[adning id=”12070″]

[adning id=”12070″]

Failure is the reality check you need, says CommBank Entrepreneur of the Year

This year’s CommBank Young Hero Awards shines the spotlight on 10 outstanding business leaders from across Australia. These young entrepreneurs, aged 35 and under, are making a positive impact on Australia’s business market while pushing the boundaries of their respective industries. Let’s take a closer look at these trailblazing businesses and the remarkable founders that run them. Paul Maric, Co-Founder of Car Expert shares insights into their business’s success and why they were awarded CommBank Young Hero Awards 2023: Entrepreneur of the Year.

How has your business grown since you first started it?

We started with three founders in 2020. Today we’re a business with around fifty full-time staff across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Our website launched with no traffic and a domain authority of zero. Our YouTube channel had zero views and no subscribers. Today our website gets over 3.8 million visits per month, has a domain authority of 71 and our content is syndicated to millions of Australians through the Seven West Media network and the Australian Community Media network. Our YouTube channel is Australia’s most-watched new car review channel on YouTube and gets over three million views per month with over 320,000 subscribers.

Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Don’t go into business with the mindset that your end game is endless riches. You need to have the mindset that the thing you’re launching will help other people, will change somebody’s life or will make someone’s life a bit easier. For me, it was a passion for cars. I had started ten other businesses in my teens and early twenties but all of them were started with the end goal of financial success. So, it’s not hard to see now why they failed. My passion for cars meant I was able to think like a car buyer, think like a marketer and think like a car company. Combining all of these things led to the success of CarExpert.com.au.

What lessons have you learned from your mistakes and failures?

Ironically, I thought we learned from our mistakes with our last businesses and this time around everything would be perfect…simply because we wouldn’t make the same mistakes. Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking. While we didn’t make the same mistakes, we did make new ones. But, you know what, there’s nothing wrong with mistakes or failures. They are the reality check you need in business. They are the sanity check you need to know you’re not perfect and that things are fragile. It’s also important to allow your staff to make mistakes. Some of our biggest traffic stories have come from ideas that have stemmed from new angles and concepts, while others have been failures.
Paul Maric, Co-Founder of Car Expert and winner of CommBank Young Hero Awards 2023: Entrepreneur of the Year.

What motivated you to keep going during difficult times?

While Covid-19 presented challenges for most businesses, it was almost terminal for us. We started our business just before the pandemic kicked in. Our seed investors were unsure of what was going to happen to the world and the key staff we needed became nervous. Most challenging of all, extensive lockdowns meant we couldn’t test cars and create the content we needed to make. But, with the benefit of hindsight, our business wouldn’t have succeeded anywhere near as much as it has if it wasn’t for the pandemic. While all our competitors slashed costs, we massively ramped up spending and invested in quality people. This led to us catching our competitors in record time. Our motivation actually comes from ‘the haters’. In our industry, we deal with the opinion of the public and our competitors. We thrive off their criticism since we know the harder we work against our slow, legacy media competitors, the more we will achieve. That mindset has made all the difference for us.

By: Alyssa Herr, Editor
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
Print

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SUBSCRIBE FREE
SME NEWS BRIEFS

Get breaking news delivered
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

RECEIVE GOVT GRANT OF $10K to $250K*.

Austrade Approved Business Events
AVAILABLE NOW APPLY BEFORE 30th MARCH 2021 (Condition apply)

  • ABF Events are approved and listed below have been certified by Austrade on the Schedule of Approved Business Events.
  • This allows exhibitors, sponsors, delegates and partners to participate in the Business Events Grant Program. Note event bookings need to be confirmed ASAP to participate in the grant program
  • The program provides 50% rebate (based on a minimum spend of $20k) for approved items including ABF event-media packages, exhibition stands, corporate function tables, delegate registrations.
  • Govt Grant applications are now open until the 30 March. Please contact ABF to discuss how we can assist, we have experts to assist grant applications.
  • Grant funding will cover up to 50% of eligible expenditure incurred in participating at pre-approved business-to-business events as buyers or sellers during the 2021 calendar year.  All grant applications must be submitted for approval via the following link: https://business.gov.au/grants-and-programs/business-events-grants
  • For further information please see this fact sheet.
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?