The ideas among the small group gathering on Sydney’s north shore are diverse. There’s the chap who wants to take control of his life by setting up a business, Abraham Sculptures, selling his creations directly to customers rather than flogging his wares around the art galleries; the woman who is setting up a business, Colours For Life, to show people how to colour co-ordinate their lives; and the retired teacher who is setting up a homework assistance program called Tutor 4 U for time-poor parents.

Getting Started never got off the ground, but [Susan Leith-Miller] now runs groups under her Spare Room Tycoon banner from the Central Coast to the Southern Highlands of NSW.

The way to go:Susan Leith-Miller, of Spare Room Tycoon, guides small business hopefuls at their monthly meeting in SydneyPicture: Andy Baker; Photo: Photo

This club meets monthly to help people reinvent themselves. John Stapleton drops in

THEY have little in common, yet everything in common, this group that gathers once a month in the boardroom of a north shore club in Sydney to talk about their adventures in re-creating their lives.

Each of them has an idea to establish a small business, to step out from the shadow of working for someone else and fulfil their dream.

That’s where the similarities end. They range from their 20s to their 50s, both men and women, and their ideas and personalities could hardly be more different.

But they are all part of a new wave of entrepreneurs who want to run their own micro-businesses. The trend is being fuelled by an ageing population either being retrenched or collecting their superannuation payouts, as well as by the new “have a go”, take responsibility for yourself entrepreneurial attitude being fostered by the federal Government.

Many of the issues facing this fresh class of business people, including taxation and insurance, were discussed at the two-day National Small Business Summit which ended in Canberra yesterday..

The ideas among the small group gathering on Sydney’s north shore are diverse. There’s the chap who wants to take control of his life by setting up a business, Abraham Sculptures, selling his creations directly to customers rather than flogging his wares around the art galleries; the woman who is setting up a business, Colours For Life, to show people how to colour co-ordinate their lives; and the retired teacher who is setting up a homework assistance program called Tutor 4 U for time-poor parents.

Then there’s the retrenched computer specialist now actively promoting her service, Smallbiz Computer Support.

And the woman who had made a set of CDs on Chinese medicine but never knew what to do with them. Now, encouraged by the group, she is advertising in trade magazines. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself,” she says.

They all meet to discuss their progress. They come with their dreams. They acquire business cards, brochures, and the confidence to put themselves out in themarket-place.

They are shepherded by a woman who practises what she preaches, Susan Leith-Miller. She was running a successful market research business employing more than a dozen people when she had a mid-life crisis. She quit her business and headed to the country for a bit of existential angst.

“Even back in the 1980s when I registered a business called Getting Started it was obvious to me that there were a lot of people who needed help and encouragement, someone to bounce their ideas off,” she says.

Getting Started never got off the ground, but Leith-Miller now runs groups under her Spare Room Tycoon banner from the Central Coast to the Southern Highlands of NSW.

“The place you can have the most effect is small business,” she says. “No one is worried about the politics of a large organisation, they don’t have to watch their back, the individual is in control. You are dealing directly with the decision maker.

“For some people registering a name and setting up a business is part of a transition from being employed. It gives them a space to really reflect and question what it is they want to do.”

Leith-Miller says there are as many failures as heart-warming successes in small business.

“Sometimes failure is as useful as success. Some realise they are not suited to being in their own business. Some realise that their idea just won’t work. But they are all staging posts to a new life. Any book on small business will tell you those who succeed are the ones who are not afraid of failing.”

Local hero/personal triumph stories abound among those attending the Spare Room Tycoon groups.

Rosemary Smith has been coming to the groups since last August. She says that while there are plenty of courses on how to set up your own business, she was feeling isolated and without support before joining the group. Her business, Smallbiz Computer Support, came about because it was obvious that many people were struggling with their home computers while trying to run small businesses.

Donald Marmara has worked overseas as a psychotherapist and corporate motivator for much of the past two decades. He says he rarely had to look for work until he came back to Australia, and the group is helping him market his service.

Sculptor Abraham Storey says he would never be happy working nine to five. He has a certificate in small business management, but the group is helping him turn ideas into reality. “This is more practical,” he says.

Retired teacher Elizabeth McKinven of Tutor 4 U says setting up her own business was liberating but nerve-racking. “It is a risk thing, which I haven’t done much of in my life,” she says. “I could go back to teaching, but I am determined to make this work.”

Josephine Calman, who has set up Colours For Life and wants to help people look and feel good about themselves, says stepping out on her own was difficult. “You need someone to talk to,” she says. “In the group everyone is in the same situation. You can’t work on your own, it’s too hard.”

Chief executive officer of the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, Mike Potter, organiser of this week’s Canberra conference, says that as thepopulation ages more and more people will attempt to turn hobbies into businesses.

Disclaimer: The author does not have a spare room but fantasises about setting up his own publishing company.

Fact box

* It is said four out of five small businesses go broke in their first four years

* 25 per cent of Australia’s GDP is generated by small business

* There are 1.2 million small businesses — 96 per cent of all businesses — half of which have been started since 1996

* 34 per cent of small business operate in regional Australia and 67 per cent are home-operated

* Small business generates 3.2 million jobs, or 47 per cent of private sector non-agricultural employment