Posted by James Tuckerman, Publisher, Founder & Editor-In-Chief

Wow!

The comments generated by yesterday’s blog post certainly had us on the edge of our seats and doing some serious introspection.

Firstly, some quick responses…

The category thing: We did add some categories after initial feedback and I’ve also added a new field today - ‘Create an award category’. Of course, we can’t have an endless supply of award categories but, this being our first year, we are largely being guided by participant feedback and what our statistics say (eg. what works and what doesn’t).

The age thing: Perhaps women entrepreneurs do run to a different clock (the ‘broken pathways’ debate). I just gotta say that we LOOOOVED Sonja’s idea of resetting age. But, ultimately, Leela’s point reflects our position. We created 30under30 because young entrepreneurs were lacking in entries and finalists for the Cool Company Awards. We wanted to create a platform to recognise the ‘up and coming’ talent. There are plenty of awards for entrepreneurs but few for young entrepreneurs.

James’ secret agenda: No agenda to meet more women here (I think Gulliver has been on too many travels). Our agenda was simply to generate more nominations from women. And it worked! Women now represent almost 30% of nominations. That’s a big jump from 3%. So, we’re very pleased. Also… by the way… I’m not under 30 (despite what the press releases might say).

Can someone tell me where to get one of those ‘age resetter’ devices from Sonja?

Finally…

Women as contributors: After all that… The following cheeky letter to the editor at BRW (below) titled ‘The X-Chromosome Factor’ had me take a quick measure of the male to female ratio of content in Anthill.

After reading this, I grabbed a nearby copy of BRW (February 7-13, 2008) and, after a cursory flick, found 51 opinions or stories featuring blokes and only two about women. That’s a gender ratio of 51:2… Ouch! The other business magazines on my desk didn’t do much better (and let me assure you, there are many business magazines on my desk). The exception, of course, was Vive.

So, how did Anthill Magazine rate?

We came up 15:6 in favour of the patriarchy.

Hmmm.

So, here’s my plan.

Firstly… please continue to nominate women for 30under30. Secondly… I have created a Forum thread, calling for readers to promote themselves and other female entrepreneurs. Thirdly… if you have an idea for an opinion piece, please read our Editorial style and contributor guidelines.

However, because I suspect that Leela and Phillipa’s comments are spot on (women are too busy RUNNING their business to have time for self-promotion), I suggest that you pitch the idea for the opinion piece before the editorial.

In fact, why not do it now as a comment below?

What’s an angle or story that you would like to contribute to Anthill?

Posted by James Tuckerman, Publisher, Founder & Editor-In-Chief

Thirty must be a magic number. Within 30 minutes of launching our 30under30 awards program last Wednesday, we’d received over 30 nominations.

They came from every State and Territory. They represented a good cross-section of our award categories. But there was one notable, unnerving discrepancy with the data. Where were the women?

We can only assume that Ms Rhoade of Diva Promotions must be pretty special. Not simply because she is under 30 and runs a marketing company for women in business. But because she was the one and only female Australian entrepreneur to be nominated among this initial group of 30.

This, of course, baffled me. I’m still baffled.

Surely female entrepreneurs represent more than 3% of the entrepreneur mix!

So, I did my research.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), an annual report that monitors entrepreneurial activity across nations, women make up about half the Australian labour force “who are actively involved in starting a new business or who own/manage a business less than 42 months old.”

This has remained consistent over the past 10 years.

So, if women are responsible for approximately half of all entrepreneurial activity taking place in Australia, why the lacklustre response to our awards program from the ‘fairer sex’?

I suspect that there lies a clue in this dated and, let’s face it, deliberately provocative expression. You might want to slap me down for using it (there’s a place for comments below) but I invite you to first hear me out.

From our side of the editorial desk, Paul Ryan (who’s probably not thrilled about his involuntary inclusion in this hoary debate) and I have observed the disparity between the gender of incoming callers for a long time.

A day will not pass without a big, blokey egoist barking his credentials for a feature story down the phone. “Write about me! My business is unique!” (And we all know the disproportionate nature of barks to bites.)

But we rarely, if ever, receive even the most courteous enquiry about the potential possibility of placing a female entrepreneur in our pages. Even a delicately phrased suggestion is a rare thing from where we sit.

So here’s my unscientific conclusion.

Female entrepreneurs simply seem less inclined to self-promote. And I suspect that the only reason why Anthill Magazine’s male to female ratio is as high as it is (said with the caveat that we know we could improve) is because we make a concerted effort to chase opinions and stories beyond the obvious members of the Australian bizerati, which has nothing to do with gender at all.

