Maritza Ann

Melbourne is currently one of the hottest places in Australia in which to do business. A city steeped in entrepreneurialism since the 1850’s, It’s rapidly establishing itself as Australia’s Silicon Valley. Many established IT engineers are quickly making their way to Melbourne as it’s a great place to for a typical twenty-first century startup.

With a population of 4.1 million, there is the possibility of scaling up, but also the capacity of the city dictates that it is small enough that you can still seek and recruit the best people in your field.

It’s not cheap living in Melbourne, but there is a high standard of living and as well as the more expensive locations to live and work, there are also more cost effective solutions available to suit every budget.

If you are a hungry entrepreneur looking to set up in this magnificent city, You’re ideally going to be located in the city’s Central Business District. Then benefit of being city based is the amount of office space in central Melbourne.

From virtual offices and meeting rooms to coworking space, incubation hubs, and for the larger more established businesses there is an abundance of conventional space available.

There are also a number of hot desk options. If budget is an issue, you can book these by the hour(like car parking!) day, week or month, whatever is convenient for your cash flow.

If you aren’t yet even at this stage of your business, there are many coffee shops across the city offering free wifi!

Starting off in business can be one of the hardest thinks that you can do and whilst the dream may seem a nightmare, whilst you are cruising from cafe to cafe for free wifi, it's these hard times that will ultimately see your ambitions come to fruition. Will your tenacious character be enough to go the journey, or will you throw in the towel?

Many an entrepreneur has lived out of their car whilst investing everything into something they truly believed in.

If you do have a great idea though but lack funding, the City of Melbourne provides grants and sponsorships for businesses located in its municipality.