Smashing down the barriers

If you want to see the future, go and meet with a bunch of students studying entrepreneurship. I have just this minute come from lecturing to about 30 of them at RMIT University. These people are in their early to mid-20s and are passionate about becoming entrepreneurs.

Typically I spend too much time talking, but what I really want to do is hear about their fledgling businesses – because of course these days you start your business while you are still at school or working a full-time job, the same way the students read their emails, update Facebook or think of a new business idea while they listen to me.

And many of their ideas are in the digital space. What they are doing is using their knowledge of technology to enter a tiny industry niche. Basically the business idea can be summed up like this: they are helping people do things better, quicker and faster, using technology. For example, one young bloke this morning told me he was setting up a limousine booking service because the technology used in Australia was decades behind that being employed overseas.

Other businesses are setting out to help people sell goods and services online. ‘So what’, you might say. But as there young entrepreneurs develop their businesses, they see that their customers are technologically backwards and their plan is to push further down the distribution chain to open businesses in competition to the incumbents.

Of course, this is one major way that start-ups have always got a foothold. But the difference today is that cheaper technology and marketing through social networks and search engines is removing traditional barriers to entry that locked the young aspiring entrepreneurs out of the picture. Further, there are a lot of cashed up investors that have been cooling their heels in the recession and are ready to take a punt on a new business. Add to that the fact that these young people are passionate about being entrepreneurs and are determined to succeed, and we have a potent wave of change heading our way.

Any entrepreneur who has put technological innovation on the backburner through this recession, watch out. There are young switched on people like this all over the country ready to eat away at your patch. And chances are you won’t even see them coming until it’s too late. So your best bet is to turn around right now and bring them in to transform your business – if they will come, of course.