Fiona Anson, 54, is from Sydney, Australia. She started her recruitment business, Workible, in 2013. Workible is a mobile and social recruitment platform for flexible workforce industries, catering to the 6.7 million flexible workers in Australia. Workible allows job seekers to list a profile and join talent and industry pools according to their skills and experience. Employers use Workible to tap into those pools of job seekers when they need to find staff fast.
Starting the Business
Q: Where did the idea for your business come from? Where were you in your life and career?
A: The concept of Workible came from an idea that was sparked from many shared car rides to work with my business partner, Allison Baker. We were both having trouble finding flexible roles to fit in with our lifestyles and we agreed there needed to be a better way.
Prior to starting Workible I owned my own accounting practice and was the CEO of a national franchised coaching network in the early 2000s.
I’d had a number of businesses before Workible so I was no stranger to running my own business; however the recruitment space was something new. In terms of where I was in my life, I was looking for something new as my previous business, property development, had gone quiet because of the downturn in the property market after the GFC.
Allison was working as a marketing consultant to small businesses and looking for additional part-time work to supplement her consulting business. After fruitlessly searching she realised there was no channel that catered solely to the part-time and casual workforce. This led us to develop the idea of Workible.
Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced when starting out?
A: Moving from a property developer to a tech start-up required a great deal of learning and research into where technology is now, how it works and where it’s headed in the future. For instance, I had to learn a lot about coding, wireframing, workflows, mobility, social platforms and viral marketing.
We bootstrapped our business, meaning we funded it from scratch. When you’re building technology, it can be an expensive exercise so when we got to the point of needing more funding, we had a steep learning curve about the world of venture finance. We had to learn how to pitch for funding and all of the associated challenges moving into that area of business.
Q: What is the one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you started the business?
A: I wish we knew there were ways to get outside finance – rather than using all of our own funds. Apart from that, I think we went into this business with our eyes wide open. Although we’ve come a long way very fast, there have been no real surprises along the way.
Q: What would you consider your first big success in the business?
A: I have had a number of successful businesses but Workible is, by far, the biggest. We are about to launch Workible in the US and are having a great reception, which we’ve had from day one, including the immediate acceptance by new clients which has been extremely exciting.
Q: What is the toughest thing about getting to the top / staying on top in your industry specifically?
A: Competitors and copycats constantly keep us on our toes. You not only have to keep your eye on your own business but you’ve always got to have potential threats and other industry players in your peripheral vision.
We suffer from a very healthy dose of entrepreneurial paranoia which I think is a good thing as it keeps us striving to deliver a unique and best product/market fit platform and makes us constantly strive to invent and re-invent features and add ons.
We always make sure what Workible offers is different and adds value to our clients and customers. We also ensure Workible is at the cutting edge of technology.
The Future
Q: Where do you see your industry heading in the next 5 years?
A: The workforce is undergoing some huge changes. 57% of the Australian workforce now works part time or hourly and that’s growing at twice the rate of full time.
Predictions are by 2020, 85% of the workforce will be working some kind of flexible hours. In that regard, businesses are going to have to find ways to allow more flexibility as well as deal with short term hiring for project based work. We’ve taken all of this into consideration when building Workible and, in fact, we’re the only ones who really have this front of mind.
Q: What do you plan on doing / changing in order to keep growing in this time period?
A: The most important thing for us is to listen to the needs of our clients – both employers and jobseekers. Our platform exists to solve their problems and pain points, which means they are a vital part of our ongoing development.
As the workforce, and therefore the needs of it, changes, Workible will also evolve. We know that it will never be “done” – technology platforms never are. They are always continually evolving – in part due to technological changes themselves but also for the needs of the markets they serve.
Q: What does ultimate success look like to you? How will you know when you’ve achieved it?
A: I’m not sure we believe in “ultimate success”. As the well known saying goes “success is a journey, not a destination.” We have successes every week – a new client, a new market and newly-released feature that our market loves. Ultimately to see Workible as the mainstream social platform, globally, for this workforce is something we aim for. You can never predict the future and that, like anything else, might change.
Q: What do you think will be the biggest challenge facing entrepreneurs in the near future?
A: The biggest challenge I think will be the pace at which things will change – and keeping up – or actually being in front of – that pace. With the rate of technology development, social and society changes getting faster, to even stand still is no longer good enough. If you do stand still everything passes you by, so by default you’re going backwards.
Q: What one piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out in your industry and wanting to make it to the top?
A: Product/Market fit is everything. You might have a great idea, you might be the most passionate person in the world, you could have piles of money to throw at it but until you hit on a perfect product/market fit, you’ll find it a challenge.
Therefore, my advice would be “do your homework and do it often”. Once you find a market that has a strong need or problem and provide a great solution, it will then become much easier to gain sales.