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Perry enjoys helping people succeed with online businesses
and gets a lot of satisfaction from sharing what he learned
about retail through his own experiences.
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In the beginning...
Perry came to New Zealand with his parents in 1971, originally to Auckland from the Netherlands,
but eventually settling in Tokoroa in the South Waikato in 1974. From age 8, Perry was actively
involved in swimming sports, training twice per day, and successfully competed at New Zealand
national level winning a gold medal in 100m butterfly in 1983. Also taking an interest in cycling,
his involvement in sports naturally also progressed to triathlons.
Computing...
Perry grew up before the age of personal computers and was attending his last year at Tokoroa
High School when the first computing systems were being introduced. They were pre-Windows
operating systems operating on floppy disc. The Internet was still a secret method of communication
for the US government. After finishing High School he attended the first year at university. Perry's
first experience with computers was with the then massive 3Gb system at the University of Waikato.
Perry decided to leave his studies and start a retail business in the photographic processing
industry, and also pursued professional photography. He taught himself to use and manipulate
the features of Microsoft Windows 3.0 on a IBM 386-66Mhz computer with a whopping 8Mb of
Hard Disc space and quickly developed a love for using computers.
Changing course...
Perry remained in the photographic industry for a further 11 years and became the National Trainer
for Kodak New Zealand for photographic lab operations, conducting 2-day training seminars
throughout the country for retail clients. In 2002 after a serious accident that left Perry hospitalised
for a month he changed the direction of his focus and returned to university to study linguistics,
graduating in 2006 with an Honours Degree in Grammar, Phonology, Morphology and Syntax,
and also having Minored in Russian Language.
Online business...
During his studies Perry established an online retail business importing and on-selling via
Trade Me and also his own website. He began his business with cash investment of just $2,000
but rapidly expanded the business to eventually turn over approximately $30,000 per month and
$1M in total. All of the sales by Perry's business were via online trade. A key part of Perry's success
is that his website was very highly Search Engine Optimised, ranking consistently in the top 5
entries on page one of Google results for the brands that Perry was selling, well ahead of those
manufacturer's own Search Engine results. Perry is now writing a book about his experiences, the
rapid rise and eventual fall of the business during recession.
Proud dad...
Perry is a proud solo father with two sons, Louis and Riley, and has lived in Auckland since 1995.
His boys are both very interested in electronics and computers, Louis (15) aspires to be an architect,
plays tennis, and Minecraft (computer game). Riley (9) will become a billionaire pilot and has offered
to fly his father all around the world.
