1. Unsung Business heroes Jim Craddock
Giving advice to someone starting up a new business is a
tough one for Jim, “because good business is osmosis,
you’ve got to find something that you enjoy and if you
can, find something that you love. Stick with it, really it’s
never always positive, but if you focus on anything long
enough, and you become empathetic to your cause, you
will achieve success.”
When asked to nominate who he respects, Jim says, “There
are a number of people in my life I respect and have a great
appreciation for what they do. My darling wife puts up with
me no end. I’m an abstract human being, to say the least. I
also often think of my parents, and the contribution they’ve
made to me. Those important virtues they extolled which
have been instilled into me, make me who I am today, and I
get to pass them on to my kids, which is magic.”
Jim also has much admiration for the business’ former
owners; “Wim Hartman really built this business to what
it became. He was a turning point and had entrepreneurial
spirit. John Herrington, who bought a majority stake,
brought a lot of value to the business, and the most recent
owners and business partners for more than a decade, Neill
and Simon Wiston who I respect to no end.”
Giving back
The credo of ‘doing unto others as you’d have them do
unto you’ is clearly well inscribed in Jim’s psyche, and
he’s very conscious of the need to pay it forward. He says
though that “it’s difficult in a commercial business to always
support every bit of goodwill you’d like to.”
The business has been aligned for some time with Stewart
House, a nearby charity at Collaroy which works with children
who aren’t as privileged as many others. Jim notes there are
300,000 teachers around Australia, who often want to do
something even more special, so every week there are ad hoc
requests which the business does its utmost to support.
On a more direct basis, Jim recounts that “once a month
we provide a barbeque here at head office and the staff
provide a gold coin donation. The company gives some
additional funds as well, and the staff chooses the charities
they would like to support. Recently, we had an ex-staff
member who lost her premmie baby, so she asked us to
support what they call ‘cuddle cots’ which are specifically
used when you lose a baby. Our barbeque ended up
contributing more than 50% of one of those cots. We try
to be a good-hearted organisation.”
CEO – Modern Star
Group
address PO Box 6614,
Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086
phone +61 2 9907 5279
web www.modernstar.com
web www.chalk.com.au
web www.parentdirect.com.au
web www.teaching.com.au
email sales@modernstar.com
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Jim Craddock
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“It starts with a
sense of belonging,
safety, security
and certainty.
”
Daniel’s parents divorced when he was born and his early
years were quite turbulent. His stepfather was a bikie, and
not a particularly ‘nice’ fellow. Being exposed to alcohol
and drug abuse together with domestic violence for the
first 13 years of life was far from ideal. A number of his
male relatives also went to jail.
Clearly unhappy with the state of his life, Daniel decided to
turn that around and independently moved out of home at
a very young age. “By the time I was 13, I wanted to get
out. I’d had my first job at 10. From there I learnt I could
be independent and I had started earning some income.
I had three casual jobs outside of school hours and that
gave me enough money to move out of home. I just rented
a room and got out of the place. Although it was really
challenging, it was also a big relief.” Daniel recalls.
In all, Daniel attended 13 schools before reaching Year 7.
Daniel didn’t like school and refers to those years as “my
13 years of hell - like a jail sentence. I couldn’t wait to get
out.” When Daniel finally left school in 1996, like many
others, he was quite confused and didn’t know what he
wanted to do.
CEO - Gallop Solutions
Daniel Davis left home
at 13 after surviving
a family background
of domestic violence,
drugs and alcohol
abuse. Remarkably,
he finished school
and built a thriving
business. By 23 he
had a seven figure
income and owned
three service stations.
He now shares his
experience coaching
other start-ups.

2. He looks back and reflects that he
simply continued to work. He started
as a roof tiler, then tried a few different
jobs, eventually taking a job doing the
weekend overnight shifts in a service
station – “the dangerous shift nobody
wants to do.”
Daniel had no formal training as such
and learned on the job about how to
manage people and staff as well as
gaining tips on what it took to run
a retail business. His boss had high
standards and ran a good operation
so Daniel learnt well.
The turning point came when “I
got a job as a manager and also got
engaged at 19, and whilst all this
was going on I was thinking, ‘What
am I going to do with my life?’
Working in a service station wasn’t
looking too promising.”
In his role Daniel had helped his boss
establish each of his new stores. “We’d
gone to look at a new potential store
in the Blue Mountains, and he said
’It’s too far, I’m not going to take this
store.’ I started to look at this situation
and ask questions for myself. I took
the wedding fund I’d been saving – it
was another year before the wedding
- and put it into the business. So that’s
where it all began.”
Looking back, Daniel reflects on how
his childhood shaped his future.
