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Being described as ‘one of the world’s best children’s museums’ (The Sydney Morning Herald) was the gong entrepreneurial couple Billie Georgieff and Thomas Mahon dreamed of when they sold their million-dollar house to fund the niche museum Museum of Play and Art (MoPA) back in 2019. The key to that journey from risk to business idea success was making and following a list, and doing lots of research, said Mahon. He spoke at the recent REMIX Summit in Sydney, where he offered his advice on how to grow a creative business – adding that much of it is boring can-do stuff, rather than blue sky vision sessions.
Mahon and Georgieff opened MoPA in Geelong, just 10 weeks before COVID-19 hit in March 2020. Despite the challenges, Mahon said they have already had ‘a couple of 100,000 visitors’ to their museum, adding that they have also ‘generated millions of dollars of revenue’.
‘We generate enough profitability to pay for an amazing team,’ he told the REMIX audience.
In 2021, MoPA expanded to the Melbourne suburb of Sandringham, taking over a former indoor sports centre, which is now a 280-square metre fully immersive learning and creative experience for children aged one to eight. Is it just raw ambition that drives such success journeys?
‘Like anyone who started something, and learns from their experiences, our second is a lot better than our first,’ Mahon said about the two MoPAs. The museum entrepreneur admits that he’s listened to just about every podcast on succeeding in business.
Mahon and Georgieff started in the corporate world with a reputation for exceptional marketing, product development and operational disciplines, before they ditched their salaries to do something they loved … and this is where their advice starts.
Read: Minister gunning for more immersive experiences
Starting: when to jump
Mahon’s LinkedIn profile describes the organisation as ‘community-centric children’s museums that offer young minds a host of creative opportunities to learn through play’. But finding that niche success didn’t happen by accident. ‘It’s the result of lots of hard work. As any entrepreneur who builds something will tell you, it’s harder than you would ever, ever imagine,’ he warned.
Mahon attributed his success to a systematic and even boring approach. ‘We decided that we would pre-rationalise every single decision that we could about the thing that we were about to fund. One of the main reasons for that was that failure was not an option. So the question was tackling de-risking, and how could we best guarantee success?
‘The thing we had to learn about ourselves was how to jump,’ Mahon added. Like many who have a good idea for a business, ‘the hardest decision to make, by far, is to quit your job, because you’re looking down the barrel of time,’ he said.
‘We had mortgages, we had a pretty comfortable salary, and we were enjoying lots of travel, lots of good stuff, but we weren’t quite satisfied,’ he continued. ‘Jumping is really, really bloody hard!’ It was the sudden death of Mahon’s brother that was the tipping point.
What’s on Mahon’s list of advice for success?
1. Alignment
Mahon said the most fundamental starting point is alignment.
‘We felt comfortable that we were ready to take a risk; however, we’d worked our whole lives to build ourselves into this position. To rock the boat is against almost everything in your being. The first thing that I would highly recommend is to find alignment with your partner – your business partners and life partners. It’s the most fundamental ingredient to running your own business.
‘Two-thirds of all relationship failures have something to do with money,’ continued Mahon. ‘So if you go into a business that’s going to require you to go broke, find the alignment and talk about it – get aligned on your priorities first.’
Mahon noted that if you go down this path, you are never going to work nine-to-five again. ‘You are absolutely going to burn … the midnight oil. The most important thing is that you’re going to be there for each other in the toughest of times – be aligned emotionally, and be ready to support each other when in doubt.’
2. Write a list
‘Write your list – that is my second piece of advice,’ said Mahon. ‘What that means is, having an idea is one thing, but having a framework through which to test the quality of your ideas is far more important.
‘I can guarantee you, it’ll make your organisation – your idea – more successful.’
3. Invest in yourself
You need to ask early on, ‘How much money are you willing to put at risk? We were very systematic about this, and we did lots of research,’ said Mahon.
He added that it’s certainly possible to sell your house like he did, but you need to know that you are not going to go ‘so far backwards, that you’re buried for the rest of your lives’.
