Kate Pearson from Bella and Lace shares her brand story and her year of saying yes.

As a former buyer for my own Retail store I got to meet some amazing brand owners and see some absolutely stunning collections each and every season. Walking into the most amazing French inspired trade event 12 years ago (Mama and Papa) I spotted a beautiful collection of girls dresses, sequins, tulle and embroidery from the brand Bella and Lace.   Now anyone who knows me will know I flocked to those gold stars and sequins pretty fast. 
I got to meet Kate, the owner and designer of a brand new Brisbane children's fashion brand called Bella and Lace.  That was it- I ordered the range for my store and continued to do so until sold it a number of years later. 
Kate and I have been catching up at trade events ever since.  Part of my conversations with brands long after I had sold my store was where the foray into consulting started.  I would be offering tips and guidance for them to grow and how to sell DTC or Wholesale and what the latest Instagram marketing tips were (at the time). 
Kate has been a friend and client now for many years.  And having insight into her brand and how amazing and gorgeous it is I knew I wanted to get her to share her story. 

Welcome to the enchanting world of Bella & Lace, a whimsical brand of children's clothing and accessories that captures the magic and wonder of childhood.  
Kate sells the brand around the world and wholesale is her main revenue stream.  She is a multi 6 figure company and has continued to evolve and grow and adpat t market conditions. 

Passion and using your skill set are key in starting and growing a brand.

• Adapting and evolving with the industry is crucial for long-term success.
• Wholesale is an important channel for reaching customers and growing sales..
• Building relationships and showing longevity are important in the wholesale industry. Building relationships with agents and retailers can make entry into stores easier.
• Persistence and consistently showing up are key to success in business.
• Trade shows can provide valuable brand exposure.
• Understanding landed price and shipping times is crucial for exporting brands.
• Product testing and compliance can be challenging, especially for certain types of products.
• Having a strong team is essential for running a successful business.
• Focus on sales and invest in the right areas from the start.
• Adaptability and constant evaluation are important for business growth.
• Long-term customer relationships are valuable fo

Transcript

Melissa Robbins (00:01)
Hello and welcome to today's podcast. My name's Melissa Robbins. I have a guest with me today, Kate Pearson from Bella and Lace, who we were just having a little chat prior and that we just realized we'd met 12 years ago when Kate first started Bella and Lace and yeah, super excited to have her on the podcast and chatting all about her brand. Welcome Kate.

Kate Pearson (00:23)
Thanks Mel, it's lovely to be here.

Melissa Robbins (00:27)
Can you tell me a little bit more about Bella and Lace?

Kate Pearson (00:32)
Yeah, look, as you said, we started, you know, 12 years ago. I started the brand just after I had my twin girls who have just turned 14, which blows my mind. And I've always been in the industry. So after I had the girls, I found this passion for kids' clothing and decided I'd like to get amongst it.

Melissa Robbins (00:45)
Oh my gosh.

Yeah, it's a common thread, right? Like, I mean, I think that's how I was in children's wear as well after having kids and it's one of those things you're like, how can I use my skill set to do something that you're passionate about and love?

Kate Pearson (01:09)
Absolutely.

Yeah, well, it's just you, I always was in ladies fashion. And so that's where you kind of just spent your time and you only had you to worry about. And then when you've got these other little humans, you're like, oh, this is so cool. I'd love to get in this. Yes, yeah, absolutely.

Melissa Robbins (01:32)
What else can I do? Yeah. What else can I create for them? I guess as well. Yeah. And so when you first started, um, let's see, I go going right back. We will start, um, early days and then talk about your journey and everything and share a little bit about, you know, those ups and downs. I'm sure that you've had in, in having a brand for that length of time. So when you first started, like, how did you actually get started? Like, what was your first foray into it? Like, was it?

Kate Pearson (01:52)
Yes.

Melissa Robbins (02:02)
you know, what did you get due to it?

Kate Pearson (02:02)
Yeah, well I used to make little bits for the girls and then I was, I thought no I really want to dive deep into this. So I put together a little collection. I got on a plane and went to Indonesia and went looking for a factory and we met a few there.

and the one that we did end up producing with we still have today. So we've got a really great relationship with them. We now manufacture it still in Bali and we do manufacture it in India as well. So we split it up just depending on skill set.

Melissa Robbins (02:37)
Wow.

Yeah. OK.

