Every successful business starts the same way: someone builds something on the side. Evenings. Weekends. Lunch breaks. The app you couldn’t stop thinking about. The consultancy that started with one client and a favour. The design studio that began as a portfolio project.
At some point, the side project starts earning enough — or showing enough promise — that you have to make a decision. Do you keep it on the side, or do you go all in?
If you’re in Canberra, the conditions for making that leap are better than you might think.
The safety net advantage
Canberra’s economy is unusually stable. Government contracts provide a steady base of demand for tech, design, and consulting services. The unemployment rate consistently tracks below the national average. Average household income is the highest in the country.
This stability means something specific for aspiring founders: your downside is lower. If you leave a job to start a business and it takes 18 months to get traction, you can pick up contract work. If you need a part-time role to fund the transition, they exist. The safety net in Canberra is real — and it makes entrepreneurship less of a cliff jump.
The first real costs
When a side project becomes a business, the costs shift. You need an ABN, then maybe a company structure. You need accounting software. You need a place to work that isn’t your couch.
These early costs matter because they shape your psychology. When you’re paying for a desk, you show up differently. When you have a business address, you present differently. When you have a monthly overhead — even a modest one — it creates a healthy pressure to generate revenue.
A coworking membership is often one of the first real business expenses a new founder takes on. It’s a signal to yourself and to the market: this is a business, not a hobby.
Building your first team
The hardest hire isn’t your tenth — it’s your first. You need someone who’s good enough to trust with client work, flexible enough to work in an early-stage environment, and affordable enough not to sink the business.
In Canberra, you have access to a strong graduate talent pool from ANU and UC. You also have experienced professionals who’ve left government or corporate roles and are looking for something smaller and more dynamic.
A physical workspace helps here too. Asking someone to join your startup is more compelling when you can point to an office — even a shared one — than when the onboarding experience is “download Slack and we’ll figure it out.”
The government pipeline
This is Canberra’s secret weapon for small tech and design businesses. Federal agencies need work done, and they can’t always get it from large consultancies (or don’t want to). If you can navigate the procurement process — and yes, it takes time to learn — government clients offer:
- Reliable payment. Invoices get paid. The timelines can be long, but the money is good.
- Recurring work. One successful project often leads to extensions and follow-on contracts.
- Credibility. Having a federal agency on your client list opens doors to other clients, both government and private.
Many successful Canberra startups were bootstrapped on the back of one or two government contracts that funded early growth.
The mindset shift
Going from side project to startup isn’t primarily about money or logistics. It’s about identity. You have to start thinking of yourself as a business owner — someone who makes decisions about pricing, positioning, hiring, and growth.
That shift is easier when you’re surrounded by other people who’ve made it. In a coworking space, you see the full spectrum: the freelancer who just started, the team that’s been running for three years, the founder who’s hiring their fifth person. Their presence normalises the journey. It makes the next step feel possible rather than hypothetical.
Start before you’re ready
The most common mistake isn’t starting a business that fails. It’s waiting too long to start. The side project stays a side project for years because the conditions never feel perfect.
They won’t. Start anyway. Get an ABN. Get a desk. Get your first paying client. The rest you’ll figure out as you go — and you’ll figure it out faster if you’re in a room with people who are doing the same thing.