Making an Impact

The gift of the gab, a granny-flat and a "sh&*ty" desk was all Peter Agamalis, founder of Impact Systems, needed to kick-start his IT distribution business nearly 20 years ago.

Well, it was almost all he needed. He also needed an office and office supplies, but most importantly he needed capital to get things going.

"It was a struggle for many years," Agamalis says.

Back then in the midst of the nineties recession "banks were resistive about giving money away".

"And being a young kid with no equity, I struggled. No suppliers would give accounts back then, everything was cash on delivery, banks wouldn't give any loans or overdraft," says Agamalis.

But he found his way and has never looked back.

Straight out of school, Agamalis held three different jobs in a one year period followed by an eight month stretch of unemployment.

It was then that his girlfriend [Melba, now his wife] suggested he take things into his own hands.

"I was prepared to get any job with anybody that would hire me. Time progressed and I was out of a job for so long that my wife said, ‘Why don't you do your own thing?'

"Technology was the last thing I had done, that I knew and my gut feeling was that this was a pretty cool industry to get into. So, I pursued it.

"I stopped to think about it. I was pretty good as a sales person - but I needed money, I didn't have any money."

So, he did what any driven business person would do, he raided his girlfriend's piggy bank and with her father's help he raised $10,000.

Agamalis launched his distribution business from the Sydney-based granny flat he shared with this girlfriend.

"I went to the auctions and I bought a shitty desk, a copier and a little fax. I didn't have a computer, and I didn't have the internet. Instead, I bought a phone from Dick Smith and it had a hold button.

He began cold calling customers. He opened the Yellow Pages, which was "big back in those days" and he used the "power of perception".

He says he had "no idea" about computers. Instead, "I had the gift of the gab."

"I knew what a motherboard was, I knew what a floppy drive was and I knew what a memory stick was. That's all I needed to know, as long as I had the best prices," he says.

"And because there wasn't an internet and only just a fax or post, what I did was, I used the power
of perception."

Agamalis created price lists that gave the business a professional feel. He says that one customer who came to the granny-flat to pick up stock was shocked when he saw the "office". "I really didn't want him to come and he came into the office and said, "Is this where you're operating out of?"

"But he was positive about the impression that we put on them in terms of our service.

"From there it just rolled," Agamalis says.

"Buying and selling, buying and selling. It became a lot more aggressive, and it became a lot more active."

In little time Agamalis was taking in $1000 a week and soon after he was turning over $2000 a week. "I started hiring people, because the business was turning over $3 million a year.

"I kid you not," he says. "It was great."

Agamalis was driven to succeed and put in the hours.

"I wore every single hat. I did sales, I did purchasing, I did accounting, I did courier work, I did driving and pick up and did answering the phones - I did everything including support and warranties.

"I was broke, the money wasn't mine and I was desperate. My desperation allowed me to run and I ran so fast and so hard in pursuing sales opportunities that after a couple of years I had so much business and I had so many customers that I built this little business," he says.

He outgrew the granny-flat, purchased a factory warehouse and relocated the business Sydney's Kings Park. He ended up buying the factory warehouse next door as well but he eventually outgrew that.

In 1999 he bought a warehouse in Chicago Street, Blacktown in Sydney's western suburbs from where he currently runs the business.

"We've been here ever since."

It's a feat in itself to be around for almost 20 years in the distribution business, says Agamalis.

Today, Impact Systems manufactures its own branded PCs and distributes many products nationwide.

Agamalis says he "simply lives and breathes distribution, day in, day out" and his exposure to manufacturers, to vendors and to resellers is completely hands on.

"Based on the information and the delivery of product and services that I know, I suppose I'm the rare few that would consider themselves a specialist in this industry."

Agamalis and wife Melba consult each other about business decisions but when asked whether Impact is a family business Agamalis says, "My wife and I treat it as a business, but amongst the team we treat it like a big family."

"One employee has been here for 13 years, another has been here for eleven years - the staff have been here for decades."

And since he was young when he started the business he has shared his life's journey with his staff.

"Jim, Julio, Bobby, Pablo, we were all kids and we all found our girlfriends, got engaged, and got married, so we've grown up" together.