years ago – down from 51 days to 32 days. This statistic comes from analysis of four million Aussie SMEs in the two years since October 2011….
In a sense it is an accounts and property management for home-owner’s to handle the entire guest experience all guest inquiries, cleaning, property management.
