At the age of 20 the work involvement most people have had with a pizza shop is doing the deliveries.
Not Damien Langley.
By that age he was the owner of the Eagle Boys franchise in Willetton.
Indeed, despite working in the store from the age of 16, he had never delivered a pizza until he actually bought the business from its then owner Anthony Reynolds.
Two and a half years later he has nearly trebled its turnover, making it the highest turnover Eagle Boys store in Perth, and been named The Local Chambers Entrepreneur of the Year under 35.
What makes the turnover growth even more impressive is it was achieved with one of the company’s main competitors, Pizza Hut, located right next door.
With the success of his Willetton franchise, Mr Langley is now considering whether to take on the soon-to-be-developed Eagles Boys franchise in Canning Vale.
Mr Langley said he believed that turnover growth helped him win the award.
He said he had always harboured a desire to go into business, he just was not sure what that business would be.
"I was still working at the store while I was doing a commerce degree at Murdoch," Mr Langley said.
So how did Mr Langley come to own his own business at such a young age?
"The owner of the shop had six Eagle Boys stores," he said.
"He was starting to lose focus on each market.
"I thought that with my knowledge of the market [Mr Langley grew up in Willetton] that I had some good contacts in the community.
"I could see the potential of the business. If you look at Willetton there are a lot of young families here with enough disposable income to want to buy a pizza once or twice a week."
Mr Langley assumed control of the Willetton store in December 2001 after buying it from Mr Reynolds for $120,000. His parents put their home up as security against the loan.
"Now I’m in the position to get out of using their house as security. I’m using the business as security," Mr Langley said.
He said the biggest boost to the business came after he took part in the Eagle Boys six-week training program in Queensland. That training exposed him to the company’s big volume stores and gave him a number of ideas.
"I implemented the ideas and the sales increases were instant," Mr Langley said.
He said the support of his former boss Mr Reynolds had also been helpful.
"I was inspired by the previous owner of this store. He had created a business model that worked. I was good friends with him then and I’m good friends with him now," Mr Langley said
Besides Mr Langley, 15 other awards were presented by Local Chambers.
Those were: Outstanding Business Award going to Australian Computer Resellers; Woman in Business Award going to Jan Bishop; Nutech Australia won the Most Innovative Business Award; the City of Canning Business Excellence Award went to NRW Pty Ltd; the Town of Victoria Park Award of Business Excellence went to 868 Gourmet; The City of South Perth Award of Business Excellence went to Esze Berryman Realtors; the Outstanding Sales and Service Award went to Ascot Quays Apartment Hotel; VibraQ Corporation won the Outstanding Small Business Award; the Perth Airport Award of Excellence went to Perth Tram Company; Mazda Computers clinched the IT Award; PCGURU took the Best Home-based Business Award; and HMS Consultancy took home a Business Excellence Award as did Room Nineteen and Thank You Cards Australia.
Curtin Business School Accounting School head Dr John Neilson was named Local Chambers Entrepreneur of the Year.
