From Quitting His Teaching Job To Market 4WD Accessories Online, Growing the Business And The Business Collapsing, To Pivoting it Again, Starting His Own Online Business, and Turning it into a Multiple Seven Figures Company (Dan Kozaris)

Mar 22, 2020

In this episode, I’ll have a conversation with Dan Kozaris, the owner of KPD4⨉4, a successful Australian four-wheel drive (4WD) accessories company. At age 26 in 2008 as the global financial crisis hit, Dan decided to pivot from the safe job of school teacher to become a marketer of four-wheel drive (4WD) accessories online for someone else. In 18 months, he helped grow that business from $3 Million to $5 Million in annual sales. 

Soon after, the owner took a chunk of money out of the business and left it to collapse, leaving Dan owed a lot. Vowing he could grow the same online business, but manage its finances better, first-year sales were $250,000. After four years working on his own, a six-week bike ride through Siberia with a mate, with barely any internet access, was the catalyst for Dan honing his first team member, and growth really took off from there. 

Now at five full time and one part-time team members, and sales growing between 30% and 60% per annum over the last ten years, they now have a multiple seven-figure business. Growth has been funded from profits with no debt or investors needed. Dan believes the hardest thing in growing a small business is identifying the most important tasks which make a difference to your growth and actually getting them done. It’s going to be a super insightful episode for any small business owner, so don’t miss out.  

This Cast Covers:

• The two main functions at KPD industries and how they make money.
• The challenge of managing the business remotely to get more time and lifestyle freedom.
• His journey from education teacher to marketer and business owner.
• The gold rush era of the online four-wheel drive (4WD) market.
• Starting the business from home as an online business to diversifying into manufacturing.
• Doing $250,000 a year in revenues in 2010 and growing at 25% to 45% per year on average to reach multiple 7 figure revenues.
• Getting 70% of their revenues from their own branded products.
• The moment when Dan felt he had succeeded and what success looks like to him.
• The Coronavirus lockdown and the value of working online.
• Funding the business internally despite starting from a negative financial position.
• The headache he had with bookkeeping and accounting as the business grew.
• Building confidence in their brand by getting the product right and making sure their customers were extremely well serviced.
• Bringing in software to help them manage the increasing customer inquiries.
• The challenges of managing people, and keeping them productive and focused.
• Understanding the actual potential of the business in the future.
• The importance of a small business owner making sure the tasks they’re engaged in are making a net positive growth difference in the business.
• How he brought on team members to increase the business’ overall capacity and the hiring mistakes he made.
• The value of maintaining a regular open line of communication with employees.
• Investing in personal development and how it impacts him as a business owner and leader of his team of employees.
• Identifying the most important tasks which will make a difference to a business’ growth and actually getting them done.
• Aiming high and how it can help a small business owner do everything they have to to make things happen.

Additional Resources:

• The Vision Traction Organizer
• Become a Key Person of Influence By Daniel Priestley
• Traction By Gino Wickman

 

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/