First published in 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
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Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.

To my wonderful family who make it all possible and worthwhile

Phil, Darcy, Cameron and Maddi

And to the best parents a girl could hope for

Rosemary and David Schwerdt

Bernadette Schwerdt is a writer, keynote speaker and entrepreneur. She is the founder of the Australian School of Copywriting, the head copywriting tutor at the Australian Writers’ Centre, and a former senior account director with Wunderman Cato Johnson Advertising, where she created campaigns for clients such as Apple, American Express and BHP.

She has a business degree in Marketing from the University of South Australia, is the author of the best-selling book Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs, the producer of a video series of the same name for Fairfax Media and a popular TEDx speaker on a topic close to her heart: ‘How to bumble your way to success’.

She is on the board of Writers Victoria, a mentor with the Layne Beachley ‘Aim for the Stars’ foundation, and a judge for the Anthill Cool Company Awards and the Online Retailers Industry Awards (ORIAs). She has been featured in BRW, Money magazine, HuffPost and on Sky News.

She took three years out of the corporate world to study acting at the Victorian College of the Arts, has since worked extensively as an actor in film and television and is a leading public speaking coach for senior executives.

You could say she’s had what is now known as a ‘portfolio’ career. Her mother still doesn’t know exactly what she does.

I would like to thank all those who made this book possible.

To the fantastic team at Wiley Publishing: Lucy Raymond, Chris Shorten, Peter Walmsley, Ingrid Bond and Sandra Balonyi.

To all the amazing online entrepreneurs and expert contributors who participated in the book. Thank you for your time, honesty and generosity of spirit.

To my wonderful family, friends and business colleagues:

Patrick and Sandy Schwerdt, Edmund and Sheryn Schwerdt, Stephen and Rosalind Schwerdt, Monique Eddy, Heather Fraser, Judyth Wiley, Jenny Thurlow, Karen Claren, Theresa Miller, Karen Eck, Ami-Leigh O’Donnell, Meri Harli, Paul Greenberg, Toby Tremayne, Glenn Flood, Andrew Romeo, Samuel Tan, Alex Sapurmas, Sylvia Young, Jane Carbone, Michelle West, and Gina Battista.

I have a confession to make.

I don’t like cooking. But ironically, I really like watching cooking shows.

The show I love most of all is MasterChef and the reason I love it is not because of what they cook; it’s about how they cook and how that cooking process reveals their true entrepreneurial personality. I’ll give you an example.

There’s a segment on the show where all the contestants are given a recipe. This recipe is often prepared by a famous chef — such as Heston Blumenthal — a chef renowned for creating fiendishly difficult recipes. The contestants’ job is to re-create this recipe to the letter. If a contestant gets it wrong, they run the risk of going home. If you watch the show, you’ll know that going home is to be avoided at all costs.

So, the contestants start cooking. Halfway in, the recipe calls for a pinch of salt. One contestant — let’s call her Sue — puts in the pinch of salt, stirs it, stares into space, tastes it and declares to no-one in particular, ‘I think it needs more salt!’

At this point, people like me at home start throwing popcorn at the screen, yelling, ‘Are you crazy?! It’s a recipe! It’s been salted! Don’t mess with the recipe!’

You can see Sue wrestling with her decision. ‘Will I put more salt in …? Won’t I …? Will I …? Won’t I …?’ and then …

Boom! In goes the salt! And all hell breaks loose.

The judges descend and declare Sue to be ‘crazy’ for messing with the recipe.

The fellow contestants hover like ghouls and call Sue ‘crazy’ for taking such a stupid risk. People at home, like me, yell, ‘Are you crazy? You are so leaving the MasterChef kitchen. Your journey is over.’ Sue panics. She second guesses her decision. ‘Did I make the wrong call? Has that extra pinch of salt cost me my place in the competition?’

And then it gets to the judging. This is when it gets interesting. It goes one of two ways.

The judges taste Sue’s dish, screw up their noses and say, ‘That tastes terrible. It’s too salty. What were you thinking?’ Sue starts to cry.

Or they taste it, smile and say, ‘That tastes amazing. What were you thinking?’ Sue starts to cry.

And more often than not, the contestant — people like Sue — who took the ‘crazy’ risk goes on to win the competition!

So why does that contestant win when those who follow the rules and stick to the recipe don’t?

Having watched every season since it started, I’ve seen the pattern. People like Sue win because they’re the innovators, the mavericks, the risk-takers, the ones who say, ‘I know what I should be doing; I know what the judges are telling me to do and I know what the audience is telling me to do. But I’m going to do it my way, because I believe in me.’

And they’re exactly the sort of people I wanted to interview for the book you’re reading right now. Not people from the cooking community of course, but people from the online business community — people who have taken risks, gone out on a limb, given up their comfortable day jobs, done something others considered ‘crazy’, and succeeded.

With that in mind, I wanted to explore two key aspects.

First, are entrepreneurs born or made? Is there an entrepreneurial ‘gene’ that automatically hardwires them for success? Are they born with an abundance of traits that naturally predispose them to the rollercoaster ride that is entrepreneurship? Or can training, commitment and exposure to advanced entrepreneurial strategies be enough to create success? Or is there a third option where entrepreneurial ability is a combination of heredity and environment?

