Smart50 rank: 29
Revenue: $6,100,000
Growth: 58.89%
Founders: Matt Buchel, 38
Head Office: Queensland
Employees: 25
Industry: Property and business services
Website: www.tropicallifestyle.com.au
Matt Buchel didn’t start with a dream but an idea. In 2007, Buchel saw a rough diamond in the shape of rundown construction company called Tropical Lifestyle and grabbed it.
The business took just six months to turn over $1 million, and a few years later Tropical Lifestyle has the biggest range of gazebos in Australia, and is turning over more than $6 million, with average annual revenue growth of 58.9% over the past three years.
Repeat customers have played a part in the company’s success; Buchel says an average emails to customers two or three times a month generates $20,000 in sales.
“Plus I have implement a regular postal newsletter that is posted each month this further puts a cage around my customers as they are regularly hearing from us without being sold too,” he says.
He’s also taken to YouTube, with thousands of clicks for Tropical Lifestyle videos, including a Tiki hut-themed take on Under the Boardwalk.
Buchel nominates his baby boy as his main source of motivation and advises entrepreneurs to build a company as if you are going to sell it.
In his spare time, the Queenslander has started a business called Smart Marketing Magic which seeks to show owners how to market their business and says he’d be able to sale – for anyone with a big enough cheque.
