Grow A Small Business Podcast · Troy Trewin

From $1,500 to a $4.2M Powerhouse: Ryan Hughes of Phil Hughes Office Solutions on Family Legacy, Scaling Smart, Valuing People, and Doing 'Cool Stuff' While Building a Thriving Business in Tasmania. (Episode 757 - Ryan Hughes)

·54 min·3 clips

Closing the CBD retail front let the company jump from about $2.2 million to $4.2 million.

The story starts with a layoff, not a grand plan. Ryan says his father lost work in 1997 and began the office equipment, stationery, and technology business from a tiny office with $1,500. The handover was slow. Ryan joined around the GFC in 2008, took practical control in 2020, and only recently became the outright owner with Meg. The numbers give the episode its shape, but the useful bit is how ordinary the changes were. Sales doubled during COVID, revenue sits around $4.2 million this year, and the team is now 15. Ryan keeps coming back to the retail site: nearly $50,000 a year in rent, little shop frontage, heritage listed, and hard to adapt. It was expensive nostalgia. COVID gave the business cover to leave the browsing shelves model without seeming to walk away from the CBD. Broadland Drive became the working base. The business rented there first, bought half the warehouse, then used its option to buy the rest. That move changed the daily rhythm. Instead of waiting for people to come in for pens, the team built more of an outbound habit, visiting clients in their own offices. Ryan's point is blunt: when you see the client's setup, you notice pain points that never surface across a counter. The showroom stayed, with furniture, machines, and separate display areas, but walk-in traffic stopped carrying the model. The episode is really about replacing sentiment with usefulness: lower rent, easier logistics, better client conversations, and a business shaped around what customers actually need.

As heard by us

A practical family-business growth story built on discipline, people, and smarter space decisions.

This episode tracks a family office equipment, stationery, and technology business from a tiny office with $1,500 in 1997 to about $4.2 million in annual sales and a staff of 15.

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A Launceston office-equipment business that cut a costly retail rent, moved into a warehouse, and grew by staying close to customer pain points.

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