What’s clear is that while some entrepreneurs are born risk-takers, mercurial in nature and driven to buck the trend, these qualities are not in and of themselves pure indicators of success. Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, launch their startups for a wide variety of reasons and bring a range of skills and abilities to the table. I wanted to discover not so much what natural traits are needed for entrepreneurial success, but to uncover the mindsets and behaviours that successful entrepreneurs exhibit that lead to success. After all, one can argue that traits can’t be learnt but mindsets and behaviours can.

Second, I wanted to explore the practical side of building a successful online business: the nuts and bolts that enable that crazy idea to be launched to a global market. After all, having the idea is one thing; building it from scratch is another. Here’s what I wanted to find out:

• How did they come up with the idea and get it off the ground?
• What challenges did they face getting started and how did they overcome those challenges?
• How did they know what idea to run with and how did they test whether their idea had merit?
• What is their point of difference and how did they come up with that?
• What trends do they follow and how do they stay ahead of their competitors?
• What was the minimum viable product (MVP) that got them started?
• What online tools and templates did they use to launch their online business?
• What are their marketing strategies for growth when they’ve got no more money to burn?
• What social media strategies do they use to gain new market share?
• What content do they create to build influence and generate sales?
• How do they compete with businesses 10 times their size?
• What role does advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other disruptive tools play in their business?
• How do they get found on Google when they can’t afford to pay for AdWords?
• How do they get media coverage when they can’t afford a publicist?
• • How do they influence and persuade investors and staff to come on board when all they have to show is a crazy idea?

… and much more.

Who’s this book for?

This book will be of great value to you if you:

• run a small business … because you need to know how to fend off competitors that weren’t there yesterday and are here today: competitors founded by tech-savvy geekpreneurs who spot a sleepy industry and even sleepier CEOs and think, ‘We can take them on’. If you’re not thinking at least a year ahead, you’re a target. Don’t get caught sleeping at the wheel. Stay up to date.
• employ millennials … because if you have millennials handling your marketing, managing your social media or building your website, they’re probably telling you what to do and how much it’s going to cost and you can’t do a thing to challenge them except agree, pay the Facebook advertising bill and then scratch your head wondering, ‘What do they really do?’
• are a millennial … because you have a great idea and the tools to bring it to fruition, but you just can’t get traction. You know what needs to be done, but struggle to build a team or manage it once you do. Maybe you’ve been ripped off one too many times by a ‘partner’ and you’re wondering what you did wrong and what you could have done better.
• are in middle management … because if you’ve only ever had one career, you’re aged 50 or over and you get retrenched, you, my friend, are in trouble. I don’t mean to scare you, but you’ll need to retrain ‘tout suite’ so why wait for the axe to fall? Retrain now, get savvy with the new tech tools of business and take control of your future while you have the luxury of employment.
• are a stay-at-home parent … because you stayed at home to raise your little ones and now you want to get back ‘out there’ (wherever ‘out there’ is). But you’ve lost your confidence and instead of ‘feeling the fear and doing it anyway’, you just feel the fear. You haven’t lost your brain. It’s just gone a bit mushy. You’ve got ideas galore; you just need the confidence to bring them to life.

Why you should read this book

For the past few years, I’ve been privileged to be a judge for the Online Retail Industry Awards (ORIAs), the peak body for internet business in Australia. I was privy to the award applications submitted by Australia’s best and brightest online businesses. As a result, I got to see ‘under the hood’, so to speak of how leading entrepreneurs built their multimillion-dollar businesses. I had access to the inside story on how and why they started their businesses, the challenges they faced, the launch strategies they applied, the website platforms they used, the marketing software they chose and the systems they followed for success. I’ve also been a judge for Anthill Australia’s Cool Company Awards and seen how dozens of other mavericks got started. I’ve conducted dozens of industry panels featuring the heads of Australia’s most innovative startups, such as Uber, Vinomofo, Milan Direct, Pozible and Deals Direct and had the opportunity to ask them questions many would like answers to but didn’t have the platform from which to do so.

Prior to that, I spent 12 months creating a five-part video series for Fairfax Media’s The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers and got to interview disruptive digital leaders, including Matt Barrie from Freelancer, John Winning from Appliances Online, Tony Nash of Booktopia, Jodie Fox from Shoes of Prey and dozens of others. Those interviews formed the basis of my first book, the best-selling Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs and now, three years on, I’m back with this book.

I’ve taken all that knowledge, conducted fresh in-depth interviews with a host of new online entrepreneurs and gone back to some of those I interviewed before to find out what they’ve been up to and what they’re doing differently. All up, I’ve interviewed more than 100 of Australia’s top digital entrepreneurs and had additional creative input from the world’s most innovative thinkers on specialist topics such as PR, content creation, search engine optimisation, business storytelling, data analytics, marketing automation and user testing.

I’ve taken all those insights, overlaid that research with my 25 years in advertising and digital marketing and synthetised it to create this five-part-strategy playbook — the ultimate guide, if you like — for creating a successful online business. If you’re looking for shortcuts to building an online business and want to stand on the shoulders and leverage the learnings of those who have gone before you, this book is it.

I hope you enjoy it.