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July 2007
Business Name: Eating WA
What is your business all about?
www.EatingWA.com.au is an online restaurant guide that publishes publicly written restaurant reviews for restaurants throughout Western Australia. We house information on events as well as give each restaurant their own dedicated section to update and keep our visitors and members informed about their establishment.
What motivated you to start your business?
Lack of unbiased opinion in the marketplace. Restaurant guides in Australia only allow restaurants who pay them big dollars to be on their website and consequently they do not allow publicly written restaurant reviews because it damages their chances of future business with each restaurant listed on their website. So we started a totally unbiased, non-commercially focused website.
How did you manage to secure the support and funding to establish your business?
I partnered up with a friend of mine who designs sites, gave him a percentage of the company to get involved and then we launched the website. From there we obtained a financial backer who I had some previous association with, and after a few meetings he agreed to fund the site for a percentage of the company.
Fortunately enough I was financially supported by my girlfriend who is also a part owner, and she definitely had to ride the ups and downs throughout the creation of the company, and still is!
Did you experience any challenges when setting up your business? If so, what did you learn from them?
Tom and I have not had any big dramas as yet because we have stuck to the original ideals and purpose of why we created www.EatingWA.com.au in the first place. We know what we want the website to have and we know what we want to do in the future and with feedback from a good percentage of our 12,000 members, we will always be pretty much on the mark from here on in, too.
What are some of the most valuable lessons you have learned?
Never assume other people have the passion and/or knowledge you do about your business. You have to pretty much assume they don’t like your business and know nothing about it. You have to find a way for them to feel a small amount of your passion and have the knowledge that they require to go along with this. Not just in sales but in all aspects, otherwise nothing gets done on time, sales aren’t made and everything falls behind schedule.
What have you had to sacrifice and what have you gained from the experience thus far?
Sacrificed a good income. Not an easy thing to do when you are only 22-23 (at the time) and find it really hard to keep living the lifestyle you are accustomed to while having a fulltime position.
What do you think was important for you to be successful with the business?
Believing in the business and what you are doing. You create a business for a reason, whether it is because you think it is something that can make you rich, something you are passionate about or a bit of both, you always need to keep in mind the reasons why you started the business and why you knew it would be successful and let that guide you through the development of the business.
Do you consider your business to be your biggest personal achievement to date?
That is very hard to say, I used to be a very passionate sportsman and have achieved a lot but this is a totally different thing. It uses more mind than skill and sport was the other way around. It is definitely my biggest career orientated achievement.
What do you think it takes to be successful?
Confidence. If you believe your business is going to succeed then it is just a matter of following the pathway you set out in your “business plan” to get to the point where it is a success. Measuring whether it is a success or not usually becomes a sliding scale, though. Always moving further as your goals progress.
If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything differently?
I don’t think so.
What advice could you provide for other young people interested in starting their own business?
You really need to be passionate about the subject matter and/or the possibilities within that area. If you see a niche in the market, just go for it. So many people say “I thought of that years ago, remember?” But the person who actually acted on it is the one with the $$. The way Tom and I look at starting a new website or business is by simply thinking whether we would use it ourselves. If it is yes, it goes onto our list of upcoming businesses. Then check the competition, see what they are doing and what they do well or what they do badly, and then never look back.
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