Yep. And what you've got. Yeah. What's the range? Cause you do have quite, we'll get into that, but yeah, a range between knitwear and, um, you know, obviously knits and jerseys and all that sort of stuff too. Okay. So yeah, first getting started, obviously you had a bit of a skill behind you and that you'd done designing, you'd been in the industry. So yeah, I love that you just went over there and like, let's go and explore and figure out, you know, who we can touch base with.

Kate Pearson (02:57)
Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks, guys.

Yeah, and when you're starting, and especially when you've.

you've had your babies and you're not in the industry like working anymore. So it was just definitely a small budget I had to work with. I think I had $10,000 to launch the brand. And we did a really small show like we were just talking about before, where I met you at the fair that was run by Vigene from Mama Papa. And I met some really great stores there. So it was it was a

great launch into the industry in meeting more those boutique kind of customers.

Melissa Robbins (03:55)
Yeah. And with the, yeah, like back in the day, like obviously I had a children's wear brand, which is, sorry, a children's wear store, which is obviously where we met, the fact that I carried, your range was quite different to what I had currently in store. So it was a great combo to introduce new brands into the store, which I think at times, a few people were like, oh, I don't want to sell to a store that's already got their own brand, because then it's, I don't know, people think about that they're gonna copy them or something like that. And it's like...

Kate Pearson (04:02)
Thanks for watching!

Yeah.

Melissa Robbins (04:24)
You're getting it because it's different, that's the whole point, that it's giving my customer a huge mix of products, not just my product.

Kate Pearson (04:32)
Yeah, definitely. And I think over time, realizing...

You know, you start this process and you think, oh, I just love doing this and I like this and whatever you put together. And sometimes you don't, I didn't, well, for me, I didn't actually think about, does this customer really need this or want this? It was just something that I really loved. And it was nice as time went on that we got feedback from the stores saying, oh, there was definitely this gap in the market, Kate, that you've filled, where it's, you know, your attention to detail.

without being too over the top and it's wearable and long-lasting and that's which is really great feedback.

Melissa Robbins (05:17)
Yeah, and I guess that's where you don't last 12 years either with a brand if it doesn't have that attention to detail or quality or repeat customer. You've got to have a repeat customer, right? And you have gone through those iterations too, I guess, of having, and I'm not sure even where you're at right this minute, but you've had, started out with just babies slash young kids and then you obviously got

Kate Pearson (05:29)
Yes, absolutely.

Melissa Robbins (05:43)
As your size goes up or your kids get older and the demand comes you get bigger and bigger sizes And you go to tween and then you go to adults and tell me a little bit about that

Kate Pearson (05:51)
Yes, definitely. So when we first started the collection went to six years and we've expanded that. We went up to 12 and the last couple of years we did do the 14 to 16 age bracket, but we have pulled it back the last 12 months to age 12. We just found

your sell through wasn't as great in those age brackets. And just, you know, their tastes changes. And so definitely that was a bit of a learning curve going, okay, we don't need to stretch that far. As much as some people say, oh, we'd love it if you went to that. We also have to think.

Melissa Robbins (06:31)
No.

Yeah.

Kate Pearson (06:36)
you know, how does it sell through for us and for our factories because grading from a zero to a 16 is very difficult and there's and yeah, don't always realise it's like with women's fashion, you know, you can grade from an eight to a 16 but beyond that you have to really start rethinking about your pattern grading above that.

Melissa Robbins (06:41)
Mmm.

quite the, yeah.

Yeah, and it's not proportionally, you know, getting a longer sleeve and a longer shoulder or body. It's all changing. Yeah. And that happened to us as well with the children's wear in terms of, you know, people wanted us to keep going and going and going and we did the tween. But yeah, as you say, the customer changes and they don't necessarily want a kids brand that they want to wear. So it's, it just, yeah, as you say, and you really want to make sure that you're not putting the price of

Kate Pearson (07:05)
Correct. Yes. Yeah, exactly.

That's right.

Melissa Robbins (07:31)
you're accounting for the making of a 16, that's really gonna change the pricing of those smaller sizes too.

Kate Pearson (07:36)
Correct. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so we've raged it in there. So I'm happy with that decision.

Melissa Robbins (07:40)
So yeah, that's good. And do you still do some of your Kate Pearson range?

Kate Pearson (07:47)
Oh, that will look that did get put on hold for a bit. Just I just had too much on my plate, Mel. It was it was just too hard to juggle. But we've this year, I feel it's just lots of changes are happening. So.

Melissa Robbins (07:55)
Yes.

Kate Pearson (08:03)
Yeah, definitely the ladies we will do more of. Because when we did it, it did well. So definitely reach out into that area again this year. And even for Bella and Lace, we've got lots of changes that we're thinking of and planning of. So it's really exciting.

