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More than money: the flight from corporates to small business and start-ups

Cara Waters
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For Victoria Stuart the turning point came when she was travelling to Melbourne for work and got a call saying her son wasn't breathing properly.

"He ended up having to go to hospital and I just wasn't there for him," Stuart says. "It was the sick guilt of not being there and I just thought there has to be a better way". 

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Workplace flexibility

Beam Australia is connecting part time workers with employers. Vision and stills by Peter Rae.

Stuart quit her job at Google and teamed up with her friend Stephanie Reuss to start online marketplace Beam, which launched this year. 

Reuss had her own impetus for changing her career after struggling to get pregnant as a result of the high stress levels in her role at business advisory giant Corporate Executive Board.

Both women abandoned six-figure salaries to create the start-up business they are boot strapping with $200,000 of their own money. 

"We have basically created a destination for people to find part-time work," Stuart says. "It's an online marketplace that connects any professional with more than seven years professional experience wanting to work in a part-time capacity with employers."

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Beam screens both job seekers and employers to ensure the right fit and then takes a 10 per cent fee from employers on placement.

Flexibility

Stuart and Reuss say their own experience is symptomatic of a broader workplace trend where money is no longer the key motivator for many employees.

"They are looking for three things," says Reuss. "They are looking for permanent part-time flexibility, career worthy roles that are jobs that honour their experience and the investment they have made of their time, and a lot of them are looking to organisations that are purpose-led where the values of the business align to their personal values. Those three things are ranked higher than salary."  

The pair say small businesses are leading the way in looking beyond monetary remuneration. 

"I think there could be a brain drain from corporates to smaller and medium businesses, which are able to accommodate flexibility more quickly," Stuart says. "There is a genuine desire to get there." 

Remote working

The co-founder of peer to peer car sharing network Car Next Door, Will Davies says he has been able to attract and retain a great team by setting up systems to make it easy for people to work remotely.

I think there could be a brain drain from corporates to smaller and medium businesses which are able to accommodate flexibility more quickly.

Victoria Stuart

The peer to peer car sharing network was valued at $12.5 million last year after an investment by Caltex of $2.7 million. 

"The whole team is on Slack and Trello, which takes stuff off email and enables you to get a really good view of what is going on in different topics," he says. "So they can get a good overview of what's happening in the business without needing to be in the office hearing what's going on."

Davies also advocates empowering employees with information.

"We share our full financials with the whole team so our team gets the same level of detail as the investors," he says. "It's trusting the team members with that information and builds a greater trust both ways and it means when there are periods in the business when things are really tight financially it's not a surprise to the team, they have seen it coming."

Davies says salary is not the key driver for Car Next Door employees but businesses still need to pay market rate "at least".

"You can't say 'We've got all this cool stuff but we are paying you three-quarters of what everyone else is'," he says. "The issue is just that feeling of fairness and being treated properly. Once you're at market and people are satisfied that salary is fair then I think it's all about keeping people engaged and giving them lots of ownership and ability to make decisions." 

Values 

OpenAgent co-founders Zoe Pointon and Marta Higuera​ cite their values as part of the secret of attracting top staff to the independent online platform that provides rankings and reviews of agents.

In just three years, the 45-person-strong business raised $8 million in funding. 

"Have committed and talented leaders who do the right thing, develop the team, and have a clear vision that everyone 'gets' and is working towards," Pointon says. "Have values that are understood and are 'real', and that people are proud of. At OpenAgent, ours are: be a customer hero, dare to be a little weird, no BS and be the A-team."

Sense of purpose

For Mike Rosebaum, the co-founder and chief executive of "AirBnB for storage" start-up Spacer, fun and a sense of purpose help motivate employees beyond money.  

"We spend most of our waking hours at work, so offering a fun and vibrant culture will motivate people beyond money," he says. 

"Also having a real sense of purpose. For example the sharing economy is a rapidly growing industry, which attracts employees who know they can personally develop their careers quickly in an emerging sector, whilst empowering those in our community to earn additional income from their idle assets." 

The long game

For these business founders money has not been the key driver in their own entrepreneurial journey and they've found the importance of other motivators for staff.

"We're not drawing a salary yet, we're playing the long game here," Stuart says. "It is about building up a sustainable long-term business, which means short-term sacrifice.

So far, Reuss says it's been worth it.

"There is a huge difference between working for a corporate and working for a business that you are passionate about."

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