Tim Lee faced significant challenges, with limited resources and time appearing as obstacles in his path.
At 22, he traveled from South Korea to Sydney on a working holiday, armed with lofty ambitions but minimal English proficiency.
Lee found employment as a tiler in Bankstown, located in the city’s south-west, and rapidly enhanced his English skills.
Lee said he then turned his passion project into a $1 million business in just two months after he decided to monetise in 2021.
The bookkeeping system is now being used by 524,00 businesses in more than 170 countries.
The product has generated $46 billion in invoices since 2020 and has a team more than 120 employees.
Lee’s success is no mean feat, with statistics revealing many Australian small businesses fail in their first year.
In the early days, Lee himself failed six times but each setback gave him a valuable lesson.
“What I learned was in order for me to build a solution it took a bit of time,” he said.
“When I failed the second and third time, I realised even though I had great ideas, no one was going to use them.
“I decided to build things quickly instead of perfectly.”
Lee’s advice to fellow small business owners is a finished product is better than a perfect product.
“Execution is way more important than planning to me,” he said.
“Once you start, you get a lot of feedback and you have customers.
“There are opportunities you can learn from them.”
The other key ingredients are working with good people and having fun along the way.
“If you have smart people and if they’re nice, then the company will grow dramatically, that’s my philosophy,” he said.
