Allie Hilmer arrived in Australia in 1993 with her three-year-old daughter, a degree in linguistics from St Petersburg University and eight years' work experience in technical translation. But getting work in her field in Australia was challenging. So she did what many migrants do: she worked as a cleaner in hotels, homes and aged-care facilities to make ends meet. It was only when someone recommended her for a position as an ESL (English as a second language) teacher that she got her ‘big break’ here. 

Allie’s varied career has spanned education (she helped an international school in Tokyo get off the ground), migration law and corporate recruitment. But that first job recommendation was the catalyst for her biggest move yet: it seeded the idea for a platform that could help other people leverage positive recommendations, too. More than 20 years later, and without any tech startup experience, Allie built ZippyCrowd, a free word-of-mouth marketing and reputation platform for freelancers and small business owners. Here, she shares her start-up story.

The Power of Word-of-Mouth Recommendations

In my career, I’ve spent many years leading talent teams for Fortune 500 companies and interviewing business professionals. Not only that, but I ran my own migration business that grew and gained success through word of mouth, so I know firsthand just how complicated and time-consuming small-business marketing has become. 

Before the internet really took off, small businesses relied on word of mouth to build their reputation in their local community and to grow. Now, with customers and communities shifting online, small business owners are struggling to survive in the digital economy, and are spending more time promoting what they do rather than doing what they love. 

Over the years, my mantra very much became, 'It's not what you know, it's not who you know, it's who knows you.' 

An Idea That Took Its Time

Allie Hilmer did in-depth research to build a business model and financial plan before she was ready to start ZippyCrowd.

After that first crucial recommendation that changed my life, I always felt I wanted to build something that would help other people build, manage and grow their business on the strength of their reputation, not the size of their marketing budget. It’s simple, really: the more people trust you and recommend your work, the more discoverable you become. 

Our customers are people in small businesses who provide great quality services, but don’t have the tools, resources and budget to grow their business on the back of their reputation. I guess you could say ZippyCrowd acts as an all-in-one business matchmaker, community noticeboard and recommendation engine. 

Setting up the Business

Moving from the corporate world – where you're supported by an organisation and everything is set up for you – to working from home was a big contrast. You don't realise how many things you need! I had a laptop but nothing else, so I got a second monitor and all sorts of pads and pens from Officeworks for my home office. 

Then I started searching for the right business name (I think I spent four to five months going through 500,000 options and exhausting my family with choices!) and deliberated over whether to register a company or operate as a sole trader. My advice? Just start solo and apply for an ABN – it's much easier. You can always set up a company later. 

Research, Preparation and Jargon

I spent a lot of time talking with hundreds of small business owners, freelancers and creators in Australia about what it would take to be more successful. Through that research, one thing stood out: building a loyal base of customers – a community they can rely on – is most important for their survival. 

I spent three months researching and creating a 97-page, global market research document. It had incredible, granular detail on every existing platform, product and application that related to what I wanted to build. As well as being a huge learning process, the process also equipped me with all the industry jargon. It meant when people would say, “What's your backend?” I wouldn't fall off my chair! 

Building the Platform

Business owners can find it helpful to conduct market research to ascertain how to meet their business objectives.

The next step was to choose the technology stack for ZippyCrowd. It's very easy for people to talk you into doing this or that, but every business owner needs to research the bare minimum they need to meet their business objectives. It’s a bit like buying a house: list the 'must-haves' and don't worry about the 'good-to-haves'!

As a startup founder I had to wear many hats, and throw myself into things I knew very little about. When we signed an agreement with a software development agency to build the tech, I had to step into the role of a product manager. At the time, I had no idea what product managers did… but very quickly found out! The learning curve was crazy steep, but it has been an incredibly interesting and rewarding journey.

SEE ALSO: How Your Small Business Can Reap the Benefits of Outsourcing

Sometimes You Have to Fail Before You Succeed

Over the years, lots of things went wrong. We ran out of money. Built the wrong product. Brought on board the wrong people. Moved too slow; moved too fast. I learned to accept wrong moves and turns as part of learning and wisdom – not stressing over them, and actually embracing them as part of my life. 

Eventually we had to rebuild the first product to make it more focused, which was more complicated than starting from scratch. So that's when I realised I had to start again. And wow, that was really hard. It's like demolishing your house.

Tech Tools to Make Work Easy

Successful businesses rely on staff connection and communication: use tech tools and platforms to help improve processes.

Being connected to your people is essential. In a small business, and especially if your staff aren’t all in the one place, you need to have solid tools. Email is okay, but it’s so difficult to manage. Social messaging is a simpler way to stay in touch wherever you are, like with WhatsApp. Slack also allows for easier conversation, and Trello is good for task management. Then I like Jira for mapping product development, Google Workspace for documents and Figma for product design and pitch decks, plus Canva for marketing. 

Sticky notes work for us, too. When we brainstorm about the customer experience, the whole team sticks Post-it notes [to the wall], then we take a snapshot of them and dump it into one of the channels on Slack. From there, somebody on the team makes improvements to the product. I also like Google Forms to make questionnaires because they're very simple to create; you can ask customers questions in a very easy way. All of these tools work really well for us and, since they're mostly free or low-cost products, they don’t break the budget either. 

SEE ALSO: How to Use Affinity Diagrams for Productivity

Dealing With Imposter Syndrome

I'm part of Stone & Chalk, a startup community with hundreds of incredibly clever people as members. A lot of them have very successful businesses; a lot of them are tech geniuses. Every time I listen to someone, I think, “There's so much that I don't know. How can I be doing this? Soon they’ll discover I have no idea about any of this!” 

When I looked into imposter syndrome, I realised it's often people who are hard-workers, high achievers and perfectionists who are most likely to feel like a fraud. So I decided to accept that impostor syndrome would be part of my daily thoughts – this is the first startup I have run and the first tech software application I have built. Everything I'm doing, I am doing for the first time in my life. And that’s okay. After that, I chose to focus on measuring my own small wins instead of comparing myself against other business founders.

Creating a Network

Building a network of industry contacts allows business owners and business founders to share insights and get feedback.

I now have a network of industry contacts. We chat through WhatsApp and ask questions, share insights and get feedback. For small-business owners, it's really helpful to build close relationships with a handful of loyal customers who also happen to run businesses, too. That way, you kill two birds with one stone: on the one hand, somebody is your customer and loves the service you provide or products you sell. But at the same time, this person is also running their own business, so there is synergy there. 

SEE ALSO: How to Stay Connected as a Sole Trader 

Working on Your Weaknesses

I'm good at connecting and building relationships, but I'm not that great at sales. It's a skill and people who are in business development and sales are trained to do that. But when you’re running your own business, it’s one of the hats you need to learn to wear… and you need to do it well!

Thinking Big

ZippyCrowd aspires to bring more trust into the online world of work and small business. Thanks to hundreds of people who believe in our mission, we’re now getting ready for the next stage in our growth. It’s exciting to launch ZippyCrowd to our first customers – small business owners and local service providers who’ve been most impacted by COVID-19, like personal trainers, yoga instructors and hairdressers. And we’re absolutely looking to expand the customer base to other businesses in the coming months. We’ve got big plans: both to support small businesses in local communities across Australia, and later into the global sphere.

What To Try

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