Zoran Sarabaca - Xcllusive Business Sales
Zoran Sarabaca is the founder of Xcllusive Business Sales, a professional business brokerage service, selling businesses worth up to five million dollars. Zoran was one of our impressive finalists for the 32nd Annual Small Business Award.
Q: What brought Zoran to Australia?
A: Zoran was born in Libya to Croatian parents and grew up in Serbia before fleeing the Yugoslavian turmoil of the early 90’s. Starting a four-month trek by land, Zoran passed through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka prior to arriving in Australia. His brother was already living in Australia at the time as there were special permissions for Yugoslav people to stay here and keep them away from the conflict going on in their country. Zoran recalls that his visa kept getting extended so many times that they had to add extra pages to his passport.
Zoran Sarabaca pictured with Joseph Assaf AO, Founder and Chairman of the EBA
Q: What struggles did Zoran face when looking for work in Australia?
A: Zoran could not speak any English when he landed in Australia. His previous experience and qualification as an electrical technician back home unfortunately weren’t recognised here, so Zoran started digging ditches as a labourer to survive. After this, he moved into some sales jobs once his English had improved and eventually started his own electrical maintenance business with his brother.
Q: How did Xcllusive Business Sales begin?
Their electrical contracting business fell into some financial difficulty when two of their largest clients fell into liquidation. This led them to the decision to sell their business. Initially, they set out to use a broker to sell their business for them. Disappointed with the service, he decided to sell it himself. It was this experience that led Zoran to identify a gap in the market for a more professional, 360 degree, end-to-end, business brokerage service.
Q: What growth has the business experienced since it’s inception?
A: Zoran started the business on his own, slowly adding people to his team as his business grew. He now has around 25 staff members and is projecting a turnover of around 3 million dollars this year.
Q: What factors does Zoran attribute to the success of the business?
A: Zoran states that “Running a business is a hard work. It's like a war without the bullets.” He attributes the success of his business to understanding the process of what business owners are going through while trying to sell. They are the only agency in the country that offers a 120-day guarantee to find a buyer. They have this in place because they believe in their system, products the results that their service provides.
Q: What advice would Zoran give to anyone who would like to follow in his footsteps?
A: “One advice that I would give to anybody that does business in this country is don't give up…it's possible and hardship comes up… if it's not a bushfire then it's covid. I wouldn't say [success] is guaranteed but if you really put an effort and you really work hard you will get what you're striving for.?
“This award nomination is an encouragement for us to work even harder to bringing value to business owners”
