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.
Name: Mark Saba Age: 26 (b. 1983) State: VIC Industry: Translation Services Company:Connect Language Services
Mark Saba may not speak your language, but he sure has a lot of mates who do. His startup, Connect Language Services (CLS), works with 4,000 interpreters and translators globally to provide multicultural communication solutions to major Australian corporations and government organisations.
Starting out as a university student with only $5,000, Saba has built the company to the point where it has experienced 150 percent growth in the past six months. He has a client retention rate of 95 percent and in 2008 had two M&A offers.
“My dedication best qualifies me as an entrepreneur,” says Saba, “My family constantly remind me of a time where I went into work on a Monday, and that Monday was the day after my wedding.”
Leveraging innovative technology to provide integrated services to its clients at lower costs, CLS was recently named as one of the Top 10 National Finalist for the Dell/EXCOM Small Business Excellence Award.
Saba has opened four other successful businesses since the age of 18 – one after the other, with no break periods in between. “I have loved the independence that comes with working for yourself,” he says. “I’m passionate about the challenges and roles I have to experience as an entrepreneur. Building something from the ground up and seeing it take off is really the most satisfying feeling.”
Saba is currently growing his business at 120 percent each year. But money isn’t what drives him. “Seeing customers happy and returning is one of the biggest sources of motivation,” he says, “They are the life and blood of my business.”
ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACCORDING TO MARK
How do you deal with emotional distress?
[Last year I] was losing touch with my inner entrepreneurial spirit. Getting caught up in day-to-day operations really brought me down and in turn had an effect on the business. Support from my wife and hanging around positive people has helped me overcome this and I’m now more focused and feel like I did when I first started my business at age 22.
MULTIMEDIA
Here’s a recent video promo explaining Connect Language Services.
Tough competition is the number one barrier for growth for Australian SMEs. This is according to the inaugural State of Small Business Global Report by TradeGecko
Earlier this morning, we pinged out a sponsored message promoting a capital raising workshop. It reminded me of a ‘rant’ we published in the second or third edition of Anthill Magazine, way back in March 2004, by Michael Gordon. The piece was about the frustration many investors (and editors) feel when being pitched to. Here’s…
Property Connect, an Australian real estate tech start-up that is shaking up the huge US rental market, is set to raise A$2.5 million as it lists on the ASX
For longer than any of us have been alive, advertising primarily revolved around paying a fee to leverage mass or niche audiences built by publishers and media outlets. To build an audience today, you don’t need a gargantuan printing press or a television studio or five floors of reporters. The barriers to entry to publishing content online are nil, and thus brands are capitalising on the more affordable content delivery systems today to bypass advertising.
Entrepreneurs and scientists use the concepts of ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’ interchangeably. This is not surprising, as both play an integral role in the new product development process. They are not the same, however they do have a symbiotic relationship: each is largely useless without the other. Creativity is the process of coming up with new…
Okay, this is, for some people, going to be an uncomfortable column to read as I am going to seriously challenge what for many seems like an obvious ‘conventional wisdom’. In many cases it is better for the planet if you offset your carbon emissions than if you reduce them via your own in-house efficiencies. The woman with the fully carbon offset Hummer is probably a better friend to the planet than the man in his non-offset Prius.
![Australian SMEs ‘punching above their weight’ amid tough competition [INFOGRAPHIC]](https://anthillonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/punching.jpg)
![Three retail brands that are becoming media companies [Plus, Four Hot Tips for Content Marketers]](https://anthillonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Grant-Arnott.jpg)
