Joel Griffiths, the Newcastle Jets' all-time leading goal scorer, may have moved from the football pitch to the boardroom, but he's still kicking goals.
The former Socceroo has paired up with another Newcastle football identity and good friend Brad Swancott to form an e-commerce office furniture.
The opportunity emerged through a mutual connection Mr Griffiths made during his five seasons playing professional football in China.
He had the idea to import the latest in office furniture directly from the wholesalers and presented it to Mr Swancott, then Office Furniture IQ was born.
The pair have known each other for more than two decades after playing under-20s together for Australia, and have been looking for the right opportunity for a side hustle together for several years.
Mr Griffiths said like most good business deals, "it happened over a couple of beers".
"Ninety-nine per cent of the time, nothing comes of it," he said.
"The one thing I liked about this is there are no overheads. We can dictate the margins as well and offer products a lot cheaper than what's in the market purely because there are no overheads."
Office Furniture IQ offers everything from desks, tables and office chairs, to workstations, soundproof office pods and lounges.
So how is it going into business with a former teammate and friend of 25 years?
"It just works," Mr Griffiths said.
"We're not taking it too seriously and we have a laugh when we do it, but we're growing every month and the feedback has been great."
"[Mr Swancott] looks after management of the accounts, I look after dealing with the customers and purchasing orders."
The Office Furniture IQ caters to clients of all sizes, from home offices and small businesses to larger scale corporates - the pair have done fit-outs for council chambers in Melbourne, hotels in Sydney and an international airport.
Mr Swancott - who played goalkeeper for Jets' precursor teams, the Newcastle Breakers and Newcastle United - said the scalability of the business was a big draw factor.
"When COVID-19 hit, a lot of businesses went to work from home, so we see an opportunity because people are looking to personalise their own space," he said.
"But the client base is really broad. We've had people setting up their own small business to the larger fit out outs."
Mr Griffiths said in the future, Office Furniture IQ would begin tendering for larger jobs, but for now they're content with the progress the business had made in less than a year.
"It's slowly growing, and we don't want it to grow too quickly," he said.
"Although there is a lot of growth in this, you've got to be careful what you wish for. We want to grow slowly, otherwise we won't be able to provide service everyone."
Mr Swancott said the pair were still very busy with their nine-to-fives - Mr Griffiths works for Dulux and just purchased the Aussie Loans branch in Gosford, while Mr Swancott runs a business that specialises in underground mining equipment.
"E-commerce works perfectly for us because it's not day-to-day and it's flexible, so we can control our own time," he said.
Chinese connection
Mr Griffiths said the opportunity was a classic case of not "what you know, who you know".
"I knew the wholesaler through mutual friends and the football fraternity," he said.
"We met when I was in China, we spoke, he loves his sport. I got invited on a golf day and that turned into dinner, and all of a sudden we were talking about doing something as a side hustle."
The relationship has given Mr Griffiths a unique insight into the office furniture industry, with most of the manufactures and wholesalers operating out of China.
"We get to see all the new products in one place, so we get a good idea of what's going to be popular in the following year or two," he said.
"The beauty with our model is that the industry evolves so quickly that we're always looking for a new wholesaler or something a bit different to what others are offering.
"The relationship with our initial supplier allowed us to create other connections and we have the capability to offer the new product very quickly."
When it comes to negotiating, once again his time in China served him well.
"My Mandarin is pretty good, my wife's is good - we spent five years over there... mine can get a bit shabby when I'm out of practice, but I remember the swear words, they're always in there somewhere," Mr Griffiths laughed.
Life after football
While many professional athletes struggle with life after sport, Mr Griffiths said "believe or not" he enjoyed finishing.
"For me it was the freedom - as a professional athlete, there's lots of scheduling for dates and times, you're told what you can eat and where to go," he said.
Although football is never far from his thoughts - including coaching at a local level - he's taken a step back from the game this year.
"Whether I need it or not, I definitely feel better about it. At the moment I'm just really enjoying building the two businesses I've got," he said.
Hunter Means Business is a weekly column proudly flying the flag for the region's economic sector, published every Tuesday. Got a tip? Email jamieson.murphy@newcastleherald.com.au
