Profiled: Pick 'n' Drop

Ever heard of Pick 'N' Drop - "a new and innovative service which makes the hassle of drycleaning as easy as answering your door! No need to worry about when or where you send your drycleaning."

I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't - because they've only been in operation two weeks! We were lucky enough to meet the three young entrepreneurs behind Pick 'N' Drop at our Young Entrepreneurs Workshop at the Sutherland Shire Hub for Economic Development just a couple of weeks ago.

Pick 'N' Drop will pick up your clothes for dry cleaning, and then drop them back when they're clean! They operate in the CBD, Eastern Suburbs and North Shore.

Nallakkumar Karunanithy, one of the three directors, explains below the motivation for starting up a business with his good friends and how the idea came about.

"The opportunity came to us during our brainstorming sessions, all three of us strive in challenging ourselves and we decided to start up our own business, regardless of the industry, just to gain the experience and thrill of doing something for our own benefit rather than working for a particular company or individual. We studied available markets and decided we needed to introduce something innovative and fresh, the Sydney business market/s is flooded with competition, so to start anything in one of those markets would have been near impossible without an endless supply of marketing capital...which we did not have. Our service is practically unheard of, so once we tap into the industry and spread the word, we have no doubt that our service will be useful. Pinpointing the idea was as easy as looking for a particular need in a market, that was not currently being satisfied, and the pick up and drop off idea really caught our attention as being a viable project to look into."

On the first week of operation:
"Things are slow, as always at the start of anything but we've had a few calls/orders and the people using the seem interested, so it looks promising."

And just a little bit about the three directors:
"We're all 23yr olds, known each other through university of Wollongong. I'm doing a Bachelor of Computer Science, my partner Amir does a Bachelor of Exercise Science and Rehabilitation. We're both graduate students who just completed our last semesters, and our third partner is Jay, who's doing a Bachelor of Medical Science and he completes his course at the end of the year. We're more like brothers than mates so its another reason as to why we decided to do this together."

Good luck guys!

http://www.pickndrop.com.au/

BELLE Young Women's Leadership Program

Young Women’s Mentoring Program Presents:

YOUNG WOMEN &

CAREER WORKSHOP

For young women aged 15-25 years

Tuesday 15^th July 10a.m.-4p.m.

OVER 6 HOURS THE WORKSHOP FOCUSES ON:

1. An ‘organiser’- creating powerful first impressions, managing your time, dressing for business, business etiquette, networking skills

2. A set of ‘keys’- how to open doors of opportunity, volunteering and networking, stories of successful business and career women.

3. A ‘map’-setting achievable life and career goals, mapping your finances and learning how to budget.

4. An ‘eye mask’- how to create your own stress solutions and use visualization.

During the course of the day, you get to work in groups and on your own. Each group of participants is guided through the program by a successful and experienced professional woman who acts as a mentor for the day. The mentors inspire and allow you to interact with a successful role model. The Program is run by FRANK Team- www.frankteam.com.au. Lunch is included.

This is a free workshop run at North Richmond. Numbers are limited. Phone Kate Mason on 4578-4190 to book (Bookings essential). For more details of The Young Women’s Mentoring Program go to www.myspace.com/ywmp

Profiled: Planning for Babe

From this week onwards, we're going to be profiling a different young entrepreneur on our blog every week! There's so many amazing young people that we meet, out there doing some really cool and inspiring things with their time and business skills - so we want to inspire you too!

This week we're profiling Amanda Jephtha, Founder of Plannng For Babe.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the choice in baby products and services? Do you simply have no time to thoroughly research and decide which is best? Planning for Babe's baby planners exclusively tailor the most suitable baby products and services to your individual needs and lifestyle - like a wedding planner to a wedding. Planning for Babe gives you the most important luxury - the gift of time and confidence to enjoy your pregnancy.

Sounds like a great idea to me! It's awesome to see someone who spotted a market niche and acted on it!

To find out more, check out http://planningforbabe.com/ or e-mail Amanda at

amanda@planningforbabe.com.au

TOP 5 PITFALLS TO WATCH OUT FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENUERS JUST STARTING OUT

There is no such thing as a mistake, just mis-takes! So learn from them
and keep going. But watch out for:

1. MANAGE YOUR TIME
You still have to do your homework, sport, chores, friends, families - so manage your time to fit it all in. Use timetables and checklists.

2. DON'T BREAK THE LAW
Do your research, ask around and make sure you don't do something really wrong! There is still a lot of room for your awesome ideas, within the law!

3. GET THINGS IN WRITING
Any agreements you make with friends, family, customers, suppliers etc you should get in writing, contracts, quotes, prices, what you will deliver etc, to protect yourself and others.

4. CAREFULLY MANAGE YOUR MONEY
You have worked hard to make it, so look after it! It’s very easy to just go out and blow it all on yourself, but then how will your business have its doors open tomorrow for you to make more money?? So put aside money for bills and costs before you pay yourself, avoid debt early on, and regularly check your cashflow and where your money is coming from. Also shop around for the best bank account so that all your hard earned dosh is not being taken in charges!