“Sometimes the challenges in life
are the gifts you don’t see. A normal
10-year-old doesn’t work. I look at
my own children, my son’s now 11,
and I think, ‘I should make you start
working!’ They work at home and
they have to earn their chore money,
but I think society’s making a bit of
a mistake sometimes because if it
wasn’t for that, there’s no way I would
have been able to start at 21.”
Even the most basic ‘work’ can be
beneficial as Daniel knows only too
well. “You’d be surprised at what it
takes to have a paper run business.
You’ve got to look after your regular
clients, manage your cash and manage
your stock. There’s actually a lot of
skills to be learnt doing that. Those
kinds of things are gone nowadays
and I think it’s a shame.”
Daniel was always learning. “It’s one
of the gifts that comes from having
an upbringing with nothing. My wife
still finds it shocking how many times
we moved and that we didn’t have a
TV or a car. I think growing up without
anything also gives you an element of
strength, almost in the sense of, ‘I have
nothing to lose’.”
Times change though and Daniel’s
attitude to risk has changed
somewhat. “Now I’m 36, I’ve got two
kids and a wife to think of and my risk
considerations are definitely higher. It’s
better to be a little bit more cautious.
I’ve always been on the risky side.”
Life was tough for Daniel in building
his business too. “In the initial phases,
I lived in the store. I worked 5am to
“I think failure
is important; it’s the
way you handle it
that counts.
”
Daniel, in his early twenties, forging his way towards business success.
Unsung Business heroes
11pm, seven days a week for two years and lived in the
back storeroom which wasn’t very pleasant. I could see
the vision though, and I believed in what the store could
do. We grew that store, constantly upgrading it and
looking at how it can improve. By year three, we had
the highest sales per square metre turnover for any IGA
store in Australia.”
Daniel eventually returned to Sydney and became
involved in other areas, investing in one particular
business which brought him undone. He lost a lot of
money in 2008 just as the GFC was beginning to bite.
He remembers “selling properties at rock bottom and I
really lost out a lot there too.”
When asked how important failure is, Daniel says “I’ve
seen a lot of people fail, and then give up. They don’t
look at failure as being just part of the journey, they
take it personally. Whenever something goes wrong,
I look at ‘What’s the lesson here? What should I be
learning’? Because there’s definitely something to learn.
I think failure is important; it’s the way you handle it
that counts. If you take things too personally, you really
struggle in business.”
Daniel’s businesses are also about having fun. “At Gallop
Solutions, fun is an important component of business.
I’ve always had that philosophy of going the extra mile.
Yes, with customers of course, but also go the extra mile
internally for ourselves, make sure that we have fun too.
I think starting out in business at a young age probably
helped. I was 21, I wasn’t really prepared to not have fun.”
The journey to Daniel’s current business success began
with a not uncommon situation for many people taking
on an existing business. “Before Gallop, I’d invested in
a company I didn’t know much about. Within the first
three months, my new business partner got an ATO bill
which bankrupted him and I was left with a company I
didn’t know much about.”
Putting his previous work ethic, street smarts and
business skills to work, Daniel thought “it won’t take
me that long, three to six months of hard work, and it’ll
be right.” Unfortunately, he was there for three years,
working 80 to 100 hours a week and it was not working
- it was devastating. “I now had a wife and two little boys
at home and I was missing them terribly working those
hours as well as pumping in a lot of money and losing
the assets I’d accumulated in the previous 10 years. Most
frustrating of all, I couldn’t seem to find any help.”
Daniel was referred to Lindy McNocher, who had founded
Gallop Solutions several years earlier. “In all honesty I
didn’t think there was any hope that she’d be able to
help me, but I took her on anyway. And to her credit,
three months into working with her, we broke even for
the first time in three years. Prior to that I’d been losing
up to $50,000 a month. It was so great to have the relief
finally come, and I’d halved my business hours.”
“I didn’t like
school. I actually
refer to it as my
13 years of hell.
”
Daniel, at the CEO Sleepout, raising awareness and funds for St Vincent de Paul.
Daniel Davis

3. Simplistically, Lindy’s model worked
on The Seven Ingredients for Business
Success. “In essence they break
a company up into seven critical
divisions. These seven areas of focus
have people accountable across all
divisions. When the seven ingredients
are successfully created, the company
can be successful.”
Daniel sees Gallop Solutions as a
business education company which
aims to arm business owners and
their management teams with the
tools, knowledge and skills to run their
business more effectively.
Having helped over 350 companies
since becoming involved with Gallop,
Daniel’s goal is to take Gallop around
Australia, and then take the model
overseas. “We’re expanding our
product offering. One of the things
we’ve identified is our clients need a
lot more than just our management
system. They often need help in
marketing or the accounting area.
Another area is legal both in terms of
commercial and HR law.”
Daniel’s favourite inspirational quotes
are on the walls of his office. He
particularly likes: ‘It’s not man’s dreams
that fail him, it’s the lack of know-
how required to make those dreams a
reality,’ by L. Ron Hubbard.