Melissa Robbins (08:23)
Yeah. That is exciting. And I guess that's the thing, like with, when you have a brand, you've got to keep moving, you've got to keep evolving, you've got to keep testing different things and see if they work. And maybe they don't, as you just said, like you've dropped some things and added some things, but you really have to keep evolving, don't you?

Kate Pearson (08:42)
Absolutely, you do. And just even looking back how it's changed so dramatically even in the last, you know, the last 12 years of how we sold to wholesale and direct to customer, it's just changed so much.

Melissa Robbins (08:58)
Yes.

Yes, yeah. And it's where some people would be like, oh, it's too hard. You know, I'm not going to go that way or whatever. But it's just a matter of knowing that it's always going to change. I think that's a thing. Like even, even if we talked about Instagram, like how different is that from, in my son's 16, it's like, I remember it started when he was, you know, in 2008. And it's like so different. Like when we had a retail store, I would be posting three times a day because that's what you had to do.

Kate Pearson (09:22)
Yes.

Melissa Robbins (09:30)
and that's how you had to grow. And you know, people always, I don't know, complain about the different ways that it is, but it's like, but it's always gonna change. You just gotta keep up, keep moving, not get stuck in your ways. Yeah. You gotta roll with it. The book actually, if everyone gets stuck on that, is the Who Moved My Cheese? Have you read that?

Kate Pearson (09:32)
Yes.

That's it. You've got to roll with it. Yeah, you've got to roll with it. You have to.

No, but I'm going to jot that down.

Melissa Robbins (09:50)
It's such a good book. Who Moved My Cheese? I've got it somewhere. I should see who the author is. I've forgotten now. Oh Spencer, maybe someone? Anyway, Who Moved My Cheese? It's a tiny little book, but it's about not getting stuck in your ways, not doing the same things. Just because your cheese was there before doesn't mean it's gonna stay there. You've got to keep figuring out where the cheese is going. Essentially that's the gist of the book, but it's so good and it's about adapting and moving with the times and

Kate Pearson (10:10)
Yes.

Melissa Robbins (10:17)
moving with what's going on around you. Yeah, so check that out. Yeah, definitely. And so we've worked together obviously as a buyer. I bought from your brand for many, many years and then we've had, you know, been known each other at trade shows for many, many years. And then you've worked, we've worked together as my business coaching and stuff too. And you've been in my mastermind, lots of different things like to really, and that's it, I guess you just going.

Kate Pearson (10:22)
Yeah, I'll get on for that one.

Melissa Robbins (10:44)
what else can I do, what else can I change, what else can I tweak? So you're always learning, right? And that's another thing of the evolving, but also learning about how you can get better as a brand.

Kate Pearson (10:54)
Yeah, absolutely. I think.

Especially now, it's just so accessible to be able to delve into different areas, like your knowledge of wholesale and being able to be in those kind of groups and chat with other people who are on different sides of it. But you all take a bit from everybody to go, oh, do you know what, I'm going to give that a go and see how it works. So it's definitely a different environment.

Melissa Robbins (11:01)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Kate Pearson (11:27)
to like when we met 12 years ago, definitely.

Melissa Robbins (11:29)
Mmm. Yeah, absolutely. And in your business now, because of that change, obviously I think it used to be very heavy wholesale, and so then you've probably changed a little bit more the other way. So what does it look like now for you, your business, like that balance or split?

Kate Pearson (11:47)
Yeah, it has changed but wholesale is still the main money income for us. Then our online. Our online has always trickled.

And it would be good to change that. And definitely the wholesale environment has changed as well. Shops are coming and going. Shops that have been there for a really long time have maybe sold owners. So there's definitely lots of change happening in the industry. But at the moment, wholesale is still our main, main money income.

Melissa Robbins (12:05)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And that sort of affects, I guess as well, a little bit how you design your range and how you drop collections and stuff too, right? Because you are not for retail focusing on, say, a new collection every week coming out, but you're going, here's our bigger collections a couple of times a year.

Kate Pearson (12:50)
Yeah, yes, and we're not, our collections are put through as a story, so you'll have, you know, different styles in the same print. So it's not as item driven as other brands. And so they, normally a store will buy more of a capsule, thinking of how it's going to look in store or online that you, it all looks cohesive.

Melissa Robbins (13:20)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And when you launch, when you release, you've done a few trade shows. Like what have you do to sell wholesale? What's your... how do you go about selling wholesale?

