Nine Ingenious Ways Young Australians Are Making Money
Also known as "nine reasons to get up off your ass and start doing stuff".
In partnership with #BendTheRulesAustralia, by
This piece is in partnership with HP, who are giving you the chance to win $10,000 by submitting an everyday idea that bends the rules. Join in by using the hashtag #BendTheRulesAustralia on Instagram or Twitter — and see what Australia is doing to bend the rules here.
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Do you ever say to yourself: “All I need is one good idea, and I’ll be set for life”? If you don’t, you’re probably more in touch with reality than I am.
Sadly, I’m one of those deluded humans who often avoids more pressing tasks by sitting back and waiting for some cartoon light bulb to appear above their head and instantly deliver them from the daily grind. A receipt that prints as part of your shopping bag? A hammerhead-shaped ironing board for collared shirts? A phone charger that runs on one’s sense of shame? Toilet bowl gauze? Nose socks? Vegan Lard? I make Cosmo Kramer look like Leonardo Da Vinci.
The fact of the matter is that it takes more than wishing you had lots of money to make lots of money. Only a small percentage of us can combine ingenuity, passion and elbow-grease to come up with something worthy of other people’s hard-earned cash – especially in this hyper-connected world where anyone with a WiFi set-up can find a forum for their ideas.
So with that in mind, here is a list of young Australians who are thinking outside the moneybox.
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Who Gives A Crap by Simon Griffiths
Dunny Paper Revolutionary
Melbourne-based ‘social entrepreneur’ Simon Griffiths and his two business partners have come up with a neat concept that not only brings in the cash, but also does something for the good of the globe. Half the proceeds from their cleverly marketed, environmentally friendly toilet tissue –Who Gives A Crap – goes directly to overseas sanitation projects.
After initially raising $50,000 dollars via crowdfunding, the trio can now boast that each roll of Who Gives A Crap gives someone who otherwise wouldn’t have access to a toilet, access to a toilet. Considering they’ve only been around for a little over a year, one can only imagine the ground that this enterprise –and others like it – could make in conquering seemingly unsolvable problems.
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The Stinking Bishops by Kieran Day and Jamie Nimmo
Smelly Cheese Enthusiasts
Most people love cheese. Most people love wine. So it’s no surprise that The Stinking Bishops –a Newtown establishment that mixes these two luxuries into a fine dining experience – is taking inner-city Sydney by storm. Chef Kieran Day and his business partner Jamie Nimmo might have only opened their doors this year, but they’ve already solidified their position as Sydney’s cheese-masters.
During the day, the business operates in café-mode, serving up meticulously engineered ‘Mr Crispy’ toasted sandwiches. Of an evening, The Bishops veers into hatted territory with an evolving list of British-inspired meals, such as pork pie, black pudding, and gourmet fish fingers. The main constant, however, is the diverse range of imported cheeses and meats, which you can take away while the sun’s still up, or eat in-house with a paired wine at any hour — if you’re lucky enough to get a table.
Find them on Facebook.
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Yummia by Mia McCarthy
Breakfast Mogul
While studying Education in 2011, Mia McCarthy became a little obsessed with bircher museli, but wasn’t satisfied with she saw on supermarket shelves. Her response was to create her own museli combinations and cold-walking into local supermarkets, armed with a box of the stuff, in the hope they’d stock her brand – Yummia.
What started as a hobby quickly became a fully-fledged business. In 2012, with her mum by her side, she opened her own commercial kitchen, and the duo tended to weekly orders. Yummia now has a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Melbourne, and ships to stockists all over the country; find out more at yummia.com
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4SKINS by Gilbert Huynh
Undergarment Overachiever
Men, do you ever feel as if your underwear betrays the natural contours of your nether-regions? Or even worse, have you ever ruined a date on a hot summer night due to worry over whether your junk smells a little too much like junk? Well, the creator of 4SKINS underwear claims to have the solution to these problems.
With a bold mission statement that claims to unite all the different skin colours of mankind, and ‘odor neutralising’ technology that promises to entrap all funky smells until the undergarment hits the washing machine, Gilbert Huynh of 4SKINS is attempting to update the world of boxers and briefs, one sensual, fart-masking pair at a time.
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Shoes of Prey by Jodie Fox
Customised Shoe Queen
Jodie Fox is the brain behind Shoes of Prey – a brand that lets consumer’s custom design their dream shoe. Since its 2009 conception, Shoes of Prey can now boast online stores in a multitude of languages, and collaborations with world-renowned designers such as Carla Zampatti and Romance is Born.
Using dedicated 3D design software, footwear fanatics can hop online or visit a department store booth, choose from 12 generic styles of shoe, then customise its height, colour, texture and fabric. Every pair is handmade, and can be shipped for free anywhere in Australia.
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Talent100 by Richard Chua
HSC Syllabus Whiz
The Higher School Certificate is often criticised for being less a measuring stick of intelligence, and more a test of a student’s ability to memorise and regurgitate information. Whatever you might think of the current educational system, it’s impossible to deny the pressures and stresses it places on a year 12 student.
During his HSC year, Richard Chua learned that his desired ATAR score could be quite easily achieved through breaking down the year into a series of small, system-conscious goals. He took this method of approach and turned it into Talent100, an HSC-specific tutoring company that works with the student’s required ATAR score and teaches them how to go about achieving it, by stripping the fat from an information-saturated final school year.
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Media Molecule by Siobhan Reddy
Forward-thinking Gamer
Siobhan Reddy might not be a household name, but the young Australian has more than made her mark in the gaming world. Since relocating to England, Reddy took her desire to make gaming less male-centric and co-founded Media Molecule, the studio responsible for the global phenomenon that was Little Big Planet.
2013 was a big year for the Campbelltown native. Not only was she named Australian Woman of the Year in the UK, but she was also listed as one of the top 100 most powerful women in Britain, alongside JK Rowling and the Queen.
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Crazy Dog Apps by Brandon Cowan
Self-made App Wizard
Photo by Christopher Ireland
20-year-old Brandon Cowan is the founder of Crazy Dog Apps, a company that operates under his simple philosophy: “First, I identify a problem and then I come up with an app idea that solves that problem”. Easy, right?
So far, Cowan has invented an app that tags where you park your car so it’s easily locatable (Seinfeld fans must be glad this is only a recent invention); one that collates all available rescue pets into a manageable, interactive database; and Wildlife Witness – a collaboration with Taronga Conservation Society that attempts to tackle the issue of illegal wildlife trade.
Read about the rest of his work here.
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Velflex by Ben Carrol, Logo Labourer
In 2007, and under the mentorship of his great Uncle, Ben Carrol pledged to revolutionise the traditional printing industry. He’s taken steps towards this goal, having attacked the sporting and promotional clothing market with his heat-transfer technology.
After starting Velfex in a parking garage storage room, the company now takes in well over a million dollars profit per year, and works with such sporting behemoths as Adidas.
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Ned Chigliak is a screenwriter from Sydney.