Business & B
aby on Board has been named one of Australia’s most innovative products or services, in one of the largest and most audacious innovation awards of its kind in Australia – the Anthill Magazine ‘SMART 100’ Index.
About Business & Baby on Board
Business & Baby on Board is the mum’s bible for starting out and succeeding in business. These women are mistresses of their own destinies with an armoury of skills that can be utilised while they are bringing up the baby.
The innovation initially came to life when author Johanna Baker-Dowdell’s blog posts about running her business, Strawberry Communications, around children attracted followers and comments, with readers asking for more content like this.
“I was encouraged to write the book Business & Baby on Board because while there were many books and guides to help people wanting to start a business from home, there wasn’t much available specifically to help entrepreneurial mothers,” Johanna explained.
“Mothers in business face all the usual startup stages like market research, registration, taxation and marketing; plus working around a family reduces time available so they often suffer from mother guilt,” she said.
Business & Baby on Board looks at all the steps involved in planning, starting and building a successful business, through the eyes of business mums. Each chapter covers an important aspect of business through case studies from expert business mothers on each topic, plus how she started her business, issues she faced, her triumphs and advice for readers.
Johanna used crowdfunding platform Pozible
to raise the money to self-publish Business & Baby on Board. The campaign was a success (in fact it was over-funded), and led to a digital publishing contract with Editia.
About the Smart 100
The SMART 100 Index was created by Anthill Magazine in 2008 to identify and rank Australia’s 100 most innovative products, proving to be one of the largest surveys of its kind in Australia.
In 2015, in response to a record volume entries, the program was extended to include the TOP 100 SMART SERVICES and the TOP 100 SMART PRODUCTS, in addition to the SMART 100.
“In true Anthillian style, the SMART 100 is an ever-evolving, ever-improving experiment,” said Anthill founder and Editor-In-Chief James Tuckerman.
“It identifies and ranks new Australian innovations by applying a combination of crowdsourcing, collaboration and common-sense. We employ the judgement of ‘mavens’ and readers.
“Unlike your average awards program, we don’t lock a panel of expert adjudicators in a small room. Neither do we demand a thorough analysis of each applicant’s P&L statement. We don’t even request an historical snapshot of ‘runs on the board’ or commercial achievements.
“This is because innovation is future focussed. It is about identifying and solving problems in ways that will change the way we live, do business and think.”
What is a ‘maven’?
Academics have known about the existence of Mavens for many years, claiming they have a particular psychotype. However, it was Malcom Gladwell’s book ‘The Tipping Point’ that really brought attention to this underutilised group in society.
Gladwell described Mavens as “those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends”. ‘Maven’ is a Yiddish word that means, literally, “one who understands”.
According to Tuckerman, “The maven’s unique talent is his or her ability to unearth and identify, from all the new products and services available in the marketplace, the innovations that are worth propagating. A maven also generally has the ability to communicate the potential of the innovation to the broader public and, therefore, plays an integral role in the mass take-up of any innovation.
“These people have the ability to identify innovations that will meet an important need for the population. The hypothesis is that Mavens will provide a more predictive measure of innovation than mass consumers or, indeed, experts in the field – because they have a unique ability to identify the importance and relevance of an innovation.”
What is Anthill Magazine?
Anthill was initially launched as a print magazine, in September 2003, by its current editor-in-chief James Tuckerman, who at the age of 26 quit his day job, departing a promising career in corporate PR, to pursue his own entrepreneurial journey. It is for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
Since then, it has evolved into one of Australia’s leading online communities for Australian business owners. It is dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship and the commercial development of ideas.
For further information about Business & Baby on Board, look at the Smart 100 listing on Anthill or buy a copy.
