Business Timeline – Part 3
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
End of 2003 – 2004
Learning How To Sell!
I took a leap of faith and decided to learn to improve my sales skills through real estate. I had a friend who told me they provide excellent sales training and was one of the toughest industries to succeed in. I also gained my inspiration from Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) 
who went to work for Xerox and preserved until he reached the top of his game. I was very fortunate with an opportunity to work at LJ Hooker North Ryde in Sydney, which was one of the leading real estate agencies in the area. They provided me with fantastic real estate sales training and I was frequently sent to courses to improve my ability to sell.
During my working career at LJ Hooker I focused on an area where I mainly sold units and apartments. Within 6 months of marketing and promotion, I rose to the top and was the only one selling units in that area where all buyers and sellers knew me personally. It really shows the true power of focused marketing and consistent advertising can increase your awareness and results much faster. I promoted myself on a weekly basis through letterbox drops, cold calling, calling past clients from an existing database and speaking to neighbours to build strong rapport with them. It was the consistency and perseverance that paid off. I have learnt that when results are not there, you have to keep moving forward with the appropriate actions, just like searching for a diamond in the rock.
Personally, the most important skill I acquired from real estate is the ability to read people – negotiate, sympathise and sell a product to them. I can’t say it was easy with already so many top agents in the area but I thrived on this competition. I stayed with LJ Hooker North Ryde for a period 15 months and left the agency wanting a change with more confidence in my sales abilities.
2005
Learning How to Recruit
At the beginning of 2005 it was time to add to my skill set toolbox and the next thing to learn was hiring people. I decided to try recruiting for a change and worked for my first and last Corporate Company called Michael Page International. It was a very large multi-national company that recruited for different industries, ranging from Engineering, Finance, Sales & Marketing, Legal and Technology. I was employed to work in the Finance division recruiting for jobs ranging within $45K up to $75K. It was quite different to real estate where I was used to selling a physical property compared to selling people to companies. Ideally, sales principles were the same, just a different way to manage the process. I struggled at first because I was used to driving my car to meet clients face to face and being outside for a majority of my day. It was a complete opposite working in recruitment. I was inside an office all day, behind a computer with a headset and microphone calling out to clients and interviewing candidates in a meeting room. What a change it was!
The ultimate goal wasn’t to work to climb the corporate ladder in Michael Page. I was there to learn how they recruited people for companies and what type of questions to ask to help filter through to the ideal candidate. It was a fast paced environment and it struck me after a few months that I had to get out, because it was demoralising how hard they worked everyone. With long hours, stuck in an office and monotonous routine of the same every day, I wanted something that would challenge me instead. I left after 6 months and it was the best decision ever to walk away from that job! I have found in life if it doesn’t challenge me or the job I do does not benefit others, then I need to change. I decided to take a holiday to the snow again with my Dragonboat friends.
Dragonboat – What Is that?
At the beginning of 2005, when I also started my new job as well I took up a sport called Dragonboating. It’s a sport that originated from China thousands of years ago where 20 paddlers sit in a long boat and race against other dragonboats down a river or water course. What enticed me to the sport was the social life at first and how fun it looked to just paddle with a group of people. I didn’t realise that Dragonboating would also impact my life and give me the opportunity to setup an Internet business as well
New Sport, New Opportunities
Dragonboating started off for me as just exercise and getting a bit of fresh air whilst having some fun. Then when I realised I was good at the sport, I took my paddling to whole new level and started to get involved quite competitively. Once I got started no one could hold me back. I was selected to represent the NSW Dragonboat State Squad to compete at the State and National level of Dragonboating. This was the best year for me as I came back from all events with a Gold medal at the National titles and a Silver medal at State club titles. Not only that, I received “Rookie Of The Year†from my club and it topped off the whole year. It is amazing to know that with preparation, persistence and constant training it makes achieving a big goal much easier.
You can imagine how passionate I was about Dragonboating which got me excited to think of ways to help expand the sport. In October I saw an opportunity to start a business in Dragonboating. Since a lot of paddlers conveyed their frustrations of having lack of access to a reliable source of Dragonboat suppliers I decided to provide the service. I personally found there was no company that could offer premium dragonboat paddles to the Australian market and usually had to wait for at least 6 weeks to get a paddle from overseas. Hence a business was formed and I started a company called DBV.com.au with a high school friend.
The Cash Cow: DBV.com.au
The business model was to import paddles from different manufacturers across the world and sell paddles online via our website to the Australian market. The website became our shopfront and we marketed this to our club members. Initially we went into unknown waters and had only found one supplier that would sell paddles to us and with limited capital we did our best to promote what we had. Some weeks later we landed ourselves with the major supplier that was already known to be the recommended Dragonboat paddle for the Australian Dragonboat team. They wanted us to be the exclusive distributor and sales began to roll in with much greater velocity. My business partner initially set up the website to keep costs down and I focused on mainly handling customer support and sales for the business. I was lucky to leverage technology to my advantage.
The website became our business portal, from processing orders and sending emails, to tracking our customers. We realised there was great potential for the Australia Dragonboat market and decided to expand the range. We approached more manufacturers from around the world and took on more stock to provide variety and choice for our customers. This turned out to be very profitable and helped us increase our brand awareness. Additionally, each manufacturer was happy to come on board because they knew we already captured a large client base and could see the benefits of us promoting their products as well.
Learning To Be A Manager
Prior to starting DBV.com.au I started a new job as a manager in a retail store. It was definitely a change and I found I had more time because I was in control of my hours and duties. Even though I had to be in the store between 9am to 5pm, I was very fortunate to have fantastic reliable staff who I could delegate a lot of my work to. It allowed me to focus on marketing and promoting the retail store and implement better technological systems. I came into the business with lots of great ideas and took action to change what was not working and brought new ways to generate more business. The very first idea I implemented was to set up a professional email address and to have a website built. Once I had the domain name registered I outsourced the website to a web designer to create. It raised professionalism and the branding of the store was changed. All documents and letterheads were made consistent and had the website and email address. Other systems I implemented were:
- The bookkeeper’s full time hours was reduced by 50%, by asking her to work from home. She was given access to the file system and could get work completed much faster without in store interruptions
- The manual ordering system using paper and fax was replaced by a streamlined online ordering system that sent an emailing directly to the supplier
- Email addresses were asked and recorded at point of sale, allowing us to market new products and sales promotion via email rather than sending out mail via the post office.
- A loyalty points system with card was introduced and integrated into existing point of sale system
- Rebranded a fresh new image for the store and made all stationary, bags and shop front consistent
- Implemented a sales target board with incentives for sales assistants to achieve.
Overall, not only did it reduce our costs it increased our sales and gave me more time to also grow my other business during my breaks. Being manager of a retail store was challenging but also taught me the power of delegation and giving others the encouragement to make decisions. It is a skill that takes practise and once you’ve learnt it, you will find that your business life becomes a lot easier.
A month later, I also met my beautiful partner. I would not have imagined a better time to meet her – at a Salsa dance party. She has been my rock and a special person who has impacted my life and someone whom I have shared all my good and bad times with so far.
My name is 