Andrew Rocks started his business twenty-four years ago, aged just twenty-two. Raised in country NSW, he applied the home-grown philosophies around good business practices he learned as a child, from his grandfather, to build an award-winning company, helping families shape their financial future. The kind of awards he’s won is just part of this remarkable story.
Obtaining the rights to ‘Announcer’ as the business name for his company cost Andrew Rocks five cartons of beer; setting up the company to be a leader in the financial services field gave him a lifetime of invaluable lessons.
Andrew recalls “those early lessons came from my grandfather when I was just a young boy. I was learning about business without realising I was learning: I was observing what he did, and what I saw had a lasting impression on me.”
The family lived in Boggabri in Western New South Wales, and Andrew’s grandfather ran a business helping farmers with livestock nutrition. When it doesn’t rain and feed stocks are low, livestock health suffers. “Essentially, my grandfather sold vitamins for cows.”
When Andrew turned eight, he started travelling with his grandfather as he visited his clients, the farmers in the local area. He’d jump up onto the bench-seat next to him in the truck, and they’d talk for the entire journey: “the only time we’d stop talking was when he told me to get out and open and close the gates.”
That was Andrew’s first lesson: “Always leave the gates as you found them. It was a lesson in respecting people’s property, but at the time I was just doing what my grandfather said was the right thing.”