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I had a computer, a desk and a garden shed. I would just buy and sell, I never carried any stock. I would talk to clients and get stock when I needed it. It was slow, steady progress. Without the cashflow, you can\u2019t grow.<\/p>\n
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I was in the industry for five years and they all knew me. I had a good, trusted name in the industry, which is more valuable than any profits.<\/p>\n
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I made sure I delivered on time and to expectation and, in return, I gave them 30 days to pay me. Some said \u201cno, we won\u2019t support you\u201d, but they are now knocking on my door asking to work with me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To start with, I got the Yellow Pages out and start calling, asking for clients to give me a chance. Out of 100 calls, you\u2019d get about a 2% return through cold calling. Then, if you provide excellent service, you get the next order.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two years. I was turning over $1 million and making a lot of money for myself, but I was scared of growth. I had to move to a $35,000 office space in Stanmore and I was shitting bricks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was in the mentality of keeping overheads down and running a tight ship. I thought the extra cost could sink the business and I had the fear factor of the next step.<\/p>\n
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If you\u2019re not making a profit, it doesn\u2019t mean anything. I think we were successful because we invested during the GFC. We were proactive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have two brothers and one sister, who are all working on businesses. My older brother, Danny, worked with me and my cousin and we were always fighting and bickering.<\/p>\n
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I said \u201cI\u2019ve had enough, I\u2019m going to go and do it myself.\u201d Then he started DK Blue, which was in a different market to my business. We ran the businesses for six years before two years ago we decided to merge. We\u2019re now joint CEOs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My brother is great at sales, while I run operations. I suppose I wanted to outdo him when we were young. We drove each other forward.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
While I was working in my back yard shed, David was asking for a chance to join me. So I said yes, but he\u2019d turn up to work in his pyjamas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t have many clients at that time but I\u2019d still sit in my office while he\u2019s go inside the house for a nap or to watch TV.<\/p>\n
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I told him that if you don\u2019t respect the business then it won\u2019t respect you. You have to have that drive and respect for the job you\u2019re doing. So I fired him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It was a great lesson. Business is business and family is family and I didn\u2019t want to blur those lines at that time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve had organic growth, which has been fuelled by word-of-mouth and getting the fundamentals of the business right. We\u2019ve diversified the business, which gives great scope and options for clients.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rather than advertise, we distribute magazines that will cost us $20,000, but we will sell ad space in it. We can get $150,000 in sales on the magazines a year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got 18 people now, but we still run a tight ship. I don\u2019t really value one-dimensional people. If you\u2019re going to grow, you need people with a diverse range of skills, but they are hard to find.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I\u2019m very hands on with the business. I want to build experience rather than hire it. Raw people cost less to hire and then I can train them my way. If you hire expensive people, they are often set in their ways.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We\u2019re looking at growing to $20 million turnover in the next two to three years. But it\u2019s a tough industry. It\u2019ll take a lot of work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is that when the garden shed came in handy? I had a computer, a desk and a garden shed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}