How Mustard Made’s founders created a multimillion-dollar business while working on opposite sides of the world

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven beyond doubt that business can be done, and done well, from anywhere. The mass shift to remote work was a forced change for many, and the move back towards a hybrid model is still a work in progress, but many have already begun to excel at working in different locations and at different times.

Yet some businesses have always done things this way. For them, asynchronous work is the norm, digital collaboration tools the bedrock.

One such business is Mustard Made, a wholesale and retail business that sells vibrant, retro lockers as storage solutions.

Founded in 2018, Mustard Made is run by sisters Becca and Jess Stern from Newcastle, Australia and London, UK, respectively.

The multimillion-dollar business designs and sells a range of five different shaped lockers, available in 10 colours, plus accessories. It has 120 stockists globally and a team of 14 in Australia, the UK and the US.

As creative director Becca explains, the business has been built on a series of “calculated risks”, each underpinned by a solid communication framework and understanding of who is doing what and when.

This communication has of course come about by necessity — working across different time zones means you have to make conversations count — but it has also meant Mustard Made is well positioned to enter new markets, as it did last month when it launched into the US.

Key takeaways

1. Customer service is essential

   The Mustard Made team are “always following the sun”. At any time, the business has customers who may need responding to and so its customer service processes must be built on that premise.

2. Systems must be comprehensive

   Because members of the Mustard Made team are working when others are sleeping, there needs to be one place where they can find the answers to key questions without having to ask someone.

3. Plan to communicate

   Becca and Jess have a monthly standing meeting to discuss the business and they regularly sit down with their dad, who provides an outside perspective.

4. Understand what customers are truly looking for when they find you

   Many customers are not specifically looking for a retro locker when they find Mustard Made products. These people are looking for storage solutions and that’s the space the brand must play in.

5. Find collaboration tools that work

   The Mustard Made business is underpinned by digital tools, including G-Suite, Gorgias and Trello.

6. Play to your strengths

   Allowing each other to focus on their natural areas of interest has put Becca and Jess in good stead.

Early days

When Becca and Jess took their first orders for Mustard Made lockers at a Life InStyle trade show three years ago, they didn’t even have a business bank account.

Their goal was to get enough potential wholesale customers interested in their samples to then justify ordering a 20 ft container of their bulky lockers.

As Becca tells SmartCompany Plus, it was a deliberate strategy “not to take customers’ money” at that stage, as the pair didn’t want to feel in debt to buyers early on and start the business “always on the backfoot”.

As it turns out, that bank account could have been handy: from that one trade show, the sisters had enough interest to order two 40 ft containers of lockers instead. Becca recalls throwing their first business plan in the bin at the event “because none of it was big enough”.

To pay for the stock, they took out a short-term loan from their dad, which they could then pay back once orders started rolling in.

Because the logistics of selling large furniture items means ordering by the container load, Becca explains that it was essential to first find a way to make the wholesale aspect of the business viable with a price point that worked.

“It’s very difficult when you’re manufacturing your own products to be the person making them, and selling them, and making profit at wholesale pricing,” she says.

The brand’s stockists play a vital role in helping people discover the lockers; as Becca explains, many people stumble across Mustard Made not while searching specifically for a colourful, retro locker, but by looking for storage solutions, or seeing one of the lockers alongside other products they love.

The Mustard Made lockers come in five different shapes and 10 colours. Source: supplied.

“A locker is not what they’re typing into Google, so I kind of had this theory that we needed people to discover us through the brand, and through the brand alignment,” explains Becca.

“So [it’s about] being found in this beautiful store where you love all their clothes and you love their candles, and then you love this product that you weren’t expecting to find.

The founders’ strategic approach also reflected their backgrounds before starting Mustard Made.

The sisters are both originally from London, with Becca moving to Australia around 10 years ago. Her background is in designing jewellery, which she made herself and sold at markets, while Jess previously worked as a buyer in the fashion industry.

Combined, they had a unique insight into both design and retail. And thanks to Becca’s love of vintage metal furniture, they stumbled on the idea of selling vibrant lockers while walking along the beach one day.

Of course, a lot of hard work followed that decision, with Becca teaching herself how to draw the locker designs in 3D, before the duo began researching manufacturers and what designs were possible. This “discovery and research phase” culminated in a trip to China to find the right partner to bring their designs to life.

“Within six months, [we went from] literally like a spark of an idea to having our first samples on the floor in a factory in the middle of China,” says Becca.

The other side of the world

Mustard Made launched first in Australia before quickly setting up its UK operations six months later.

The business utilises a third-party warehouse in each location, and while most of the creative team are in Australia, Becca and Jess have made sure the first people they hire in each new location are customer service staff.

“That is the heart of what we offer … we’re very much customer focused and on the ground, and we’re local. You get to know the postcodes, and you know the stockists really well.”

As Becca puts it, Mustard Made is a “very small business with very big business problems”, not least of which is the logistics of shipping large, bulky storage units around the world.

The business’ operational set up across three countries means the team is “always following the sun” and at any time, there will be customers that may need responding to.

Robust online systems become critical, as do communication tools that allow staff to quickly find answers to customer questions, without needing to speak to someone in another location who may be asleep.

“That’s been a really fun part, to grow and realise how much time and investment it takes to have systems that really serve you, particularly when half your team is always asleep at a point in time,” says Becca.

To this end Mustard Made uses G-Suite products in every aspect of its operations, as well as Trello for to-do lists, tasks and staff training. The business has also recently started using a customer service help desk platform called Gorgias, which integrates with Shopify, to streamline operations and onboarding.

Finding their own corners

The Mustard Made team has also created a “manual” for new team members to ensure key product information and resources are always at their fingertips, but it’s not to say everything always goes to plan.

Becca readily admits she has a reputation for being the person who “makes big decisions while someone else is asleep”, such as recently adding a new stock-level function to the company’s website, which some of the team then noticed when they logged on the following morning.

There are times when it can be “frustrating” to not always be able to do something straight away, or ask the bigger questions that need to be asked, she says, and it’s not always possible to work at night.

But a consistent meeting schedule helps. The team sticks to a monthly meeting, which usually happens at around 9pm Australian time, while simultaneously working in smaller teams on a project-basis (which also helps build relationships and support networks for individual employees, especially during a global pandemic).

Becca and Jess also meet monthly to check in on what’s working and what’s not, to make decisions, and to also discuss the more emotional side of running a business with your sister.

Their father joins this meeting and has done so from day one. As someone who runs his own business, he adds a third perspective and, as Becca says, often hits the sisters with some curveball questions.

Becca and Jess are close both in business and in life. Source: supplied.

“When you’re very close to each other and very close for business, it can be hard to have perspective on things,” she says.

“He brings us together and throws us challenges.”

Allowing each other to focus on their individual strengths has also helped and the pair “figured out what each would do” very early on. While she focuses on the digital marketing side of things, Jess was drawn to the operations functions.

“We found our own corner to handle naturally,” says Becca, who is candid about the pair’s individual strengths too.

“I always kind of think I’m a really good starter of things. I’m not such a good finisher. Jess is the finisher.”

This approach has evolved even more recently, with both Becca and Jess’s partners also joining the Mustard Made management team, taking over aspects of the company’s digital marketing, logistics and finances. It means the company is now much more than “just a business”.

“If you let people do what they’re good at, everyone’s a lot happier,” says Becca.