Mitch Hills is a young Australian entrepreneur and marketer with what he describes as “a burning passion for business”. Perhaps that’s why he’s started so many companies; companies like The Exceptions Network for young business owners, marketing group Mastered Marketing, and AroundAbout, the app highlight the best food, entertainment, and adventures that Brisbane has to offer.

We talked to him about starting out, scaling up, and what the future holds.

STARTING
THE BUSINESS

What led to you starting your first business?

I started my first business at 16 somewhat by accident! I was learning to DJ and a good friend had sound and lighting, so we teamed up which gave birth to POGO Entertainment.

Throughout the process I fell in love with business, and ever since then I’ve been hooked. Over the following years I managed to save $100,000 before I turned 20. I was about to buy a house, but it didn’t really excite me… I wanted to do something big, something different, have a crack at a startup because I loved everything about it. I jumped in the deep end and went for it – and here we are!

What makes AroundAbout unique to the industry?

I’m really big on design – ever since I was little I appreciate things that look beautiful, so high quality design is built in to everything I do. Although design alone isn’t enough to create a winning business!

The biggest differentiator with AroundAbout is the content. We are extremely curated, we don’t have everything we just have the best. The number one thing I value most in the world is time, and by refining down the options to the best of the best, I don’t just want to show you what to get for lunch – I aim to help people create experiences by recommending places that are (hopefully!) amazing every time they visit!

What were some of the toughest challenges you faced when starting out?

Getting ripped off, and people telling me I ‘needed’ them when I didn’t. When you’re new to business (especially the tech world) you don’t know what’s what, and ‘professionals’ will tell you what you ‘should’ do. You’re new, so you think “I should listen to the professionals, right?”

Yes and no. Listen to mentors and people with experience that are not financially invested. Any ‘expert’ who has potential business with you has their hand in your pocket, and you need to be careful of being pulled into expensive situations. Get second and third opinions before you invest anything. If you’re thinking of developing an app you can even reach out to me and I’ll hopefully help you avoid a nasty situation! It’s things like this that inspired me to create The Exceptions.

What do you wish you’d known when first starting out that you had to learn the hard way?

Everything I know now! Haha. Although that’s impossible because it all comes with experience. If I had to refine it down to one thing, it would probably be knowing the lean startup process. Knowing how to validate properly, make MVPs, conduct inexpensive tests for valuable learnings and more. Check out The Lean Startup by Eric Ries and Nail It Then Scale It! By Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom. I WISH I had read those two books before I started!

LOOKING TO
THE FUTURE

What do you believe it takes to stay at the top of your industry?

Innovation and market awareness. With innovation, you always want to be updating your product or service and keeping it fresh. People who get ‘comfortable’ fall behind and stop innovating. It’s why some startups smash it at the beginning and then once they hit some level of success they slack off. Don’t do this! Market awareness ties in with innovation, you always have to see what the market and the customers want. Then create that. Great businesses are solutions to problems, so find out what problems they are having, and if you’re already solving them, figure out how to solve it even better! Don’t ignore the writings on the wall if you’re starting to lose people. Keep it fresh.

Considering the radical change currently unfolding in the workplace, how do you see the industry evolving over the next 10-15 years?

If we’re talking about the rising rate of startups, co-working spaces and self-educated entrepreneurs, I think it’s great and I think the next 10 years will be interesting. To be honest, there’s so many different directions it could go I’m not sure where it will end up (even a 5 year prediction can represent a huge change in this age!). Although the technology advancements will be awesome to watch and I can’t wait to see how many amazing innovations come out of it.

How will you and your businesses adapt to this change?

You have to operate and market in the age we live in. This means you have to adapt to how things change and embrace it, rather than fighting it. If you complain about how you wish things were, you’ll miss the opportunity to take advantage of how things are.

Do you believe in ‘ultimate success’? If so, what does that look like to you?

There’s a few key things I want to do but ultimately, success to me is being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, with whoever I want, as much as I want. Total freedom!

What key piece of advice would you share with emerging entrepreneurs looking to follow in your footsteps?

Keep hustling.

I almost wanted to leave it at that, but to drive the point home I want to say that hustle combined with persistence is the key to success. Your hustle is the biggest thing that you can control, and you can outwork your competitors, all you have to do is make a decision.

Now hustle is great, but sometimes life will punch you in the mouth. Persistence is the other compulsory key to success and it’s how you can continue hustling in times of struggle. When you’re winning, it’s easy. It doesn’t take effort or guts to cruise through life. It’s when life knocks you down that creates strength and courage. Even I’m not even remotely close to where I want to be in the future, and I’ve had my fair share of failures! But I haven’t even considered once about giving up. I’ve interviewed some amazing people and they’ve all said that persistence is the number one reason they succeeded. Keep pushing.