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John Ilhan Articles

John Ilhan: The Early Years of One Crazy Mobile Phone Entrepreneur - Click To Read Article
He might have been known as ‘Crazy John’, but this was one savvy businessman. John Ilhan migrated to Australia and went on to found one of the largest privately held mobile phone companies in the industry. He even became the richest Australian under 40 years of age just a few years prior to his death in 2007.

Moving Up With Mobiles: Ilhan Makes Good - Click To Read Article
It was 1987 and having had enough of working with Ford, Ilhan decided to accept a job at Strathfield Car Radio, where one of his close friends also worked. Strathfield was becoming a market leader in the young telecommunications industry. Ilhan saw the potential and wanted to get in on the action while he still could.

Lesson #1: “It takes a lot more to run a good business than just trailing commissions or kickbacks.” - Click To Read Article
In 1991, when Ilhan opened up his first store called “Mobileworld,” he started off by offering crazy deals, including $1 phones. His competitors, meanwhile, would be offering the same products for $200. Those marketing methods inspired the name change to Crazy John’s.

Lesson #2: “I learnt from that experience that people should be given a go.” - Click To Read Article
Ilhan was a people person; he knew that from the very first day he began working in sales. He could put people at ease, make them laugh, even make them forget he was trying to sell them something. But as much as Ilhan knew that about himself, so too did he know that there were some things he just was not good at – research, development, financial management to name a few. And that is where other people came in.

Lesson #3: “To be successful, you need to fail” - Click To Read Article
Ilhan was one of those entrepreneurs who believed that the more mistakes he made, the better he became, and the better his business performed. Maybe it was his close call with bankruptcy in the early years of his business, but Ilhan had almost reached the brink, and managed to make it back. He had developed a risk tolerance beyond most of his competitors, and the confidence that he could always find a solution to any problem.

Lesson #4: “Don’t make yourself so niche that somebody can just come along and cut off your legs.” - Click To Read Article
Something happened to Ilhan in his early business days that would forever leave its mark with the young entrepreneur; his first $100,000 cheque had gotten stolen, and the experience left Ilhan more than just bitter.

Lesson #5: “The number one strategy of all companies should be advertising.” - Click To Read Article
Crazy John’s logo is a character with googly eyes and a wagging tongue. It might not seem like much to most who look at it, but it is actually just one component of a well-thought out and heavily funded advertising strategy that took the company to the top of its field.

From Crazy to Crazy Successful: How Ilhan Created Millions From Mobile - Click To Read Article
“I know it sounds silly, but I was always confident of where things would end up,” Ilhan once said. “It was almost like, though I was not in control of my destiny, I knew where I would end up.”

John Ilhan Quotes - Click To Read Article
John Ilhan Quotes





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