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.
Tenille Bentley is putting Australia on the map with her impressive philanthropic work. She is the founder of The Global Good Foundation (GGF), a charity to support women and children affected by domestic violence.
Bentley founded the GGF in 2007, a charity organisation setting up education centres around Australia for people affected by domestic violence. In just over one year she initially attracted more than 2,000 supporters and built an internationally recognised foundation consisted entirely of volunteers.
“My reason for doing what I do is purely because I grew up in this environment,” says Bentley. Her goal for GGF is to “educate youth extensively so they will know where to go in this situation”.
As the chairman of GGF, Bentley is involved with governing and guiding the overall business direction of its four divisions and fifty members. She has also run a gala ball for 300 corporations and sourced over $80,000 of sponsorships in under a year.
Bentley has built and run a total of three businesses within the first year of her entrepreneurial life. “My concept when stepping into the world of entrepreneurship was always to have a charity associated,” she says. “Then I had two other businesses which I essentially placed to compete against each – whichever one ran first was the one I would run with.” Her first business turned over $400,000 within the first six months of operation.
In addition to an entrepreneurial career Bentley works full time as Project Development Manager at Liberty Resources. She also mentors university PR students about effective networking even though she never went to university herself.
Bentley is known by the Honourable Perth Lord Mayor as “Tenacious Tenille”, and was shortlisted in the top six in Western Australia for Telstra Business Woman of the Year.
Driven by her vision, nothing stops Bentley until she gets there. And even when she does get there, she’s already thinking about the next opportunity.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACCORDING TO TENILLE
How do you handle people who say NO to your idea?
I had someone at my first presentation tell me it was “going to fail”.
I saw this as an opportunity rather than taking offence. I politely asked why they thought that and took away some key items that I have since applied to my business model.
My motto is find the person that is going to say NO and collect all the reasons why and ensure this is covered in the business model. That way you have essentially turned a potential problem into a great learning curve.
I apply this thought pattern with every area of my work.
Commercial real estate disrupter JAGONAL has launched with over 6,000 listings of offices for sale or lease – 65 per cent of Australia’s vacant office space
We first reported on local startup Newsmodo, the media marketplace, when it launched earlier in the year. Now, more news from Newsmodo: they’ve upgraded. Plus, some of the biggest publications in the world have sourced stories from its ranks – think AP, NBC, Hello!, The Daily Mail and Pacific Publications. And, that’s just for starters….
Startup Victoria’s Female Founders Committee has launched “Ignite” – open to all Victorian female tech start-up founders who want a great business mentor
Introducer, Australia’s only after hours supported business loans marketplace has been selected as one of two startups to receive $10,000 funding from Catalysr.
Moula, an online platform for small business lending in Australia, has closed a A$30 million investment round led by Liberty Financial, NCN Investments and a group of private investors. Co-founders Andrew Watt and Aris Allegos (pictured left), who each previously worked over 15 years in the banking industry, met on a fixed income trading floor…
In the earlier years of internet marketing, the most common question I heard about search engine optimisation was, “SEO? What’s that?” Today I am more likely to hear, “SEO? We tried that and it didn’t’ work.” The biggest challenge I now face with new SEO clients is cleaning up the mess left by their previous search engine optimisation company or individuals.
Name: Tenille Bentley
