Since appearing on our August cover of Business to Business young entrepreneur Robert Bruce has been going from strength to strength.
“Forget ‘work life balance’ or ‘I have already worked a 40 hour week, I’m off the clock’- if you own your own business then you are owned by it for at least the first couple of years!! The most successful people I know do not have balance, or go home early, or take boozy Friday lunch breaks: they are still grinding away late at night, and get there first in the morning.”
The lesson has not been lost on Robert whose dedication has seen the company deliver a premium and professional product to market- which is easily witnessed with repeat business from top clients such as Porsche, DB Breweries, and more recently Saatchi and Saatchi.
According to Robert the biggest support has come from fellow entrepreneurs.
“There’s a great community of business owners in Auckland. Face to face networking has been my single best marketing tool since starting SublimeNZ. By networking, socializing, personally attending promotions events and client meetings I have built relationships that will endure.”
It is paying off for the twenty four year old who recently bought a house in Queenstown and split his business SublimeNZ into three branches: Sublime Stimulate for promotions, Sublime Experience for events, and Sublime Aspire, which is his premium modeling agency launching officially next year on the back of client demand for broader services.
A graduate of AUT, Robert believes entrepreneurs need to add to the ‘4 P’s’ of marketing taught at university - Price, Place, product, promotion - three more: Passion, professionalism, and preparation.
“You have to be passionate about what you do and where you want to go. You have to love what you do, and live and breathe it every day to everyone. I cannot put enough emphasis on professionalism: people love it. This does not mean being stiff and boring, it means being thorough, and delivering on the things you say you can do. Lastly, if you are not prepared - and I mean really thoroughly prepared BEFORE you go to market - then you are sure to blend into mediocrity. Preparation means not rushing around at the last minute, it means writing to-do lists, having regular staff and client meetings, knowing what is happening in your business and always having an answer to any question.”
With Sublime Aspire due to be officially launched early next year, Robert is gearing up to grow. To manage the growth he is concentrating on building structures and systems people can replicate and that make things easy for the client.
“We take pride in helping others reach their goals and we want to take that around the world.
