I want to help you see why the web industry is broken and why these outrageous, amazing claims you get fed all day every day just don’t work. I’ve had 10 small businesses so far & consulted to thousands more so I believe that if I show you the Mistakes I Made, How I Make Sales and include the Advice that Did Nothing for me, then you’ll know who to trust. Plus there is the Useful Stuff that saves me time and money. No ads, no promos, no click bait, no crap. Just stuff that actually works.
I started my entrepreneurial journey at 13….
When I was at school, we didn’t have the internet, well real internet, it was dialup and it was expensive. That meant music, games, movies were out of the question until CDs came along. It was a hot product with students. I learn’t how to make sales quickly by doing them faster and at half the price than my competitor (a mum of one of my mates). Within weeks I was making $10/day. That is a shitload to a 13 year old.
This funded a computer which got me interested in fixing them.
Welcome to business #2. With a engineer for a father, I was naturally a tinkerer who liked to pull things apart. Being entrepreneurial I turned an interest into a business. I charged $20-$50 depending on what it was. This was half what any ‘professional’ company was charging, and better still this was like 10 hours work at Maccas and I didn’t have to go anywhere.
That was when I was 14.
Thanks to my CD empire, I discovered games and the joys of playing with your mates all at once. We were super cool. We started filling our parents houses and blowing electrical circuits so RFLAN was born. RFLAN is now the southern hemispheres largest LAN gaming organisation (it just celebrated its 15th anniversary) and was featured in a prime time documentary called ‘Just a Game’ back in 2004. I got the piss taken out of me at school but I was the only one on TV….
Business #3, tick.
When I was 16, I wanted a car so I could learn to drive and get my license on the day I was able to (thats 17 here in Australia), so along with the above and school and all the other important stuff a 16 year old needs to do, I started a job at KFC. I lasted two weeks because I saw better ways of doing things, but the manager knew best so I didn’t get any shifts.
I knew then I was destined to be my own boss.
At 17, I needed beer money which meant a reliable job and because I could drive, I was able to get a job collecting trolleys. Now jokes aside this was the best job in the world for a group of 17 year old educated mates, we had 3 shopping centres running like clockwork and I was able to earn 2x as much because we understood what efficiency meant.
Lower costs = more profit = Gareth wins. Call this business #4.
By the time I was 18, I was at uni studying an accounting & finance degree (cause I liked numbers, what a ridiculous choice that was), and that didn’t get the juices flowing so I needed something to do. And a job to keep my now wife in the life she was accustomed so I started business #5, a franchise for Oz Sports.
A great idea, with a great reason behind it, absolutely totally let down by a franchise owner who thought he could pull the wool over the eyes of small business owners. Yet another one of those people who pry on innocence.
It was effectively a scam.
It didn’t take me long to see what was going on and feeling bad for the small businesses that had signed up, I offered to build them websites for a small fee to keep faith and give them something they needed that was useful. It was good for them but even better for me, the choice was $5/hour at Maccas or $500 for a nights work at home. You do the math.
This opportunity was the start of my Concise journey.
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I’m now 30, the director of Concise.Digital, happily married and have been able to achieve great success for thousands of customers, maybe even tens of thousands, without doing anything dodgy!
Yep thats right, I’ve been able to (with the help of my awesome team of course) secure #1 Google ratings in the most competitive keywords without doing SEO, I’ve scaled multi million dollar businesses with simple sales strategies, and captivated the minds of thousands through my Strictly Educational Digital Marketing Workshops.
Yes I’ve made plenty of mistakes too, you can read about those here.
I’ve won awards, I’ve held notable board positions, have attended just about every networking event there is, pounded the pavement for years, been screwed over multiple times and got 49, 48 and 47 in my uni exams (you need 50 to pass!)
Despite all that, I’ve still managed to build a great business, that has given me a great life so far, and allowed me the opportunity to co-found business #10 to do something I’m truly passionate about…
Helping Small Businesses be more Successful Online
(don’t worry Concise.Digital is still very much alive and kicking)
I’ve owned, and still own, a proper, honest, do it property digital marketing agency for 10+ years and am sick of constantly hearing horror stories where innocent small businesses are taken for a ride. It has to stop.
It leaves them in an unfortunate situation where they no longer trust or can’t afford to pay the real experts which often results in the business shutting down because success online is so critical these days.
Therefore I have made it my mission to help more small businesses be more successful online by co-founding IQ Seven.
IQ Seven is the new way website owners get expert advice. IQ Seven’s AI engine helps website owners fix problems and improve results in seven areas key to online success. It’s low cost and completely independent.
It was recognised as a Finalist in the Research and Innovation Project of the Year in this year’s Incite Awards.
Check it out here. Contact me if want a coupon code 🙂