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Rick Chisholm (Entrepreneur) Rick Chisholm (born on June 11, 1962) is a well known Australian entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker. Born into a struggling working-class family in the western suburbs of Sydney, he revolutionised the entertainment industry during the 1980s when he founded the first Disc Jockey School in Australia. He repeated his formula for success when he single-handedly disrupted the professional Audio Visual industry during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s when he established the first franchise operation of its kind in the world known as Lightsounds.

Chisholm became a serial entrepreneur and has started and grown over 40 businesses across 14 different industries starting in 1983 generating direct revenues in excess of $300 million. One business scaled from 250k in the first year to 20 million in 4 years without any outside funding. Chisholm is the co-founder and CEO of InnovestSME, a start-up accelerator and is the co-author of the book ‘Business Success for Life’.

Chisholm is a direct descendant of legendary First Fleeter and Entrepreneur, Henry Kable (1763–1846).

Early Life
Chisholm was born in Campsie, New South Wales, Australia on June 11, 1962. He is the youngest of three children born to Nita Jean Kable and Anthony Robert Chisholm.

Chisholm’s mother grew up in Marrickville New South Wales. By the age of 14 she had suffered a nervous breakdown following the unexpected death of her mother Alice. She never fully recovered from the loss, and would go on to suffer debilitating anxiety and depression for the rest of her life.

Chisholm’s fatherAnthony (better known as Tony), an asphalt contractor, left his hometown of Tenterfield to serve his country during WWII in Kokoda in Papua New Guinea and later to Japan to assist in the rebuilding of the nation. When the war was over he returned to civilian life, but like so many young men of his generation found his life forever changed by the experience. A quiet man, he never spoke of his wartime experiences to his family. It wasn’t until much later in life that he shared some of the painful memories with his son with whom he worked with for 26 years.

At age 16, Nita met and married Tony. Their union lasted over thirty years, but financial difficulties put a strain on their marriage and eventually failed. This had a devastating effect on Nita who never really recovered and it fell to her teenage son to help her through the difficult times. It was during that time, at age 12, Chisholm made it his life’s mission to get his parents ‘back together again’. He would casually spend the next 41 years trying to reunite them.

Chisholm and his mother moved to Windsor NSW in 1979 where he attended the local high school closer to his father. His father took up residence in a 16 foot caravan and began a new relationship. Though difficult at first, Nita eventually settled down and in time found solace in tracing her heritage. Nita was a direct descendant of legendary convict First Fleeter and Entrepreneur - Henry Kable. She took great pride celebrating the life of her famous ancestor.

During Chisholm’s teenage years he began to rebel against the education system. His grades plummeted to below average. Tony made time for his son despite the complicated family situation, and scraped together enough money to allow him to pursue his interest in dirt bikes. He also encouraged him to continue his education. Chisholm would later recall his father’s advice: “Don’t end up like me on the end of a pick and shovel. Make sure you get a proper education.” Buoyed by Tony’s unwavering support, he started racing dirt bikes on weekends. By the age of 10 he was racing competitively. He had a promising motocross career ahead of him and then suddenly, he quit whilst almost at the top of the game. He decided to focus on his education, but he could never really give up dirt bikes, and so began a lifelong passion that endures to this day.

Education
He attended the University of Technology, Sydney, where he studied engineering, majoring in Management. He served one year at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Lindfield NSW and published a substantial thesis on Wear Resistant Coatings for Machining Applications.

In 1988 he graduated with an Honours Engineering Degree and earned the distinction of being the only member of his immediate family to study beyond year 9. He would later undertake a Law degree at The University of Sydney, but due to time constraints would drop the degree in favour of his burgeoning business enterprises.

Early Career 1980s
As a young child Chisholm displayed the hallmarks of a budding entrepreneur. Not content to simply wile away the day playing games, at age 9 he began renting out his minibike in the local parks to mates and worked as a paperboy et al. By the age of 12 he had a job as a delivery person for the elderly (utilising his pushbike). He also worked in a nursery on weekends and participated in bob-a-job to raise money for his Scouts club. During his teenage years he would service his own motorbikes in order to reduce expenses and became very handy on the tools.

After completing high school and a flourishing motorcycle career in 1980 he attended University after hours graduating in 1988. During 1982 he was offered a cadetship to undertake at Cockatoo Island Dockyard that paid for his studies and provided a steady income. There he worked mostly on the HMAS Success Navy supply vessel and the Orion class Submarines as a Cadet Mechanical Engineer. After one year on the tools he was assigned to work in the Mechanical Drawing Office. He would later recall of his experience at Cockatoo Island Dockyard: “I learned everything needed on how not to run a business.”

Not even 2 years into his university Chisholm had become restless. He had already established his first successful business, Chisholm Coaching College, which specialised in after-school tuition teaching mathematics, engineering science, physics and chemistry. But it was at his 21st birthday where his attention was first drawn to the entertainment industry. He had employed a Disc Jockey (DJ) for the occasion to provide the entertainment and became inspired to become a DJ himself believing it would be a simple enough task and so took on the challenge. Later that year he started his second serious business venture: a DJ and Entertainment business called Mega Discos in favour of winding down the coaching business. What started out as a hobby turned into a thriving business, and in 1986, he quit his job at the Dockyard to focus on his new enterprise and completing his first degree.

