Tristan Hunt is a quiet achiever who has worked with his business partner to grow their Newcastle based business into one of the sectors most successful distributors of conveyor belting in domestic and international markets. After formalising a long-term partnership with a Chinese based manufacturer, Double Arrow Australia was born with Tristan as its General Manager.
Tristan works across the Asia Pacific region, but today is very happy to call the Hunter home and has recently bought a new home with his wife for their young family here.
- What journey led you to join the business?
I joined Mark (fellow Managing Director at Double Arrow Australia) in 2006 and primarily started as a Part Time Assistant. He was an owner-operator of the business. Over the years we’ve grown the business to a team of ten. It has been a very exciting journey, obviously with trials and tribulations along the way as you grow a small business into a medium enterprise.
- Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?
I don’t believe I really did want to become an entrepreneur; I have grown into it. By working with Mark, my business partner, and taking some guidance of what he saw as an entrepreneurial journey by identifying a niche opportunity in a market, which we’ve aggressive pursued over the time, we’ve been enabled to grow the business.
- What is one actionable task you ensure you incorporate into your diary each week?
With the bombardment of the electronic age and the number of emails that everybody gets these days, it is important to be able to manage your day efficiently and plan how you are going to attack the day from the start, so you’re not constantly reacting or responding to emails as they come in.
Another valuable task from a broader perspective that we have implemented into the business is a ten at ten gathering with our team every week. We do these on a Monday morning at 10am and it involves ten minutes of power. We interact as a team, which enables everybody to reflect on two things from the last week and set out two goals and objectives which they wish to attain during this week.
- What do you attribute your success to?
A combination of factors. Obviously working with Mark and having a resilient partner. We work together through the ups and downs, so that can involve a lot of hard work and unfortunately sometimes long hours, but with that, a resounding outcome in what we could consider a very tough market. Having a sound and supportive partner in what we do from a manufacturing basis enables our brand awareness, which has thus developed the business into a success story locally.
- Which local entrepreneur do you find inspiring?
My business partner, Mark, has been the inspiration to me as well as the success of the business. He saw the niche in the market and started the business from there. Mark shared that vision when I joined him in 2006, and being able to harness that with the entrepreneurial spirit and searching for opportunities in the market has enabled our growth and fulfilment to the local market.