CREATIVE business web hub Squarespace’s research on Australian business conditions has discovered a surprising fact: Australians would rather ‘be their own boss’ than ‘be on the booze’. Holding them back – Australians are contrastingly risk averse.

The results are a little more complicated than that, but the overwhelming fact coming out of Squarespace’s Australian Thought Leadership research found 68 percent of Australians wanted to be their own bosses. Specifically, more than half would be willing to give up alcohol for a month, or social media for a week, to do so.

The findings[1], released by the international all-in-one web publishing tools company, which has just entered the Australian market, reveal entrepreneurism is alive and well.  

The Squarespace inaugural study found that one in two Australian adults (18 to 59 year olds) are either interested in starting their own business or passion project (40 percent) or have done so already (10 percent). The results highlight how this ‘independent generation’ is largely motivated by freedom, flexibility and the desire to feel passionate about what they do.

In fact, 78 percent of Australians believe doing what they love or are passionate about is more important than earning a lot of money, and more than three in five (63 percent) millennials have a passion project that they would like to turn into a job or career.

So why aren’t more Australians chasing their entrepreneurial dreams, or pursuing that side hustle? The study also found that Australians are risk-averse, with only 19 percent associating taking new risks with workforce success. Most Australians are hampered by fears and concerns, largely rooted in the financial costs of failure.

Founder and CEO of Squarespace, Anthony Casalena said, “As an entrepreneur, I’m very familiar with the risks and fears associated with starting a business. In the early years of Squarespace, I was the only employee, acting as the sole engineer, designer, marketer and support representative for the entire platform.

“Today, it’s easier than ever to start a business and strike out on your own. We’re excited to support the next generation of entrepreneurs in Australia by providing them with the resources they need to establish a strong online identity and pursue their passions.”

Mr Casalena said Squarespace could help Australians “take the first step in expressing themselves and their businesses through a beautiful online presence”.

Squarespace has developed an extensive suite of online tools – including a website builder, e-commerce platform, and domains manager – so that virtually anyone can bring their ideas to life online.

“I work full time as an interior designer, but noticed a gap in the market when I couldn’t find natural products for my whippet Stassi’s sensitive skin,” said Danni Dias, founder of Mr. PAW, the Melbourne-based all-natural, vegan dog grooming products company.

“I created a product that is gentle on my pooch and kind to the environment, and Squarespace enabled me to share it with the world on a beautiful site that is easy to manage – even for someone that isn’t very tech savvy.”

The Squarespace Australian Thought Leadership survey explores how Australians view the changing workplace, their appetite for entrepreneurialism and the motivations, fears and barriers to follow their creative passions. Survey data were collected via an online survey of 1,003 Australians aged 18 to 59 years, designed to ensure results would be nationally representative at the state by gender by age level.

The Squarespace Australian Thought Leadership survey, conducted by AMR Research, explored lores how Australians viewed the changing workplace, their appetite for entrepreneurialism and the motivations, fears and barriers to follow their creative passions. Survey data was collected through an online survey of 1,003 Australians aged 18 to 59 years, designed to ensure results would be nationally representative at the state by gender by age level.

www.squarespace.com/about

SQUARESPACE RESEARCH KEY RESULTS

• 68% of Australians want to be their own boss
• 58% women and 47% men would give up alcohol for a month to do so
• 58% women and 50% men would give up social media for a week to do so
• 46% women and 35% men would give up lovemaking for a month to do so
• 40% of Australians are interested in starting their own business or passion project, and 10% have already done so
• 63% of Australian millennials have a passion project that they would like to turn into a job or career
• 78% of Australians believe that doing what they love or are passionate about is more important than earning a lot of money
• 68% of Australian women associate success in the workforce with doing something they love or that they’re passionate about, while only 40% associate success with earning a lot of money
• 54% of Australian men associate success in the workforce with doing something they love or that they’re passionate about, while only 45% associate success with earning a lot of money
• 19% of Australians recognise taking new risks as a driver for success in the workforce
• 59% of those interested in starting their own business or passion project cite financial risks as one of their fears, with not earning a profit (53%) and business failure (47%) are also common concerns

ADDITIONAL FINDINGS

Australian millennials (18-34 year olds) are redefining the modern Australian workplace – they see the nine-to-five schedule is evolving, are driven by passion (not money), and are driving a more digital economy.

