After being told he had an attitude problem by a lady at his church, 25-year-old Justin Herald borrowed $50 from his brother to buy four plain t-shirts and had them printed with bold statements which he and three mates wore to church the next week.
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With slogans such as ‘I don't have an attitude problem, you have a perception problem’, Herald not only succeeded in offending the woman, but he was also inundated with orders from other churchgoers wanting the t-shirts.
And so the Attitude Inc. clothing brand was established.
“The first business I started was purely out of wanting to upset someone,” Herald said.
“My dad is a minister and as a minister’s son I’m used to upsetting people. One day a lady told me I had an attitude problem, so I decided to make t-shirts with attitude slogans, just to annoy her.”
With the help of his friends, simple word of mouth and clever marketing skills, Herald managed to turn that $50 into a multi-million dollar empire.
In 2005 he was named International Entrepreneur of the Year and was recently awarded the Future Leaders Award, recognising him as one of the 50 most influential leaders of the next generation in Australia.
Herald now speaks at more than 80 conferences each year and next week will be coming to Moree to present his talk, ‘How to grow a business without spending a single cent', which he said is all about going back to basics.
“The older generation will consider it old-school,” he said.
“It’s all about not spending a great deal of money but getting a great deal of results.
“I don’t agree with people saying you need to spend lots of money to make money.
“It’s all about making it easy for anyone to apply all the stuff I say. It’s not theory, it’s all been proven.
With all the businesses I own, I've never spent more than $150 setting them up.
- Justin Herald
“With all the businesses I own, I’ve never spent more than $150 setting them up.”
The talk promises to be highly entertaining, as well as practical and although it might be content heavy, Herald said the audience will gain useful tips that they can apply the very next day.
“There’ll be a stack load of information with a lot of take-home value about how to find customers, how to create the ideal customer, how to market and how to take an idea and turn it into a business without spending a great deal of money,” Herald said.
“It’s funny though, it’ll be a whole lot of fun.”
One of the concepts Herald be talking about is tapping into the idea of the customer’s customer, the concept behind his innovative innovative ReferUs.com initiative.
“Most people don’t get customers to refer for them for one reason – because they’ve never asked them to,” he said.
“Customer referrals will grow your business without you having to spend any money.
“It’s all about a holistic approach.”
Herald gave a successful presentation in Moree seven years ago and Tourism Moree is excited to have him back for a second time.
Tourism Moree chairperson Katrina Humphries encourages all local business owners, start-up companies or anyone with an idea for a business to come along to Justin’s talk at Moree Services Club on Tuesday, July 18.
“We’re very lucky to have him come to Moree,” she said.
“He was very well-received when he was here before and I see no reason why this time will be different. I believe he’s a lot of fun.”
“It’s always good to get new ideas and it will be a good chance for people to network.”
Tickets are $25 for Tourism Moree members and $35 for non-members which includes the presentation, nibbles and tea and coffee.
For more information call Tourism Moree on 6757 3350.
