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IT is hard to believe that James Greig had no business experience and was still in his second year of university when he established Bloomtools.
Ten years on and the now thriving web marketing and software company operates in Australia, New Zealand and Canada and is just one of two successful businesses that this 31-year-old is managing.
"Bloomtools is a single online toolbox for small businesses with everything growing businesses need to get more leads, convert those leads into customers and then turn those customers into raving fans that spend more, and more frequently," says Greig.
"My first client was Phil Gale, the owner of Steelx (Wide Span Sheds) and I started developing software for him in his kitchen while he was starting his business.
"I had to write software that allowed the business owner's 12-year-old daughter to perform a task in six minutes that used to take a skilled person up to six hours to complete.
"Their company is now one of the largest shed groups in Australia."
Greig says Bloomtools has designed over 3000 websites.
His other success is iVvy, an events and venue management cloud computing software that enables event organisers to run and mange events more effectively.
Most notably, iVvy signed an agreement with Mantra Group to take on the venue management software in 130 properties Australia wide.
"There are heaps of benefits, but to make it simple, iVvy is creating the first booking engine for venues," says Greig.
"You can now go to Mantra, Peppers or BreakFree, search for available function space and make a booking, choose your menus and select your accommodation. There is no other software that allows you to do that for conferences."
The iVvy platform recorded $77 million in ticket sales in the last 12 months and has clients in 14 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, and Belgium.
Greig says he has always believed that both iVvy and Bloomtools have opportunities to be great companies, solving some great challenges.
He says the advantage of the products is that customers can do everything within the one login.
Collectively the businesses based in Varsity Lakes employ more than 40 staff with plans to hire up to 20 new employees over the next year.
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