• 77% of millennials would like to be their own boss – a significantly higher number compared to 64% 35-44 YOs and 61% 45-59 YOs
• 63% of millennials have a passion project that they would like to turn into a job or career – a significantly higher number compared to 55% 35-44 YOs and 43% 45-59 YOs
• 83% of millennials believe the workforce is shifting from a traditional 9-5 schedule
• 78% of millennials believe the entrepreneurial generation creates new jobs that previously did not exist
•  65% of millennials have experienced personal success as a job candidate or prospective student from having a personal website.

Women are more passionate and empathetic than men in their pursuit of success in the workplace. They are also more motivated to start their own business by the desire to spend more time with their family, however, for many, the biggest barrier is knowing where to start.

• 68% women v 54% men see success in the workforce is more about doing something they love or that they’re passionate about
• 53% women v 40% men see making a difference in the lives of others as a marker of success in the workforce
• 50% women v 40% men believe that accomplishing goals with a team of others defines success in the workforce
• 49% women v 33% men are motivated to start their own business as a means of spending more time with their family
• 51% women v 32% men cited simply not knowing where to start as the biggest barrier to starting their own business.

ends

LEADERSHIPHQ chief executive Sonia McDonald’s recent Diversity Award, presented by NSW Minister for Women Pru Goward, was a timely precursor to this month’s release of LeadershipHQ’s second book, Leadership Attitude: How Mindset and Action can Change Your World.

Ms McDonald, its author, said the book focused on “identifying personal strengths and acting upon them, using a mentor, and empowering others, to develop leadership qualities that motivate, influence and inspire”. 

Ms McDonald said understanding personal leadership traits and attitudes were the drivers for developing leadership abilities.

“Leadership is not a role or title; it is how you think, feel and see yourself and how you act as a leader,” she said.

“Thinking like a leader generally means you will start behaving like a leader.

“I work with leaders across a wide range of industries and occupations and there is no doubt that being confident and owning who you are leads to increased leadership abilities.

“Be authentic: the best leaders are the ones that know that self-awareness is the greatest capability.”

Last year Ms McDonald was named in digital business magazine Richtopia’s 250 Most Influential Women Leaders of the world.

She is also a regular contributor to The Australian, Business Insider and Richtopia.

Leadership Attitude: How Mindset and Action can Change Your World retails for $28 and is available via the LeadershipHQ website.

The Kindle edition retails for $9.20 and is available through Amazon.

Ends

A LARGE proportion of Australians are unable to tell the difference between good and bad financial advice and are unaware of techniques used by advisors to manipulate critical financial decisions, according to a major University of Sydney study.

In the wake of the study, University of Sydney Business School professor Susan Thorp has called for a tightening of regulations to protect what she calls “vulnerable” clients. 

Working with Prof. Thorp on the research project were Prof. Julie Agnew of the College of William and Mary, Virginia, USA; University of NSW’s (UNSW’s) Prof. Hazel Bateman; Dr Christine Eckert of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Business School; the Australian National University’s (ANU’s) Dr Fedor Iskhakov and Prof. Jordan Louviere of the University of South Australia.

Prof. Thorp said almost half of all Australians suffer from poor levels of financially literacy and many turn to financial advisors for help with decisions on such things as superannuation investments.

“Even before our research began, we were aware that many people who attend financial advisors view the advice that they are given as very good even when an objective evaluation of that advice found it not to be so,” Prof. Thorp said.

“Puzzled by this,” she said, the research team set out to “unpack the process by which this trust relationship between the advisor and the client was formed”.

The researchers produced videos of a number of advisors, some providing good and others providing bad financial advice. The videos were then shown to groups of people who were asked to identify which of the advisors they would trust.

“We found that people, on the whole, were able to tell the difference between good and bad advice on the topics that were relatively straightforward such as paying off credit card debts,” Prof. Thorp said. “But when it came to more complicated decisions, like superannuation investments, far fewer people were able to tell the difference between good and bad advice.”

TRUST MANIPULATED

The research found that trust in the advisors was easily manipulated.

“We were able to show that if an advisor gave good advice on an easy topic, that formed a good impression in the mind of the client, and they continued to trust that advisor, even when they gave them bad advice down the track,” Prof. Thorp said.

“It seems that this strategy is probably quite widely used and would be influencing people’s decision making.”

The research also measured the impact of showing clients an advisor’s qualifications.

“One of the things we were able to do in this experimental context was measure the impact of a certification and we found that displaying a qualification made people more willing to follow advice than they otherwise would be,” Prof. Thorp said.

She said clients were often unable to tell the difference between genuine and fake qualifications.

Prof. Thorp believes her research indicated a need for higher qualifications and standards for financial advisors. She has also called on the advisory industry and regulators such as ASIC to more rigorously enforce laws protecting consumers.

