If you had one opportunity to start a business in Australia  in the next 5-10 years: which area you would choose?

If the death of a small canary was an indicator of a toxic environment in the coal mines years ago, how much more does the closure of the 100 year old factories like Ford and Holden indicate a toxic environment for old-style business in Australia. Now in my eyes, these closures are noteworthy because manufacturing has been at the centre of most industrial age business opportunities that has stretched from the late 1700’s to the early 2000’s, but manufacturing’s significance is now well and truly on the wane. Australia like the rest of the world is now engaged in a period of massive transition from an industrial age past to a global digital information age future.   So, if you’re looking for a sound opportunity to exploit in Australia with vast growth potential in the next 5-10 years, I would be looking for opportunities that align with this transition to the global digital information age. Now the beauty of opportunities in the global digital information age is that the barriers for entry and capital requirements are very low and your products are incredibly scalable (i.e. multiple sales doesn't mean proportionally increased costs). The down side is that the competition is huge – in this digital world, you’re now competing with every other person on the planet with access to the Internet and the scary thing is that they (think Indians) are pouring into this space while Australia rests on its laurels that were earned in an industrial age past.    So what uniquely Australian digital information age product could we develop that gave us a competitive advantage with the rest of the world?   Well, I asked myself the same question a few years back and overwhelmingly concluded that it was –education, specifically vocational education. That is, producing digital learning products that could teach the world the skills that they needed to be more productive in a work environment to get a job, get promoted in a job, transfer to another job or start their own business. It’s the opportunity I am currently exploiting and am prepared to help other like-minded people do the same.   Now the unique part about Australians doing this, is that Australia is one of only two countries in the world (Germany being the other one) that have codified the elements and performance criteria that make up every work skill. These skills, elements and performance criteria have been codified by the Australian Government and have been made publicly available on this website http://training.gov.au/ in the form of Units of Competency (skills). In total there are 66 industry training packages with over 800 skills being codified in the business training package alone to give you an idea of the extensiveness of the 20 years of research that has been invested in this undertaking.   The other unique and competitive advantage of Australia is our geographic location. See, more people live in our time zone than anywhere else on the planet adding real time engagement possibilities to our teaching and tutoring. Also, the Chindia (China/India) markets are respectful and open to Australian education and educators … from English to Business and from early age to mature-age continuous learning. Whatever it is you know about or have experience in, this particular world wants to learn about it and are prepared to pay you to teach them.   So if you or people that you know have expertise in any area of work skill, you can now build a business by turning that expertise into digital learning products and selling them to a learner hungry world via a myriad of monetizing learning platforms like Udemy or even your own website like I’m doing with http://www.skillmaker.edu.au/. Even better is to align your learning products to the Australian Government’s Units of Competency and secure an accreditation partnership with an Australian Registered Training Organization. This adds credibility and further monetization options to your digital learning products. Income streams that are also naturally attached to this business model include one-to-one tutoring, ebooks, Adsense advertising, teaching resource selling, mobile apps and consulting.   So, in direct answer to the question, the business I would recommend is -  become a Digital Learning Product Developer and my business http://nowmaster.com/ (shameless plug) can help you do just that. Just as the Internet allowed everyone to became a journalist with blogging, so too the Internet is allowing everyone to become a teacher with the creation of digital learning products. You may initially wish to exhaust your own expertise before helping others do what you have done for a % of the take.   As for the fields to learn about to fully exploit this opportunity, I would recommend the following: Get a Certificate IV in Training and Education (TAE) – You need this skill to develop accredited teaching resources (learning and assessment materials) and to understand how to align your own digital products to the National standard. It can be obtained from most TAFE’s in Australia or any other recognized Registered Training Organization. Learn how to build an online personal profile – You need to build your online profile, reputation and network through sites like Linkedin, Quora, Facebook and Twitter. Learn how to create digital learning products – Like images, illustrations, articles, videos, podcasts, powerpoints and quizzes. Learn how to build and maintain a websites – You need to build a digital world where others that have discovered you can engage directly with you. I would recommend housing your own website using the http://Wordpress.orgplatform. Learn how to successfully build an online course -  This is best done by actually doing it with sites like Udemy. Learn how to develop eBooks – You will need to learn how to develop eBooks and how to work with the platforms that sell them like http://Scribd.com. Learn how to develop mobile Apps – There are plenty of courses you can take to learn this skill that will be important to your earning potential as the world moves from desktop to mobile devices. Armed with these skills plus access to work skill expertise, you can develop digital products and sell them to a learner hungry world that will benefit both them and you.  Message me here on Quora if you would like more information about this opportunity.