With the opening of the first Star21 showroom in Melbourne this year, managing director Bill Asimakidis had to pinch himself.
Just over seven years ago, the telecommunications entrepreneur took a big gamble and left his high paying job at Crazy John’s.
After five years of heading the company’s corporate operations, a new venture in the company had him sidelined.
“When Crazy John’s decided to defect and leave Telstra to go to Vodafone that’s when I realised there was an opportunity to do this on my own,” Mr Asimakidis tells Neos Kosmos.
Mr Asimakidis was a ‘Telstra boy’ through and through, having started at the company straight out of high school and progressed up the corporate ladder before being headhunted by Crazy John’s.
But, it was in 2006 that Mr Asimakidis started Star21, a company that partners with Telstra to service small business and corporations with their telecommunication needs.
The company started out with humble goals in Melbourne but now has grown into a national business catering to over 3,000 clients.
On the books are big names like Crown Casino, Metricon Homes and John Holland Constructions.
“These are companies that spend in excess of $15 million a year on their telecommunications services. So they come to us and utilise our services on a day to day basis for all their mobiles, their fax lines, their data requirements etc,” Mr Asimakidis says.
As a channel partner of Telstra, the company works more as a one-on-one support network to big clients that feel they’d get lost in the bigger companies.
“The beauty of dealing with a small business is that we’re fast, we’re nimble, we’re not a bureaucratic organisation, that’s what we offer our clients,” Mr Asimakidis says.
“Instead of having to deal with a corporation like Telstra, from time to time you can get the run around, wheras our organisation is fast.”
With offices in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Melbourne, the business now employs over 45 staff members and the new business solutions centre in Melbourne houses the company’s first showroom.
The new building will overtake the Hawthorn business and give the staff a chance to show their clients first hand the technology the company offers.
“It’s part of our growth strategy,” he says. “In the next five years we aim to take the business more down the IT path, selling professional services and IT solutions in conjunction with telecommunications.”
But, as the company grows, so does its corporate social responsibility. Mr Asimakidis has a deep love of sport and has chosen to support many grassroots teams.
Among the eight teams the company sponsors, Star21 is also the main sponsor for South Melbourne FC.
“My background is sport and that’s one of my side passions other than business,” Mr Asimakidis says.
“I grew up playing soccer and watching footy, and I understand that with some of these smaller clubs, if you can help them out by contributing something small financially to help them buy footballs or some playing jerseys for the kids, you feel good about it.”
His approach to business as well as his approach to the community hasn’t gone unnoticed. The company has won the Telstra State Business Partner of the Year award three years in a row.