“A lot of people are aware of being modestly manipulated by an advisor,” Prof. Thorp concluded.

“What’s important here is that the skill gap between the client and the advisor can be large. The potential for misunderstanding or manipulation is quite high in this situation. In other words, clients are vulnerable so they need to be properly protected.”

www.sydney.edu.au

ends

LEADERS of the world’s largest current research project into whistleblowing – conducted through three of Australia’s leading universities and based at Griffith University – have called for comprehensive, evidence-based law reform to maximise the benefits of whistleblowing for corporate governance and public integrity.

Yet researchers agree that the biggest challenge is not the framing of the legislation itself but the vital and difficult change of mindset required by some policymakers, organisations and the media. 

The Australian Research Council project Whistling While They Work 2: Improving managerial responses to whistleblowing in public and private sector organisations, is facing up to a wall of resistance and apathy from business.

Project leader Professor A. J.Brown said there was broad consensus that new laws and standards were needed to support whistleblowing, but as yet little guidance on what form they should take.

“As a result, given the negativity that dominates much current debate over how to respond to problems of corporate culture, regulatory capacity and whistleblower mistreatment, we risk missing some of the greatest opportunities for solving these issues,” Prof. Brown said.

“Perhaps the single greatest opportunity is the high proportion of Australian companies who already know their own people can be the best and fastest way to find out about significant problems of wrongdoing or culture – but who, like all organisations worldwide, lack clear guidance on the tools and systems needed to properly encourage and protect whistleblowing in practice.

“The same is true of regulators – it is too easy to criticise corporate leaders, attack regulators and paint a picture of whistleblowers as overwhelmingly ignored and mistreated, when we know that in both government and business, there are positive efforts and lessons, not just negative ones.

“Given the extent of consensus on the need for new legal and governance standards, it’s time to turn our attention to what those standards need to contain, to best support internal, regulatory and public whistleblowing – rather than defeat ourselves by assuming that organisations and regulators can never get it right, or that all whistleblowers are destined to suffer, no matter what.”

The Whistling While They Work 2research project is focused on identifying current and potential best practice in organisational management of whistleblowing, based on comprehensive evidence drawn from the widest possible spectrum of Australian and New Zealand organisations.

The Australian-led project stands is the largest in the world to date, and is the first to attempt systematic comparison of organisational experience in maximising whistleblowing, in a consistent way across the public and private sectors, and between countries.

Led by researchers from Griffith University,Australian National University,University of Sydney and Victoria University of Wellington, the project is supported by 22 regulatory and professional organisations including the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC),
CPA Australia,Governance Institute of Australia,Australian Institute of Company Directorsand Transparency International Australia,along with the Commonwealth Ombudsman and leading public integrity agencies in all states, including all state Ombudsmen.

In April and May, everyAustralian public sector agency and all of Australia’s 31,000 public unlisted and large proprietary companies have been formally approached by these partners and encouraged to participate in the project.

An equivalently broad approach to public and private sector organisations is also underway in New Zealand, where partners include the New Zealand State Services Commission and Ombudsman.

“This is the first time in history that integrity and regulatory authorities are known to have combined to approach every organisation in one country – let alone two – to get behind improved processes for effective disclosure and action against risks of public interest organisational wrongdoing, on such a comprehensive scale,” Prof. Brown said.

There have been two phases to the research – a threshold Survey of Organisational Processes and Procedures, which takes about 30 minutes to complete and is open to all organisations, until June 30; and a more comprehensive survey of staff, managers and systems in those organisations that elect to participate in depth, called Integrity@WERQ, setbetween August and November this year.

Individual responses from organisations are confidential to the university researchers, and participant responses in Integrity@WERQ are anonymous.

“However, aggregated results at jurisdictional, sectoral and organisational levels will provide unprecedented evidence of what is currently working, and why, or why not, in the encouragement and management of whistleblowing within organisations,” Prof Brown said.

“This is the evidence that organisations need to help them get it right, and law reformers need to know what standards should be set in new or reformed legislation, or elsewhere, including clearer and better resourced roles for independent regulators.

“For example, the research team has already resolved to place the results behind a proposal to write the replacement to the Australian Standard on Whistleblower Protection Programs (AS 8004), which was published in 2003 but is currently withdrawn.”

The determination behind the initiative was borne out by the attendees at the project’s launch, which included whistleblower Brian Hood, the former company secretary of Note Printing Australia; ASIC regional commissioner and head of the Office of the Whistleblower Warren Day; acting New South Wales Ombudsman John McMillan; and Governance Institute of Australia’s Judith Fox.

www.whistlingwhiletheywork.edu.au

ends