Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-April 30, 2019
Instagram has a way of making everything look easy. Yeah sure you can run a business, all you need is some motivational quotes and a coffee on a Monday morning right?
(FYI neither of us drink coffee and Mondays get way too much negativity!)
There are brands that have really inspired us as well as our friends in small businesses and it's easy to look outside and see everyone killing it and think that it's possible for us to do the same.
In many ways we are. Here we are today, much further th...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-March 19, 2019
This month we are focusing on showing some love to our stockists on social media so we thought it would be good to share our experience of selling wholesale. This is a two part blog post (click here for part one) where we'll talk about some of the key thing to consider if you are planning to go down the wholesale route. Think of it as a mini guide from our personal experience.
Hopefully it will be helpful if it's something you're new to.
How do you find stockists?
Trade Shows
When we dreamed ...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-February 28, 2019
This month we are focusing on showing some love to our stockists on social media so we thought it would be good to share our experience of selling wholesale. This is a two part blog post where we'll talk about some of the key thing to consider if you are planning to go down the wholesale route. Think of it as a mini guide from our personal experience.
Hopefully it will be helpful if it's something you're new to.
Preparing to wholesale
One of the first things you'll need to think about is t...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-January 31, 2019
One of the scariest decisions we have made in our first year of business was to take a break from it.
From the very beginning, Mustard has consumed our minds, our time + our hearts. There are days where it feels like it's the centre of the universe + it can being really challenging to separate from it even just for the evening.
We counted 8 different channels that we can be contacted on + because we operate in two hemispheres it means we are switched on 24 hours a day. It is often said that ...
Posted by Afterpay Integration On: Published-December 31, 2018
Our aim for our colour palette was to create options that were versatile, beautiful and worked well for mixing and matching. Whether the lockers are for a living room, bedroom, office or hallway we wanted there to be a colour that fits with your space.
White has been a popular choice in Australia, the sunshine and beach definitely have a lot to do with it as people gravitate to bright open spaces. The Olive has been a big hit on instagram and has a steady following of plant lovers, it's defi...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-December 24, 2018
Last month I had the absolute honour of being a speaker at the first Fe Collective night. I would be lying if I said I felt qualified for speaking at an event when Sara of Kate & Kole and founder of Fe asked me to. But the more I thought about it the more I reasoned that everyone has a story to tell that others can learn from.
Although it feels like we've come along way and we have certainly formed the bones of our business I know that we are still just writing the opening lines of our s...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-December 18, 2018
I’m going to let you in on a little secret…
Me:
I moved to Australia 7 years ago with my son and husband who had been raving about how great his hometown Newcastle was for years. Our relationship didn’t last long after the move but my love for Newcastle and Australia grew and grew. So, I found myself single and a long way from home with a curly haired 3 year old and no money.
Being a mother and working is, let’s be honest, bloody hard at the best of times. The hours of the jobs I was offered...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-October 26, 2018
We'd like to introduce you to Catharine...
If you haven't discovered @paperandlilies on Instagram, let me describe her feed for you. It's like a warm, rose tinted interior hug. Every image is inviting and has 'family' written all over it. We challenged Catharine to style her Shorty in Olive in three ways and every room is a complete delight!
Tell us a little about you…
My name is Catharine. I live in Canberra with my partner Luke and our two kids, Scarlett 6 and Riley 3. I moved around a lo...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-October 08, 2018
We'd like to introduce you to Alina...
We discovered Alina through her instagram account @thecalmandthechaos and instantly felt joyful and overwhelmed with admiration in equal measure! Not only does her home encapsulate the phrase "pop of colour", it also shines with love and playfulness while remaining a practical space for her 7 children to grow up in. We challenged this busy mama to style her Shorty in Mustard in three ways and love what she's done with it!
Tell us a little about you…
H...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-September 02, 2018
16th February 2018, wake up at 6 am, one hour commute to work, 9 hours at work, leave, travel to Heathrow and jump on a plane. One outfit change, a little bit of sleep + 4 movies later I arrive in Sydney to four very smiley people. (My sister Becca, her husband Jono, Dylan + Ellis, the best nephews in the world!)
But before I can even see the Australian sun, the work begins on the car journey home. Making plans for every minute of the next few days as we were about to launch our new brand: M...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-July 04, 2018
Here's a few little details that you may not know...
1. They are 100% magnetic! You can use magnets to stick postcards, photos and to-do lists anywhere on the locker!
2. Inside the door you have our 'Emma' hook to hang things (one in The Shorty, two in The Skinny). Perfect for a little mirror, headphones a photo frame or as our friend Emma suggested, necklaces!
3. They arrive to you flat packed. But don’t worry, we promise they are easy to put together! You can watch our how-to videos here...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-June 22, 2018
This week has been a busy one. We've been focused on making sure all our customers get their lockers, mostly a week of logistics stuff. So in-between the not so pretty side of running a business it was lovely to see this pop up over at Adore Home Magazine's blog.
Head over to their Blog for more crush worthy interiors.
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-May 25, 2018
Today I woke up (and Jess went to bed) to this article going live on The Design Files. If you don't know, it is 'Australia's Top Design Blog', it's kind of a BIG deal.
The truth is, I also felt a moment of panic, the imposter syndrome kick in, the 'what if I'm found out' moment. It may or may not surprise you to know that I have screwed a lot of things up with Mustard already, there are things I'd already like to go back a redo. It may or may not surprise you that every day I google...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-May 08, 2018
Last week as my plane touched down on the Sydney runway, these words came to mind: What would have happened if I didn’t go??
I had just returned after a week long trip to our factory in China and felt relieved that I had been able to go during production of our first order. For us, this first shipment is the culmination of a year long gestation, these are not just our products, they are our babies. Over the course of the development we have discovered, overcome, solved and circumnavigated ma...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-March 09, 2018
Ok, so we aren't exactly Pros by any means 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 bet...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-March 09, 2018
To celebrate International Women's Day Tinitrader asked to interview me along side four inspiring women. Gosh what an honour.
To read the full article click here, enjoy!
Here's my favourite bit from a long term girl-crush of mine, Rachel Castle:
Your range is full of positivity! What is one of your favourite mottos?
"Im such a motto lover. But if I had to pick one it would be that good old chestnut about working hard and staying humble. I work as hard now as I ever had, the only way to get a...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-March 09, 2018
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 w...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-February 18, 2018
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 fe...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-February 17, 2018
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? ...
Posted by Rebecca Stern On: Published-February 07, 2018
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 ...
