By Casey Neill
A young Franz Madlener never dreamed he’d make millions from his own business.
He certainly never dreamed of going bankrupt and ending up in hospital following a nervous breakdown.
But that’s exactly what happened, he told the first Greater Dandenong Chamber Business Awards breakfast for the year, held at Sandhurst Golf Club on Wednesday 29 March.
“The best entrepreneurs do their best work while others go missing when things get tough,” he said.
“It means that we dream and we follow our dream.”
Mr Madlener’s foray into entrepreneurship started with using footy club food trays to serve snacks at the beach during the off-season.
“As a child our dreams knew no boundaries,” he said.
“We were all entrepreneurs and deep down we still are.”
In 1971 he moved to Australia from Germany with his family and no English skills.
He left school at 15 and worked as an apprentice mechanic, a DJ, a construction worker on the Rialto, a suit and trouser salesman, a roadie in a rock band, spotlight operator at a strip club and various other jobs – all before he was 19.
Mr Madlener is now a Dandenong Market non-executive director. He’s best known for establishing global brand Villa and Hut.
He sold the company to Allied Brands in 2009. Allied Brands collapsed 18 months later.
“I didn’t get good legal advice – I assumed,” he said.
“Get the best legal advice you can afford.
“Good legal advice is expensive for a reason.
“Don’t skimp on legal advice – or coffee.”
He fought liquidators for seven years and eventually bought back his business, and re-sold it – he’d saved the brand.
“If you truly believe that you can, you can, you just have to find a way,” he said.
Mr Madlener shared a few tips for business success with breakfast guests.
His first rule was never give up.
“The only thing we’ll end up regretting is what we failed to try,” he said.
Number two was to be committed.
“There is no such thing as lucking your way to success,” he said.
“There is no such thing as luck, just commitment.”
Mr Madlener’s third rule was to build relationships and share a vision.
“Don’t employ someone from a bad batch of candidates,” he said.
“If the right person’s not there, keep looking.”
Keep training your workers, he urged, and debunked the common question ‘what if I train them and they leave?’.
“What if you don’t train them and they stay!” he said.
He said to look past location, exclusivity and price when seeking a competitive advantage – competitors would always find a way to overtake.
“If you get the best people you can put together, you’ve got something magic,” he said.
Tip number four was to build a brand, not just a business.
“Great brands make the invisible visible,” he said.
“People don’t buy what it is or what it does, they buy what it does for them.”
Embrace change was rule number five, and be a leader was number six.
