Suzi Dafnis' Success

Number one in that bunch of mistakes was reacting to market downturns, and this presented another expensive learning curve. "I know it sounds naive, but I didn’t think [the market] would change. I was in a business that was growing steadily, the market was going with us, and then it changed." Suddenly there were a few ‘shonks’ in the marketplace that meant the reputation of the wealth creation market took a dive. New legislation changed around what someone could or couldn’t say about personal finance, and suddenly selling tickets to even reputable speakers became impossible.

But this was only part of the problem. Dafnis failed to streamline the business, and as profits dropped, staff levels and overheads remained the same. "We made the mistake of thinking we were going to keep growing at this level forever. And we held on to staff thinking [the market] will turn back," she says. "I loved the staff and thought they were really important—more important than the business—and the business suffered. "For a long time, probably 12 months longer than we should have, we maintained staffing levels. We had close to a $2 million payroll," Dafnis says. "Rather than scaling up, then down—because it’s a cyclical, seasonal business—we tried to keep finding things to do to pay the staff."

One of the toughest lessons to learn was that although she made a great leader in these early years, and motivated, inspired and supported staff, she lacked the skills to be a good business manager. "We should have said ‘we love you, but the business won’t survive if we keep you and therefore you must go’," she explains. "I used to measure my success by turnover and how many staff I had." But it didn’t matter if the turnover was $1 million or $18 million when expenses were killing profits. So they needed a new perspective: "Let’s stop looking at bringing money in and let’s look at our expenses. Changing that perspective was like growing up. My wish for every other business owner is that they learn that sooner than I did. I’m very passionate but I also get very emotional with things, which hasn’t served the business."

It took the business 18 months to get back on track, and now it is in a healthier position than it was a few years ago. Now a streamlined team of 12 run the business, with contract workers helping in peak times. And all lessons learnt during this period were transferred to the business as Dafnis set up Rich Dad seminars in the US, even if the launch was a little ill-timed. "We were able to duplicate what we had in Australia, and what took us six years here took two years in the US. That’s just experience; there’s nothing you can exchange for experience. Experience is the teacher that would have me do it differently next time around." She now passes these lessons and more on to others through her role as chair of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network (ABN).

Like most business owners, Dafnis is passionate about her business offering. She loves learning, regularly attending courses to improve the business and her own outlook. She also encourages all business owners to do the same. "The advent of the internet has changed the industry, and you can find and learn anything on the internet," she says. "There’s really no excuse not to be educated."

When I ask whether she feels pressure from the marketplace to know everything about topics she offers, she says the only pressure comes from herself. "I’m a terrible perfectionist." But she admits there is a need to "walk the talk", which she discovered when she and Johnston went into partnership with now renowned speaker and author, Robert Kiyosaki. Dafnis became involved with Kiyosaki when she was a student of his in 1991, and then from her work with the organisation that represented him. He retired in 1994, and came out of retirement a couple of years later to write the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and they hooked up again to release the book together in 1996. "And the rest is history!" This relationship meant success for both the business and Kiyosaki. "We were very lucky we were working with a product that was exceptional, and with a person who was as driven as us."

And Kiyosaki passed on his own lessons about wealth creation. "A lot of people depend on the business solely to create wealth for them. One of the things I learnt very early was that businesses do have cycles: boom and bust, every industry goes through that. And because the business was me, I had no succession plan or any idea that I would sell," she explains. "At some point people in small business get tired or burnt out, and if they haven’t taken care of things and don’t have a saleable business or don’t invest somewhere else, they have very little to show for having been in business."

Their first commercial property investment was made in 1997, and within five years they had built up a substantial portfolio that continues to grow today. To make her point, Dafnis says that for the last five years she hasn’t needed Pow Wow to make money. "So now the real estate business has its own staff and is as important to me as Pow Wow or ABN or Rich Dad Australia, because the money from there has allowed me to continue to learn and grow and put my time voluntarily into things like the ABN." Even with the growth in her own finances, personal development education remains a big interest, and although personal finance education has proved so popular, thanks largely to the Rich Dad offerings, it wasn’t a specific interest for Dafnis until the business got under way. "But we made sure that no matter what the topic was, the core was about personal transformation and education."