Phillip is the Chief Executive Officer of Flogd - a site that lets you sell your stuff securely through widgets that can be embedded on your websites or Myspace pages. It gives users a shopping cart system that takes care of postage, taxes and processing of the sale.

He is currently in his 5th year studying a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne.

Phil is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Centre For Sustainability Leadership and also has a long history of volunteering and providing in-kind support to Student Partnerships Worldwide, the Oaktree Foundation and the Brightest Young Minds Foundation.

Which websites do you visit every day?

I visit all the usuals: Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia but I try to keep up with the Australian internet community.  I like to see what everyone is doing, especially people I know.  Since there are only a handful of Australian start-ups, I get around to most of them at least once a week.  Generally though I keep pretty distant from what’s going on.  It gives me more perspective and keeps me in touch with the “normal” internet user.  It’s hard enough to market to normal people when you spend more than 12 hours a day on the internet.

Lots of people have business ideas but few move forward with them - how would you suggest they evaluate them? How should a person who is new to business get started?

As regards real businesses, I can’t really offer much advice - good luck.  But, internet businesses are an entirely different story.  My advice to anyone with an internet idea is to do it, then think about it later.  First mover advantage is important, the long tail is proven.  Even if there are mega competitors, there are always niches and local markets.  The larger a competitor is the less in touch with their users there are, and this will always be your edge.

So, find a tech savvy person if you aren’t one and convince them of the idea.  Then go from there.  I recommend living from home, or finding a patron like a wealthy girlfriend or something.  Either way you can always work outside a real job.  Get the website up as quick as possible and listen to your users.  Let them inform your service and you will have a market before long.  Start small, provide good service.  Focus on one area and do it well (ideally better than anyone).

Your tech savvy person should know exactly what I mean by go from there.  Just build the website, upload it somewhere and market it.  Remember, execution is important, but also that bad executions are often very popular - the key is satisfy consumers!  Consumers opinions are all that matter.  Don’t worry about professional critics unless they are the ones using your product.  Always be conscious of the large tech divide between experts and normal people on the internet.  Experts rarely have big wallets!

What common mistakes do you see startups make? How would you avoid them?

Don’t assume anything of your target market. It’s a very easy trap to fall into to assume that you somehow know what the market wants. Do market research where possible - but don’t get put off if you don’t like what you see.  It isn’t necessarily bad if there are lots of established competitors.  Consumers mature with competition.  If you have a nice interesting angle on an idea, a mature market will appreciate it better than a young market.

Try not to change your business direction every day - it is very tempting.

Sustainability is increasingly on our minds these days, how is that going to affect business in the next 5 years?

Companies are finding there is labour market, government, lobby group and consumer pressure to be sustainable. This is a fantastic opportunity for businesses to innovate and differentiate themselves. Every threat is an opportunity. Business culture, product, service and image has and will continue to change as sustainability becomes more and more ingrained into the balance sheets and is more effectively priced by the stock market.

In terms of internet businesses - the tangible effect is probably going to be pretty small but I think there is a massive green washing opportunity.  By and large, the internet is an environmentally friendly way to spend your Saturday nights.  We are already seeing and definitely going to see more internet businesses carbon offsetting their own server networks, and their users power consumption to view their site.  I wouldn’t be suprised to see people also off-setting portions of ISP power, hardware production and other inputs.

There are going to be businesses making all sorts of claims and it will be very difficult for consumers to obtain accurate information so I think we’ll see some kind of reporting standard before long.

Your startup Flogd allows people to sell products through widgets on their Myspace and Facebook profiles, blogs, and websites - do you think widgets are going to become more prolific in the online space?

I think so – the Internet is seemingly booming on smaller modular businesses coming together to deliver longer value chains. The days are numbered in many ways for large corporate domination online. Phenomena like the long tail are changing the role of smaller businesses. These business often develop a widget like product and so it is very likely that widget growth will continue to skyrocket.

Interviewed by Ross Hill, an Australian entrepreneur with a strong interest in the social web - his current projects include Yabble, Rentoid, CoverHunt and The Hive.

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Posted on July 31st, 2008 by Ross