‘Work out what that looks like for you, and see that it is something that you like [the look of] in the end.’
One of the most common mistakes, Mahon explained, is: ‘People go into something thinking about the next 12 months and what that journey looks like. I’ve seen so many start up organisations and create businesses that in five years’ time have bombed. There is a lot more it to than just a good idea; you need it to sustain your energy and passion.’
He continued: ‘I’m sure there are lots of opportunities out there to create organisations and businesses, but just know it’s going to be really, really hard to be successful enough to be worthwhile.’
Her warned it’s also important to be careful about ‘riding a wave and swimming with the current’ and to be clear when diving into a trend or growing industry, adding that the margins become very difficult in a high and cluttered market.
4. Spaghetti to the wall
‘Only once you’ve got you list [clear], can you start to throw your ideas. Throw your spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. If you’re systematic about your ideas, and analyse them, it’s much more likely that it’s going to be successful. In other words, make sure your idea meets your criteria,’ Mahon advised.
He admitted that he has often been zealous with ideas, most of them ‘pretty terrible’, but added that a good pulse point on any idea is whether it creates value. ‘The majority of your ideas are pretty average. So this next part I highly recommend, and that is doing the research.
‘So many people I talk to about their ideas – they’re about to dump thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars into an idea, and I’ll ask them a relatively basic question about something that they should know, like “what is going to define it?” or “who are your competitors?”
‘The most important two things I have written down about research is to understand supply and demand in what you’re about to do. It’s the fundamental of the marketplace,’ said Mahon.
He and his wife literally sat in the car park of their competitors and counted cars, how long people stayed. They looked at what they paid, spoke to the real estate agent about the rent and noted the industry award for wages.
‘You can basically reverse engineer the whole financials for your business idea, and have the confidence performing it,’ said Mahon. ‘So many people go into something without this information – research is fundamental.’
5. Test to fail
‘Next is testing, and there’s lots of testing,’ said Mahon, adding that he learned a lot from available literature on start-ups. He said that spending $5000 on testing may save you a million dollars. While few arts companies have that sort of turnover, the lesson is a good one.
Mahon spoke of creating a mock business to test and validate your assumptions for a business idea. He recommended creating a website armed with data tracking. ‘Pretend to have a checkout, Photoshop items from photos – AI will do it for you – and sell something to see if it sells. Watch how far people get through the checkout. And only then can you really build this in a space [within an industry] as a sophisticated model.’
Mahon added that you will also need to do modelling for your best case and worst case scenarios, so that you understand your tipping point for failure before it can happen.
Read: Why art-making is so valuable for children
6. Find a sounding board
Mahon concluded that a key lesson is also getting help. ‘Don’t be scared to ask really, really clever people their opinion. I’ve learned this again the hard way – I should have asked a lot earlier.’
He said that if you are extremely well-researched, well-presented and respectful of people’s time, then they will help. ‘It wasn’t just, “Do you think it would work?” It was rather, “Here’s the the work we’ve done; do you agree with this type of business idea?” So ask them for advice. Don’t be scared.’
At the end of the day, Mahon asked the hardest question of all: ‘Would we bet on ourselves, when we take that million-dollar mortgage?’
He said, ‘We worked through the framework and, at the end of it, we’ve validated our assumptions that it was a good idea and a good market device with the right skills. And when you tick off all those things, and only once you get there, do you then sell the house. And, yes, we sold the house. Yes, we went broke. COVID was the most difficult financial thing that I’ve ever experienced. But fast forward to today, and we’re in a better position than we’ve ever been. We operate in an awesome space and awesome economy that is growing too.’
MoPA Geelong is located at 51 McKillop Street, Geelong and MoPA Melbourne is at 247 Bay Road, Sandringham.
This conversation is in part from Thomas Mahon’s presentation for REMIX Sydney, June 2023. The writer attended as a guest of REMIX.
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