A family business success story

To give us an insight into a wonderful family small business success story is Dean Salakas, Chief Party Dude of The Party People. Starting out in Sydney, The Party People are now Australia’s largest stockist of party supplies with over 25,000 products including themed decorations, balloons and costumes. 

Dean’s childhood entailed his mum Mala dressing up as a clown on weekends, part of her home-based kids party business. Her risk taking and entrepreneurial outlook made for a fun childhood and now, Dean runs The Party People with his brother Peter. 

He candidly shares what it’s like to run a family business and what it took to launch an online presence in the late 90s at a time when many retail brands weren’t even online, let alone had a functioning website. 

In this episode, ARA CEO Paul Zahra and Dean discuss:

• The truth about what it’s really like running a family business 
• How being an e-Commerce early adopter paid off 
• Critical insights and lessons learned running an SMB 
• Empowering staff to freely contribute ideas 
• A glimpse into exciting tech trends hitting the part industry
• Refreshing advice for SMBs when going online 
• Future expansion plans 

With special thanks to ARA strategic partner, American Express, for enabling this podcast series to come to life. Learn more about American Express: https://www.americanexpress.com/au/merchant/accept-amex-cards.html