In 1984 he founded A-Ball Entertainment Pty Ltd (his second DJ and Entertainment business). He credits his late father with the catchy name A-Ball (from the phrase ‘have a ball with A-Ball’). 1985 would be a ground-breaking year: the DJ business was booming, a new venture The Australian Disc Jockey School was formed and he wrote his first book ‘Career DJ’. He didn’t know it at the time in 1982 when he gave his first ever presentation but his confidence and communication skills would lead to high profile Master of Ceremonies work and soon after he started teaching public speaking. It was also the year he set a goal to become a millionaire by age 30, which was later reported in an almost full-page article in the Daily Telegraph. (17 November 1987), and featured Ward Pally Austin, a famous radio announcer of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s whom Chisholm managed. Chisholm also went onto Sydney breakfast radio but disliked the lack of an audience and pulled the pin after just one year despite promising popularity.

Chisholm’s DJ and MC school was the first of its kind in Australia and was a landmark success. By 1986 A-Ball Entertainment was a key player in the industry. Chisholm carried out his first Merger and Acquisition in 1986 by acquiring a competitor and between 1984-89 the business experienced phenomenal business growth doubling in size every 12 months. Despite selling out in 1995 many of the services established through A-Ball still exist today.

The Winds of Change – 1990s
The aftermath of the international stock market slump in 1987 saw Australian business severely impacted leading to “The recession we had to have”. Being a discretionary spending business, Chisholm’s revenue plummeted by 70%, and like countless others, slid into what he describes as the “trough of sorrow” [9] a modern phrase coined by Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator. Through sheer hard work and ingenuity he managed to climb out within a year quadrupling profits. By the early ‘90s the entertainment industry was changing and he capitalised by selling early in 1995 subsequent to setting up two new businesses, Lightsounds and Leading Source Wholesale. The move paved the way for other new business ventures, brand development of such OEM and ODM brands including the family brand Light Emotion that sold over 2 million units with massive scale in distribution of lighting and audio technologies including the acquisition of competitors. In 1998, Chisholm took the market by storm and launched the first national group under his own proprietary licence structure with 7 outlets all opening on launch 23 April at an Entertainment Technology Convention in Darling Harbour Sydney.

It was in the early 1990s Chisholm developed a strong passion for the martial arts and swimming and took to both like a dog to a bone acquiring a number of black belts. The obsession led him to starting his own self-defence business as a side hustle that he maintains has helped maintain balance, sanity and fitness. He is a qualified instructor.

2000 - 2014
The new millennium would usher in the implementation of a franchising model for Lightsounds, the first in the industry in the world. By 2005 the Lightsounds retail franchise had expanded into growth areas including Projects and Productions, and business was booming. Then came the Global Financial Crisis (2008) and whilst the number of Lightsounds outlets continued to grow in number the heyday slowed due to such factors as cheap imports, copies, onerous electrical compliance costs, increased competition, rising costs generally and property disputes.

Family Health Issues
The fallout from the GFC and worsening personal and family health issues had taken its toll. In 2010 Chisholm’s parents through fate were reunited when they were located in the same nursing home living initially in low care just 10 metres apart before being placed in high care. During that time Chisholm worked tirelessly to provide access to medical assistance and improve the quality of life for his ailing parents. In 2015, after launching his new coaching business model and “Kick-Ass Project” (named after his new book “Kiss-Ass, the little known secrets on how to 10X your bottom line”), Chisholm took the year off to care for both Nita and Tony whom both passed away (within three months of each other). Chisholm’s world imploded and he took time out to reassess his personal goals.

The Power of One
After much soul searching he began a new chapter in his life. In 2016, he sold remaining interest in Lightsounds corporate sites and resolved to capitalise on his 35 years of business experience launching InnovestSME and began a new career as a much sought after speaker and mentor. Chisholm speaks on a wide raft of topics that have proved popular amongst audiences across Australia. His most popular topic is around Bootstrapping and he was on the speaker’s card at StartCon 2018 Australia’s largest Start Up event.

Chisholm turned his full-time attention to the pandemic of Start-Up and SME failure and the reality that most entrepreneurs end up in the Trough of Sorrow, a place where Chisholm has himself been one too many times. After seeing too many colleagues and friends go broke and others commit suicide following business failure, Chisholm developed IP built on his maxim that if you are going to go into business you ought to be able to run one before you start it. Disturbingly, Chisholm argues that Business school does NOT prepare a person to go into business. Chisholm has vowed to reduce the rising number of suicides and bankruptcies; start-up and SME failures, which are escalating as more and more young and mature aged people enter the world of entrepreneurship. Chisholm provides a great deal of his training charitably.

Personal
Chisholm is married to Tala Zein El Abedin, an Honors engineer graduate herself, (daughter of Engineer Aida Motassem and Engineer Hazem Zein El Abedin). Her parents and brother Tamer Zein El Abedin are successful Egyptian entrepreneurs, engineers and sports people. Tala, her brother and father have all been national Egyptian fencing champions and the Hazem has represented Egypt at two Olympics. Her paternal grandmother is Amina El-Said; women’s rights advocate, journalist and the first woman magazine president and editor in the Middle East. Tala and Rick have two children.