So, why is it that Australian women are so under-represented in the Australian business media?

Am I onto something or are my opinions simply another part of the problem?

Posted by Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill

With the launch today of Anthill’s inaugural 30under30 competition, it’s worth underscoring the growing role younger entrepreneurs are playing in the Australian business landscape… and beyond. And who better to place this exciting evolution in broader economic context than Austrade’s Chief Economist and regular Anthill contributor, Tim Harcourt?

Are you experienced?

by Tim Harcourt

This year marks the 25^th anniversary of the float of the Australian dollar by the Hawke-Keating Government. This was clearly a momentous decision in Australia’s economic history. After all, the float was the ‘beach-head’ economic reform that kicked off a number of other measures such as tariff reductions, financial deregulation, education and training reforms and the social wage and enabled Australia to become one of the world’s best performing economies. The tariff reductions took the lead out of our saddle bags and many businesses found to their surprise that they could compete effectively on the global stage.

However, twenty-five years on, we are now at a point when generation who got Australia through the transition from a closed, isolated economy to an open, dynamic economy are beginning to retire. After all, this transition has taken time and nearly 40 percent of exporters have now over 20 years experience in the global game (see below).

The baby boomers, who have been carrying the load as far as exporting is concerned during this transition are ‘sea-changing’ and ‘tree-changing’ (and maybe with global warming - ‘cool-changing’ - so watch housing prices in Tasmania) and going onto superannuation boards.

Can we cope? I think we can for several reasons.

Firstly, succession planning is part of life. Look at the Australian cricket team. Adam ‘Gilly’ Gilchrist knew he couldn’t go on forever and has anointed his successor. The team is staggering their retirements for the sake of team stability. The same thing happens in political parties - or should do.

Secondly, in business, we are already seeing a number of aggressive ‘Generation X’ business leaders coming to the fore now. Take Eddy Groves of ABC Learning or Janice Allen of Boost Juice.

Thirdly, Generation Y is gearing up too. Look at Peter Sheahan or Emma Brown (the self-styled ‘Chief Chick’ or CEO of Business Chicks.). Newspoll regularly shows that Generation Y is positive about globalisation and naturally entrepreneurial.

You just have to see it in music. Watching the old Countdown specials on the ABC, you could tell that in the 1970s and 1980s there were ‘Sydney’ bands and ‘Melbourne’ bands and it was hard to crack the big time internationally. Nowadays, bands can go global sooner and there are less trade barriers in their way.

Going global is hard yakka and takes strength and experience. But the signs are good that Generation X is becoming generation eXport and generation Y can go one step further to become the global generation.

Tim Harcourt is Chief Economist with the Australian Trade Commission and the author of The Airport Economist (forthcoming). You can read more of his musings on export at www.austrade.gov.au/economistscorner

Posted by Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill

The rise and rise of 24-year-old Melbourne-based entrepreneur James Masini continues unabated.

The founder of youth-focussed jobs website Hippo.com.au informed Anthill yesterday afternoon that DMG, the company that owns the Nova and Vega radio networks, has just acquired a 20% stake in Hippo. The deal will see Hippo.com.au promoted on-air though DMG’s youth-centric national radio network.

According to Masini, the deal has been in the works for the last few months and has now gained sign off from Hippo’s cadre of 26 investors, which include Jeff and Janine Allis from Boost Juice. It represents the first major non-radio investment for DMG.

“We were really looking for brand synergy to help grow Hippo,” Masini said. “DMG has great access to our target market of 15-24 year-olds, so there’s a direct correlation between our two audiences. The fact that Nova is national means we will be able to expand our brand awareness campaign and give more Australian youths the opportunity to find suitable part-time and casual work.”

Masini appeared in the Oct/Nov 2007 issue of Anthill sharing his thoughts on how to build an online marketplaces. It appears that the people at DMG think he’s on the right track.

Congratulations to James and his team.

Posted by James Tuckerman, Publisher, Founder & Editor-In-Chief

Last week we launched the Anthill Editors’ Blog (I assume you know this because you are now reading it).

Our motivations are fairly obvious. This space will give Paul Ryan (Editor), me and the rest of the Anthill editorial crew a space to share some of the more topical events, news and opinions that come our way - things that would otherwise never be published due to the restrictions of print publishing. In short, we’re doing exactly what our readers have asked, embracing both print and web, providing content to match the medium.

And what a start!

