About Dean Ramler
Dean has
lived and breathed furniture since the tender age of birth. The family have
been in the business of creating furniture since the 1950’s. So it was no surprise
that Dean chose the same path, having an eye for how it was made and what went
into good quality furniture. But after leaving school and travelling for a
while, Dean saw a different business model. The online model, and after a few
beers with good friend Ruslan
Kogan, Milan Direct was born.
Milan Direct quickly established itself in Australia to become the number one
online furniture store and has now expanded it’s reach into the UK.
Milan Direct’s
Achievements since it’s inception:
- Sold close
to $100 Million worth of
furniture!
- To over 40 countries (as far as Greece, Italy, Russia and
Israel)
- All purely online (no showrooms), from the Head office
in Albert Park Melbourne
- Sold 1 million + products
- Over 300,000 customers.
Dean’s next
plan of attack, is to tackle the giant nations of Asia and USA. There seems to
be no stopping Milan Direct now, but how did Dean actually begin? What started
him on his path of success? Why didn’t he decide to make furniture with his
family and carry on the tradition? Here is the story behind Dean Ramler and his
start of success.
You started Milan Direct at age 24.
But before you started, what was your job? I understand your father was a
furniture maker, were you working for him? Or were you in another line of work?
I have lived
and breathed furniture since I was born. My first day working at my
grandfather’s factory was when I was just 7. My younger brother and I spent the
day painting a wall, which was a lot of fun. From the age of 14 I worked for my
dad and grandfather in the furniture factory for a good 8 years, working in all
parts of the business from the manufacturing facilities to retail stores, to
sales teams. The last project I worked for my family’s business on before
starting Milan Direct was as Logistics Manager of the Melbourne Commonwealth
Games. A fantastic project, which involved placing furniture into over 30
sporting venues across Melbourne, including the MCG.
Why did you decide to start your own
business? You could have worked quite happily with your father doing a similar
job making furniture?
I had too
much energy and too many ideas to work for anyone but myself. Working in a
family business you still need buy in from many people, and I rather just go
out and do something myself. Also the idea of selling furniture online back
when we started Milan Direct in 2006 was a crazy idea, nobody was doing so. My
family’s business although similar products, have a very different business
model, one that is much more traditional and certainly not online. So with the
blessing of my family, I started up my own business, which the whole family is
proud of.
Before many entrepreneurs grow a
successful business, they often have had other smaller businesses
previously. Was this the same for you?
Or did you hit a home run right off the bat with Milan Direct?
My whole
life I have always been looking for opportunities, gaps in the market and
coming up with many business ideas. Most of which failed. During high school,
along with a few friends we ran all school productions from a technical side,
such as lights, sounds, video and audio. Along with two of my good mates, we
set up a company in high school to provide these services for the local
community. Called DMA Productions (Dean, Michael and Alon), we did many local
events and had a good business for a short period of time. This business
eventually failed, when we could not commit the time to completing school exams
and running a business.
There were
other ideas which also didn’t last too long. But the important thing was to
keep learning, keep reading and to keep your eyes open. I was always looking out
for opportunities. Eventually, the Milan Direct concept was in fact a relatively
simple one.
You started Milan Direct with one of
Australia’s richest people – Ruslan Kogan. How did that come about?
Ruslan is a
good mate of mine from high school days and is a seriously good entrepreneur!
The background to how Ruslan and I launched Milan Direct is that after
finishing up working for my dad and grandfather, and completing my university
degrees, I took a gap year off to Europe. Most of that trip was spent
travelling back through Milan, Italy, which is where I spotted a growing and
new trend of designer furniture which was not readily available in Australia at
the time. When I got back to Melbourne after a year away, Ruslan and I caught
up for some beers and $4 pizzas simply to catch up as mates do. This is pre
Facebook days, so we had no idea what each other had been up to for the last 12
months.
I asked
Ruslan what he had been doing, and shared with me how he had started his
company, Kogan, manufacturing TV’s in Asia and selling online direct to the
public. I told him about the cool furniture I had spotted in Milan, Italy, and
how with my background and skill set in furniture manufacturing, wanted to
start making these products in China myself. So the idea naturally popped up.
We both thought, if selling on the internet can work for TV’s, why not
furniture, and after a couple beers, Milan Direct was formed.
Did you have any fears of failure
when starting out for the first time? If so, how did you overcome them?
None at all.
As our intentions were not to create Australia’s #1 Online Furniture store,
which we grew to become, but our focus was on simply filling a gap in the
market, servicing a niche, and sharing my passion of this fantastic furniture,
at never before seen prices thanks to our pure play model. We initially thought
we may sell just 1 container, but after the 1st container sold out
so quickly, we kept reinvesting the profits back into the business, and kept
doubling our orders.
