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In early August 2012 I was honoured to be asked to give the keynote speech at an event that marked the graduation of the first batch of companies to complete the globally-recognised Founder Institute program in Sydney. You can read more about that program elsewhere, but I thought it might be worth sharing the content of my presentation with you at saxton.com.au.

The first message was that there has never been a better time to start a business - particularly a services-type business, especially if you are starting it online. For starters, thanks to the technologies of open source and cloud computing and the global outsourcing industry, it costs little to start a company compared to what it did years ago. We have refined this process into what Eric Ries has defined as the Lean Startup, which is represented in the concepts of ‘failing fast’ and the ‘minimum viable product’. To this effect, you can now get a services company up and running - and potentially profitable - in just months, and for just thousands of dollars.

Do you remember the last time you had a roll of film developed? The answer is probably going to be some years ago. Even the professional photographers I work with these days seem entirely reliant on digital technology. You can understand why - you can see the results of a digital photo instantly, and they are much easier (and faster) to send around than a traditional print.

What you may not have considered, when you took your first digital photograph, was that you were hammering a digital nail into the coffin of a once vibrant (albeit small) industry sector  - film processing and printing. At one time every shopping strip and mall had at least one of these small businesses. Now they are much harder to find.