He notes though that “if there was an
instruction manual, you’d be able to
accomplish it.”
This is similar to being a parent as
many first timers will relate; “I know
when my first son was born, I asked
‘Is there an instruction manual now?
What do we do?’ It’s really, really
daunting. And you do your best.
Just as business owners do, they do
their best. They work very hard and
there’s not necessarily any guaranteed
outcome, so knowledge is what
people need.”
As many find out later in life, there
are some aspects of learning which
become useful especially in the
correct context. Daniel agrees in
saying “It didn’t seem to make any
sense sitting in Maths class but once
I put a dollar symbol in front of a
number, it was all making sense to
me. I was suddenly interested.”
Daniel also didn’t like another element
of his education; reading. He could
read perfectly well however Daniel felt
that what he was being asked to read
at school was very boring. One day,
aged about 19, he picked up Richard
Branson’s book in a shop. Flicking
through it Daniel thought “this is
interesting so I bought it. That was the
first book I ever really read.”
A useful revelation for Daniel then
was “this god of business was
actually a really normal guy who
also had struggled at school, in fact
more than I had. He actually had a
problem – dyslexia - and he really
struggled. And he’d gone on to build
this billion dollar empire. I thought
‘if he could do it, what could I do?’
And it got me thinking…”
Further inspiration was to come when
Daniel received an invitation last year
to stay at Richard Branson’s home
on Necker Island for a week. Daniel
describes that as “one of the most
surreal times I’ve ever had. He’s a truly
wonderful guy.”
A deeper insight into the man was
to come. Two days prior to Daniel’s
arrival, the Virgin Galactic flight
had tragically crashed in the Mojave
Desert bringing about the death of
the test-pilot. Daniel thought his
opportunity to meet Sir Richard had
passed. He was amazed to hear on
his first morning on the island though
that Sir Richard had arrived and the
appointment they’d had was going
ahead. Sir Richard’s view was ‘I said I’d
be here, so I’m here’.
When asked for three elements needed
to succeed, Daniel firstly nominates
resilience. “I don’t want to sound like
a tough guy here, but business really
isn’t for the weak. Unless you’ve got a
strong backbone and belief in yourself,
you’re going to struggle. Most people
will give you a reason why it can’t be
possible. If I listened to those, I would
never have gone into business.”
His second element is unsurprisingly
to have fun along the way. “You can’t
get too serious, and it’s very easy to get
too serious. So, remind yourself to also
balance life as best you can.”
Thirdly, Daniel’s belief is that it’s all
about people. “Be with great people,
internally and externally. John Hatz
“Whenever something goes wrong,
I look at ‘What’s the lesson here?
What should I be learning?’
”
Unsung Business heroes Daniel Davis
from VFX, a client of ours who’s been a bit of a
mentor to me, has a sign above reception which
says ‘We only deal with nice people.’ His view is to
‘Never put yourself as second best. Always make
sure you put yourself first and deal with nice people,
internally and externally.’ That’s been a great tip for
which I’m grateful.”
Giving Back
Daniel sees giving back as an important personal
driver.
Daniel’s long-standing involvement with charities
stems from his upbringing where he relied on op
shops like St Vincent de Paul which dressed him for
the first 16 or 17 years of his life. Daniel knows only
too well the value of those enterprises. “People go
through tough times, and so I believe now that I’m in
a position to give back, that’s fantastic.”
Daniel lists organisations such as Miracle Babies,
Australian Thyroid Foundation, Westmead Medical
Research Foundation as ones he has supported
over the years. A more recent addition, Our Big
Kitchen, is one Daniel admires as doing an amazing
job in Sydney.
Direct community involvement is another of
Daniel’s ways of giving back. He enjoys speaking at
schools to help teenagers in trouble, perhaps going
through the same life experience he went through.
He enjoys sharing his story and teaching them tips
to help them on their journey.
Daniel proudly relates this story to illustrate the
point of what can be achieved; “A very shy boy
came up to me after many months of group sessions
I did at a school. He said ‘You’ve really influenced
me, and I just wanted to tell you that I got a job at
McDonald’s.’ That’s going to change that kid’s life.
He’s on a different path now.”
Issuing an invitation to other business owners,
Daniel concludes by adding “I know the power
of what those actions can do, not only for that
individual, but also for society. Other business
owners might like to give it a shot and see how it
feels. It’s nice to see people do well.”
Daniel
Davis
Connect With
LINKEDIN
CEO -
Gallop
Solutions
address Suite 107, Level 1, Norton Plaza
55 Norton St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
phone 02 9560 0035
email info@gallopsolutions.com
web www.gallopsolutions.com
linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-
davis/6/a6b/2b7
youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/
GallopSolutions?feature=watch
video http://ubh.lc/DanielDavis
VIDEO
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