When you are
so passionate about what you do, there is nothing to fail at. I love furniture,
love great design, so being able to share this passion with our customers is a
pleasure. Failure never crossed our mind.
How did you get money to start your
business? I imagine with websites and furniture there would have been some
capital needed to start with. Did you use a loan? Or did you have savings? How
did that work?
We started
with initial savings both Ruslan and I had, to buy the first container which
was not much. We also used a very basic website for our first website, which
cost us from memory $50. The idea was, to test the market first to see if there
was in fact demand for our products. Only once proven did we invest in a more
significant website.
Did you have a business plan before
you started? Or did you just start something you enjoyed and work it out as you
went?
Our business
plan was 4 beers, 2 pizzas and 2 hours of chatting to come up with the idea for
Milan Direct. After that we made no formal business plan. We launched right in
and tested the market to see if there was demand. I meet many people who tell
me they spent a year or two coming up with a business plan for an idea they
have. In that time, the time has passed, and you may have 10 competitors doing
the same thing. Planning is for MBA’s. Doing is for entrepreneurs.
How did you decide on what business
to start? For someone who doesn’t know what industry to start in, what’s your
advice to them? How do they choose?
Choose
something that you are passionate about! For me it was a no brainer to start an
online furniture store, as I was brought up in a furniture factory &
family! I am able to share my passion of great design and furniture with our
customers, and I absolutely love what I do! I consider myself to never have
worked at all since starting Milan Direct, as it is a passion of mine.
All too
often you see people start businesses in areas they do not care for, simply to
make a profit. These people are doomed to fail. Simply copying someone else’s
idea will not lead to success, and is a huge waste of time. Half or our
competitors, would never have seen a wood shop before they started their
business!
When you started out, How did you get
your very first customers for that test container? Was it word of mouth? Did
you do a hard sell? Or did you use online marketing techniques to get noticed?
What advice do you have for newbies starting out?
We started
by selling a lot on eBay, which is a fantastic marketplace. This gave us
instant access to customers for very little cost. We also used Google Adwords
to bring in traffic to our website, in a highly targeted and controlled manner.
My advice would be to master Google Adwords and never outsource this. You have
to know which specific keywords are important to your business and create a
campaign that is extremely specific.
We always hear about the good things
in a successful business i.e. the lifestyle and the freedom it brings. But it’s
not always roses, what are some of the sacrifices you had to make when starting
out?
People who
think that working for yourself is easier than being an employee are kidding
themselves. Assuming you set high expectations for yourself that is. As an
entrepreneur I am responsible for my team of 30, to ensure they all have a
great work environment and can feed their families. As for holidays, there is
no such thing when you run a business. Some of my friends, who work in the
corporate world, get to enjoy set periods of annual leave where they can
completely turn off. Any time I get a chance to get away for a few days, I am
still working, just not from the office. Running a business is truly a 24/7
commitment.
How easy or hard is it for someone to
succeed starting out in today’s online market? It used to be the shop down the
street you had to worry about, but now you have the entire world that could
potentially be your competitor!
Whether
online or offline, you will only succeed in business if you have a true
competitive advantage and can do it better than your competitors. At Milan
Direct I come from 4 generations of furniture makers, and have this strong
background. As such making quality furniture is the easy part! I do always
wonder why people keep trying to compete with us, when they are not doing it
any better and with no competitive advantage. It is simply a waste of time. If
you are not first, you must be better.
Thank you for your insights about how
you got started! Your business has been an inspiration on online marketing. I
congratulate you on everything you have achieved! So what are you doing now? Are
you still active at Milan Direct? Do you have your feet up following the summer
around the world? Do you have ambitions to expand Milan Direct further, or do
you have other businesses or passions you now devote your time to?
Thank you
for your kind comments Paul. Are my feet up – never! As a rule I am first in
and last out at Milan Direct, every day. At Milan Direct we push ourselves very
hard to ensure we keep innovating, keep growing, and to keep providing the very
best offering & shopping experience to our customers. This time last year
we had 1500 skus in the range. Today we are 10,000+. We aim to have 20,000 by
June next year. We see huge growth opportunities at Milan Direct and we will
keep growing our presence with an ever increasing product range of Home, Office
and Outdoor Furniture, Homewares and Appliances! For those of you interested,
you can visit our site at:
We would
love to hear from you!
Thank you so much Dean for taking
time to let us know about your very own start of success! You have some great
words of wisdom that we can all take something away from. My favourite quote
was “Planning is for MBA’s. Doing is for entrepreneurs!”. I smiled to myself
when reading that. (Mainly because I don’t have an MBA and like to think there
is still hope!). Thanks once again.