5. DON'T STOP IF YOU FAIL
Failure is not a bad thing - ask any successful young person in business and they will tell you that failure and mistakes is what got them to where they are now! Work out why it didn't work, how it can be improved, learn and then try again.

TOP 5 TIPS FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS JUST STARTING OUT

1. BE EXCITED & interested in your business idea
It takes a lot of hard work to make your idea happen so you want to make sure you really
enjoy it, whether it is food, computers, helping people, service etc, and your excitement
attracts people too! Being excited and energetic comes easy to young people, so use that
to your advantage.

2. GET YOUR IDEAS ON PAPER
This will help you get structure to your idea, plan things out, you can show it to others, and
it will show you where to start. Keep it simple.

3. DO SOME RESEARCH
It doesn't need to be too much, just enough to get you started. Research costs, prices to
charge, what competitors are doing, what customers want, legalities etc.

4. START SMALL
Just build yourself 1 customer at a time, this way you don't need much money to start with
at all. Just make a small profit each time so that you can keep going, and get a little better
next time.

5. JUST GIVE IT A GO!
The easiest thing to do is to have a great idea, the hardest thing to do is to actually give it
a go and do something about it, and by giving it a go you will learn a lot about yourself
and money. So just get started, NOW!

Is Work Causing you to Stress?

If you’re feeling irritable at work, you can't sleep, you’re taking days off and you can't concentrate, chances are you’re suffering from work stress. The nature of work has gone through drastic changes over the last century and it’s still changing at whirlwind speed... and with change often comes stress!

What are the signs of work stress?
Typical symptoms of stress can be: insomnia; loss of mental concentration; anxiety; absenteeism; depression; substance abuse; extreme anger and frustration; family conflict; physical illness; headaches; and, stomach and back problems.

What can cause stress?
Some of the most obvious causes of workplace stress are: high demand for performance; job
insecurity; coping with technology; workplace culture; personal or family problems; and mental or physical harassment in the workplace.

The good news is, you can do something about it!

In today's biz climate, you need to be continually prepared for changes to avoid stress ...
SO:
o Find and protect whatever time you get to refresh, re-energise and re-motivate yourself.
o Be and feel happy by giving up negative mental behaviours such as fear, anger and revengeful
attitudes, which actually encourage stress. Instead try holistic relaxation such as meditation, breathing and exercises.
o Celebrate your own or your work mates accomplishments; however big or small!
o Re-evaluate your goals and prioritise them.
o Evaluate the demands placed on you and see how they fit in with your goals.
o Identify stressors in your life, such as work, or family. Get the support of your friends, family and even counselling to help reduce your stress.
o Ensure that you’re following a healthy lifestyle:
1. You’re getting enough sleep to keep your energy levels up
2. You’re eating a healthy, balanced diet
3. And try to recognise your spiritual needs - do you believe in what you are working for?
o Give yourself a break! Switch to another area within your organisation. If you come back later, you may find that you’ve started to enjoy the work again, and can take on only those commitments that you want. You may, however, find that you have absolutely no interest in continuing with what you’re doing. In which case, it may be best to drop it altogether.
o Exercise! Join a gym or get involved with a local sports team. If you’re feeling highly stressed and deeply de-motivated with your job or life - get into action today!

Adapted from an article at www.lifepositive.com

Congrats to Fred Schebesta and Callan Taylor - winners of 30under30!

Here at The FRANK Team, we'd love to extend a big CONGRATULATIONS to Callan Taylor (our SA facilitator) and Fred Schebesta (Director and occasional guest speaker/article contributor), who have been named as winners in Australian Anthill's 30under30 competition! This is for their amazing entrepreneurship, unique business ideas and approach, and ongoing great work! Keep it up :)

10 Secrets to Marketing Your Business Online

10 secrets to marketing small business online

Being online levels the playing field, as, big or small,everyone has the same chance to attract customers.

By following some basic principles, you can receive the same coverage as major players and see your business take off using savvy, affordable marketing.

