How I made my first million : 26 self-made millionaires reveal the secrets to their success

partner with to strengthen your business.’
To help ensure consistently good service, cus-
tomers are invited to rate tradesmen when they 
have finished their work, much as sellers are rated 
on eBay. If a tradesman falls below three stars out 
of five, he must explain to Ahchow and his team 
why he shouldn’t be kicked off the register.
Tradesmen may be queuing up to get involved 
now but in the early days it was a struggle, Ahchow 

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AN IDEA WORTH A MILLION DOLLARS 7
‘
‘
says. ‘I had to call 600 plumbers just to get a meet-
ing with one of them, and even then it took four 
hours to persuade him to pay a modest 
$
80 annual 
fee to join us. P eople kept saying they’d heard it 
all before. It’s difficult to keep the faith at times 
like that, but I had such confidence in the idea—I 
knew it would work if only we could get enough 
tradesmen.’
It took a great deal of faith not only for the 
tradesmen but for Ahchow and his father— 
who helped finance 
the project—to stick 
with the idea. And 
a slice of luck. ‘We 
advertised on radio. 
It cost 
$
16,000 a 
month, which felt like 
a huge gamble. Then 
the radio station had 
a competition where 
the major sponsor 
dropped out, so we 
accidentally became 
the major sponsor of 
this Melbourne- wide promotion.’ It was the stroke 
of fortune they needed, he says: ‘It got us started.’
The service is now available right up the 
east coast, from Melbourne through Sydney to 
I had to call 600 
plumbers just to get a 
meeting with one of them, 
and even then it took four 
hours to persuade him to 
pay a modest $80 annual 
fee to join us. P eople kept 
saying they’d heard it all 
before. It’s difficult to keep 
the faith at times like that, 
but I had such confidence 
in the idea—I knew it would 
work if only we could get 
enough tradesmen.

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8 HOW I MADE MY FIRST MILLION
Brisbane, and it’s expanding on the Gold Coast. 
Overseas is next. Ahchow says that while the US 
does have a similar service, that doesn’t mean he 
can’t go there. ‘First- mover advantage isn’t every-
thing—it depends how you tackle the market. 
But there is nothing like us in the UK or Europe, 
and that’s a huge market.’
There is still work to do before Service Cen-
tral dominates Australia. But judging by his 
success so far, you’d have to say that Ahchow has 
a very bright future indeed.