Making Mustard / The Mustard Story

It may sound strange to say that my first business was not about making money. Yes, I wanted some shiny coins in my pocket and yes I sure did have bills to pay but I also rarely checked my bank account or chased up payments that hadn’t been made. The money would flow in and, of course, flow out of my business account. It worked. There was nearly always money in the kitty for what I needed but the truth is, it just wasn’t what turned me on. In Australia wages are sensibly high and award wages mean that I...

Ok, so we aren't exactly Pros by any means (this was our first trade show after all!) but here's some things we learnt from doing Life Instyle:   1. Be human. (Most important!) You can't help it, you are human, don't try to hide it. Sometimes we jumbled our words, forgot things, dropped business cards on the floor. It's ok. You know the best thing? The person you are talking to is a human too.  2. Be prepared. Think about the questions you might be asked and prepare a memory bank of answers, practice and get familiar with them. Even better offer a...

Sometimes in life you have to put all your eggs in one basket. At least that's how I seem to live. From the very beginning, when the idea of Mustard was taking shape, I knew that I wanted to launch at Life InStyle. I knew that wholesale was where our energy needed to be focused to gain momentum and Life InStyle was the perfect platform for the brand we wanted to create. I did the research and looked into other options, I asked everyone I knew who had done a trade show. But, in the end there was only a Plan...

One night I said to my husband, “I just need to go to China.”  He is fairly well adapted to my spontaneous nature and knows that I am not someone who will ask for permission and wasn’t born with a very large supply of patience. I had been emailing and skyping with my potential supplier in China for a few months and establishing what the parameters of possibility were. Could I have lockers any size or shape? Could I choose the design of the key? How are they packaged and can I customise that? How on earth do you get...

The day I first came up with the idea of creating beautiful lockers I was walking along the beach with my sister, we were dreaming out loud about what might be next for me after having a baby. The seed grew rapidly from there and it didn’t take me long to get lost in cyberspace trying to learn all I could about how to get lockers made, who makes them and where. You see, having grown a micro handmade business from scratch with not much more than a hammer and some old cutlery, I had learnt a few things that...