1. Create a Website of course! - Without a web presence you don't exist online. So the first and most obvious step is to create one! The key to keeping customers happy in the online environment is to design a website that is both aesthetically and functionally pleasing. When you’re designing your website, create a situation where every page drives a consumer action and generates a sales lead for your business.
2. Convert Visitors to Leads - To turn your website from a passive, "brochure-ware" site that delivers a lot of information but doesn't deliver results, you need to refocus your strategy from delivering free information and content, to providing relevant content that drives consumer action. Supplying information is both necessary and helpful to readers and handy in raising your search engine rankings. Always ask yourself, "what is my call to action" - these can take the form of links to downloads, requesting consumer information, advertising, offers or promotions. At the very least, encourage users to make contact with you, either by phone or email.
3. Build Trust & Credibility - Being open and transparent is crucial to success in online marketing. Prove you are a concrete, reliable business by including as many of the following as possible: clear contact details including a physical address and landline phone number, photos and images of employees, location and equipment, third party endorsements and verification of your authenticity including ‘approved’ stamps and/or testimonials. Also, be sure to reply to all contact enquiries promptly with an acknowledgement of emails sent by users and/or response to phone messages.
4. Search Engine Leads - the first step to finding what you need on the internet is running a search on a company name, product name, service or activity. Research shows that high search engine rankings are a major predictor of online business success. After 30 results, users stop looking, so it’s vital you sit within this top percentile. So to optimise your business’ search engine ranking, use search engine optimisation (ie: having key words associated with the content on your
site so people find you when searching) and search engine marketing (you can pay to have your site link featured on the right hand side of search results pages).
5. Email Market/eDM - The power of online can be summed up by email marketing. It’s a cost-effective, efficient, traceable, relationship-building tool for regularly communicating with your existing and potential consumers. We have all heard of the 80:20 rule in marketing: 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. Email marketing is the easiest way to continue an ongoing, targeted dialogue with them. 5 top secrets for Email Marketing Success are: regularity, short punchy content, calls to action, personalisation, and maintaining a clean list (database).
6. Affiliate Market - As well as buying listings in search engine results, you can buy or trade listings on relevant directories and/or cross-promotional websites. Reciprocal link-backs improve both websites' natural search engine listings.
7. Partnerships & Links - As with affiliate marketing, the success of this tactic lies in increasing your exposure through both cross-promotion on related websites, and also through upping your search engine listing thanks to increased link-backs. There are many avenues to increasing your presence, for free or at a low cost on related websites. Submit articles to other websites and free PR websites, submit sites to directories, buy links, buy partnerships e.g.
Emailcash, List on Shopferret and price comparision websites.
8. Blogging - Running a business, you are clearly an expert in your field. Invite potential and current customers to share your expertise and get a taste of how your knowledge will positively impact them, by creating a blog. Blogs create a community around those with common interests and become a tool for sharing and developing ideas. Their major advantage is creating an open, accessible channel to boost consumer involvement. They can be used to encourage trials,
conduct on-the-ground research, and develop ongoing customer relationships. Plus there’s stacks of software online to set up your blog - all for free! We use www.blogger.com but there’s a huge range out there to choose from.
9. Email Signature - Think about how many emails you send out each day, each week, each month. Now multiply that by the emails sent by your employees and/or subcontractors. Every one of those emails is an opportunity to market your business. As well as including your standard contact details, and always, always your website URL; the smart online marketer also uses this opportunity to promote their latest offer, promotion, or release. Alternately it can be used to build your brand identity or value-add to consumers, and grow your relationships.
10. Track & Respond - Every web host keeps detailed statistics of activities occurring on your website; from the number of visitors, to downloads, where people landed and left the site,how long they stayed, to where they spent most of their time. Analyse this information and use it to continually improve your site's performance based on this silent customer feedback. The beauty of the Internet is that you can change your marketing and track its effects immediately. If something is working, stick with it. If not, change it again.

Going Forward
While you may not have the financial resources of the big guns, you do share access to the same technology: online. Use it to your advantage, and watch your small business grow!

This article was provided by Fred Schebesta, Director of Freestyle Media.

The FRANK Team is now hiring!

The FRANK Team Facilitator

WANTED: enterprising young people and young entrepreneurs to run career, business and community workshops for young people in metro Victoria, NSW and the ACT!

SPECIFICALLY WE ARE LOOKING FOR:

- Victoria; one female facilitator who runs their own business.

- NSW; one male and one female facilitator, at least one who runs their own business.

- ACT; one male and one female facilitator, at least one who runs their own business.

MUST HAVE:

Facilitation and/or training experience

Awesome presentation skills

Inspiring, energetic attitude

Experience in running a business AND/OR

Experience in running community projects, being involved at a community level AND/OR

A track record of achievements (e.g. excelling in your career)

For the full job description please email anna@frankteam.com.au or call 02 9966 4333.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Young Entrepreneurs Workshop Sydney!

We have many people asking us when they can come along to one of our workshops and learn about starting up their own business – well we are excited to announce another Young Entrepreneurs Workshop that we are running that any young people can come along to!

The SSHED - Sutherland Shire Economic Hub for Development is a world class business incubator helping out biz's in the Sutherland area and they're hosting another Young Entrepreneurs Workshop on the 21^st June from 10am-2pm.

This is a great opportunity for skills training, facilitated networking, and self promotion! It’s run by young people, for young people.

We have a great line up of speakers and guests at this year’s workshop, with Stewart Nicholls, Co-Director & Founder, Ecowash Mobile as our key note speaker! And throughout day you will also hear from:
Lachlan Mansell - Chequered Flag Media
Tahlia Taylor Jones - Rare Indigo
Steve Orenstein - SMO Technology
Lara Solomon - LaRoo
Jessica Kiely – The FRANK Team

Plus you:
- attend a skills workshop, either:
Effective and fun biz planning for those just starting out!
OR
10 top tips for marketing on a shoestring budget!
- get feedback on your business ideas from a panel of successful young entrepreneurs
- and there's lots of opportunity for you to make new contacts.

Getting involved again fourth time round are Sutherland Shire Council, the SSHED, GROW Sydney, University of Wollongong and the workshop is being run by The FRANK Team.

If you would like more info about the event, or you'd like to register please email me @ anna@frankteam.com.au

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Anna