Our first post, “Who wants to help Anthill buy The Bulletin”, not only generated a quick burst of priceless comments but it also had the office phones ringing off the hook and our staff inboxes brimming with emails from enthusiastic and curious Anthillians wondering whether we are serious. Friday disappeared in a blur.

So are we serious?

Firstly, allow me to respond to some of the comments.

Yes, our analysis was simplistic and, it seems, fairly optimistic. Our figures were derived using the ancient entrepreneurial art of table-napkin mathematics - a great place to start, before the serious analysis. What did surprise us was the extreme swing in the other direction regarding The Bulletin’s potential for revenue generation. David’s rough analysis (post 6) was intriguing, particularly since David obviously works in publishing. His analysis was pessimistic but potentially realistic. However, I think we would both agree that room still exists for a profit.

Observations that “print media is not dead” were very much appreciated and, ultimately, reassuring. In fact, as production costs for print magazines fall (better design software, cheaper print solutions, financially viable recycled paper), I expect to see a magazine renaissance. MagNation has already opened two stores in Australia and one in New Zealand catering for the trans-Tasman hunger for magazines.

Chris from post 7 suggested a “crowd fund”. What a great idea! It is definitely worth considering. Someone also noted the need for liquidity. While The Bulletin on its own wouldn’t generate enough revenue to make it a realistic prospect for an ASX listing, there are alternatives, such as the National Stock Exchange (NSX). I’m curious to hear from anyone who has used this secondary exchange and whether it would be suitable.

Some very astute remarks were made about competing with ACP’s distribution clout (post 19) and the impact that third party distributors have on cashflow (post 30). These are, in fact, issues that we already face at Anthill and have found ways to overcome (not without frustration and hardship). What both comments drew to my mind was the strength ACP has when it wishes to market a new product, across multiple mediums, using its deep pockets. Yet, the advantage of purchase is that The Bulletin has already acquired market awareness and retail channels that could be replicated with the right distributor.

Speaking of the market… It was mentioned by Robyn (post 10) that The Bulletin’s readership is largely in the over 50 segment and that ACP allegedly regarded this as a problem. What can I say? Over 50s represent more than 30 percent of the working population and they don’t intend to retire anytime soon. What a great target audience! This group will, over time, adopt consulting jobs, part-time employment and a range new work structures providing greater leisure time to do things like… read! And besides, why not balance that with editorial and marketing activities to catch Generation Y members as they are finding their own brand loyalties, as Robyn suggested. It’s already part of Anthill’s long-term strategy.

Finally, Michael makes the important observation (post 35) that there’s no point pursuing an acquisition of The Bulletin if a market doesn’t exist for the product. My initial reaction was that a 57,000 circulation qualifies as a significant and attractive market (in fact, a 30,000 circulation qualifies as significant and attractive market for a business magazine in Australia). But if all these readers are purchasing their copies for nostalgic reasons or in response to some feeling of obligation, then that market is artificial. The challenge would be to create a ‘new’ Bulletin magazine that would reflect the times, without losing its intrinsic value - the qualities it has become widely respect for (relevant, intelligent, timely and, most importantly, engaging stories). That, in my opinion, would be the main challenge for any potential suitor.

Phew!

So, were we serious? Of course, we’d love to add The Bulletin to the Anthill stable (who wouldn’t). But we’ve yet to receive that special call from the teak desks at CVC (and I suspect that we might be waiting a long time).

However…

We were sent the contact details of the person we should be approaching (thanks to one of our many clever and connected readers!). So, we’ll be making that call in the week ahead and we’ll keep you posted (wish me luck).

Also, we’ve noticed links to our story appearing in other blogs. The blogosphere responds. This is particularly energising (if you have a blog, we welcome your support). If we can get enough tongues wagging, who knows what attention might come our way.

But don’t fret. We won’t let such ambitious distractions undermine our endeavours to keep Anthill fun, exciting, educational and inspirational. Our Feb/Mar edition will be out next week, with a feature on how computer games are evolving from products of leisure into business tools. Of course, Stephen Sammartino returns with another eyeball popping angle (”What Your Business Can Learn from Terrorists!”). Plus, much more.

Keep watching the BlogHill, as we’ll be adding additional “Opinion” blogs by our featured authors to complement the Editor’s Blog (check out the Blogroll to the right of this post). The good folk at TrickyTix have already started the ball rolling with the launch of “Diary of an Entrepreneur”. This blog is dedicated to the growth pains of this internet start-up, warts and all.

So, any advice on how to improve our blogs? Any tips on how to knock down the doors at ACP? Any angles or identities you’d like to see on our pages? Any responses to my comments above. We’re listening.