About
The Good Operator
The Good Operator is content and information for Australian women and gender-diverse people who own a business or who aspire to take up the challenge of entrepreneurship.
It’s for women from all backgrounds, ages and work experience levels.
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The Good Operator encourages women to talk about their experiences starting a business, building a business, and even failing at business.
This is an inspirational site for Australian women solopreneurs looking for advice, content, and a community to inspire them on their pathway to business success.
The Good Operator also highlights the achievements of women and gender-diverse people working in industries and roles that have not traditionally employed many women, like construction, ICT, and finance.1
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About the name
The Good Operator
A good operator is an Aussie phrase – often used to describe people who are great at their jobs. A good operator is savvy, experienced, and confident.
Good operators have the right skills, know the right people, and are confident in their abilities.
If you want something done – and done right – you go to a good operator. You can trust a good operator to get the job done with minimal fuss.
Good operators are leaders. They are often business owners.
But did you know that most people in key leadership positions, business owners, and entrepreneurs in the Australian workforce and marketplace are men?2
The Good Operator includes female and gender-diverse good operators in conversations about business and leadership.
I’m sure you can think of at least one good operator you have worked with.
She’s smart, savvy, experienced and confident, with great skills. She can be trusted to get the job done.
She might be you.
About Amanda (she/her),
founder of The Good Operator
The Good Operator is my passion project.
I’m a solopreneur based in Adelaide, South Australia.
After a decade working as a bid specialist in the corporate sector, I started my own independent firm.
I’m not a billionaire, or even a millionaire. You won’t see me on the cover of Forbes. My business is a solopreneurship – just me, a laptop, and an internet connection. But I’m free of the 9-5 work week, and I have the flexibility to support my family and to make ethical decisions about who I work for.
Like many good operators, I had thought about starting my own business for years. I spoke with several mentors, who encouraged me to do it.
I appreciated their advice and support, but I also felt unsure. I had limited startup capital, career gaps, and lower superannuation due to raising my kids.
But in 2019, I decided to give it a go after weighing up the pros and cons.
Starting my own company was one of the most freedom-affirming decisions I have ever made.
Since I made that decision,
I noticed that more women and gender-diverse people have started their own businesses. Their businesses come in many forms: consultancy, construction, design, ICT, tourism and hospitality, disability support, allied health – the list goes on. They are doing important and inspiring work both as business owners and leaders, including in industries that often employ men, such as construction.3 There may be fewer female and gender-diverse solopreneurs and founders out there, but they are bloody good operators working hard to establish their enterprises. Other women with similar goals can learn from their successes – and the challenges they face.
That’s The Good Operator’s goal:
To highlight the work of other good operators, to inspire female leaders and small business owners, and to give practical advice to Australian women in business.
A note on the content: You may notice I tend to reference available data and write about business and leadership from a feminist perspective. That’s not an accident.
It’s important to review the available research and identify who produced it, to help understand how systems of power work to exclude or make things harder for some people and not others. If we understand it, we can improve it. That applies as much to small business as anything else.
Also – it’s Australian in focus. There’s a glossary if some of the language doesn’t translate.
Quick links
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Content for good operators leading – or aspiring to leadership – in all industries and in business.
All topics
Data-driven insights and inspiration about running a small business and leadership in Australia.
References
[1] Tilley, Cristen (2018), The most gendered top jobs in Australia, 21 May 2018, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-21/the-most-gendered-top-jobs-in-australia/9775544?nw=0&r=HtmlFragment ↻
[2] YWCA (2021), Why are women underrepresented in leadership positions in Australia? https://www.ywca.org.au/news/why-are-women-underrepresented-in-leadership-positions-in-australia/; Workplace Gender Equality Agency (2022), Gender equality workplace statistics at a glance, 24 February 2022, https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/gender-equality-workplace-statistics-at-a-glance-2022. ↻
[3] Galea, N and Carnemolla, P (2022), ‘I would not be respected: the male-dominated construction sector must engage with young women,’ The Women’s Agenda, 24 Feb 2022. The male-dominated construction sector must engage with young women (womensagenda.com.au); Workplace Gender Equality Agency (2019), Gender Segregation in Australian Workforce, 17 April 2019, Gender segregation in Australia’s workforce | WGEA ↻
Photo of business women linking arms by Joel Muniz on Unsplash
All images of Amanda Tulloch-Hoskins © 2022 Amanda Tulloch-Hoskins. All rights reserved.
