Start Up Rank: 41
Revenue: $650,000
Founder(s): Errol la Grange, Anthony Morris
Industry: Education
Head Office: Victoria
Employees: 4
Website: www.cpdlive.com
Hundreds of thousands of professionals around Australia are required to undergo between 10 and 40 hours of continuous professional development (CPD) training each year to maintain their qualifications. But for many busy professionals, it's a time-consuming and costly process.
With this in mind, CPDLive founders Errol la Grange and Anthony Morris set about finding a way to deliver CPD training over the internet in live sessions. After setting up a trial in 2006 and a pilot program in 2007, the pair entered into an arrangement with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA) to co-develop and run a CPD that has since been expanded to 200 sessions annually.
The pair has faced a number of challenges in building the business, not least of which was finding a technology platform that was stable enough and of a high enough quality for the discerning professionals they were aiming at.
"Starting a new business is much tougher in practice than it appears at the outset," the pair says. "There are monumental differences between coming up with a very good business concept, putting in place everything required to give effect to that concept and create a product, and then for the product to obtain real and sustainable traction in the market place."
What has been the best part of starting your own business?
"Creating something new, taking on the challenges and seeing it work...or not, as is the case sometimes. There is tremendous satisfaction in watching your ideas come to life," says Morris.
While la Grange says: "For me it is about breaking new ground and creating a product that makes a positive difference to peoples' working life. If at the same time we set the benchmark for how other organisations can do the same, it is a very exciting prospect all round."
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