Kate Pearson (13:29)
Yeah, so in the past we always did trade shows, which I loved. I really loved.

Melissa Robbins (13:33)
Yep.

Kate Pearson (13:35)
meeting the stores and catching up. I always have a really great relationship with the stores. So it has changed and since COVID obviously we didn't do them through that time and our selling was through BrandBoo which a lot of the industry uses. And we have gone back and done our life in style.

in Melbourne once everything opened up and that was okay. It's definitely changed for us. So we are now handing our wholesale over to an agency to start selling for us just so we can get in front of more people.

Melissa Robbins (14:13)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yeah, and I think that's where agents, you know, so obviously people ask, you know, the pros and cons and they look at the fees that agent charges and think, oh, you know, how am I gonna pay for that? But it really is that sales expense because it's not, it shouldn't be on your cost of goods. It should be looked at as a total sales because you've got to try and get your sales from somewhere. So you're paying for your sales in the expenses that way, right? Like...

Kate Pearson (14:26)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. And we'll reach out to stores, but when, you know, an agent is showing and they've got other collections to show as well, it entices the store to go, oh yeah, we'll have a look at this, you know. So it's, to me, it's money well spent. It's money well spent. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So that is rolling out.

Melissa Robbins (14:59)
Mmm.

opens the doors a bit more, removes the barriers a bit more.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that's, no go.

Kate Pearson (15:13)
that is rolling out for us this year. So we've just handed all those samples over.

Melissa Robbins (15:16)
Yeah, great.

into one state or how does that work? They cover everywhere.

Kate Pearson (15:22)
Yeah, so they look after Australia and New Zealand.

Melissa Robbins (15:26)
Yep, amazing. Okay, that's great.

Kate Pearson (15:29)
exciting.

Melissa Robbins (15:32)
That is exciting, it's good. And what are some of your, when you do your sampling, because I know we've worked through this as well, you don't need to reinvent the wheel every single time, you've got 12 years of collections, every season shouldn't be a brand new shape, a brand new design, you've got such amazing background catalogue of styles and I think we've spoken about having a core range too because...

Kate Pearson (15:40)
Thank you.

I know.

Melissa Robbins (16:01)
Lots of your pieces are really special pieces, aren't they, as well? As well as sort of everyday pieces. How would you describe your range of items?

Kate Pearson (16:10)
Yeah, look, and you know what, Mel? I can't help myself. I don't go through the back of the log.

I'm like, oh no, this would be beautiful. Let's do this. So there is certain styles that we always do every season, which is a ballerina style, which we've done, I think, from our first collection. So we roll that out every season in whatever prints and embroideries we might have in that collection. So that's definitely a keepsake that people do like to keep and pass on and some people collect them, which is lovely.

Melissa Robbins (16:42)
Yeah.

Kate Pearson (16:49)
that nostalgic tone to it as well. So I do tend to come up with new styles every season.

Melissa Robbins (16:51)
Um, yep.

Well, yeah, you're a designer. I mean, that's what you're doing the part you love, right? So that's the part that you're obviously passionate about.

Kate Pearson (17:07)
Yeah. And we will, you know, if a dress does really well one season, we, you know, we may roll that over and change and tweak it to the next. But generally it's a whole new collection.

Melissa Robbins (17:20)
Yeah. And.

And with your manufacturing, because if anyone's listening who's just starting out, how long does it take to get a sample right?

Kate Pearson (17:34)
I'm pretty lucky to be honest. I sketch everything by hand give them all the details and They make the sample so

Normally the process for us is I'll work with Lizzie who does all our graphics and we'll come up with the prints and embroideries, placements, that type of thing and then we'll send that off to the factory. They will do the printing for us, we'll approve the strike of and from there I start designing the collection and

I have said to them before, would you like me to like do a cat more of a cat drawing? And they said, no, okay, when you draw it by hand, we can actually feel what it's meant to be like. It's got more flow to it. And yeah, so that was really interesting. So generally, it will start, it normally takes about two months for us to start getting the samples through.

Melissa Robbins (18:29)
Wow. Yeah. Yeah, that is, yep.

Yep, yep. And then in terms of production, is that, yeah, of course, yeah. In production, is that generally a 12 week, eight to 12 weeks turnaround?

Kate Pearson (18:46)
and some of them aren't rocket.

Yeah.

Yeah, so normally we'll close off summer, we'll be around April, and then we will deliver that in, when are we gonna deliver that? September, September and October, our delivery drops for summer.

Melissa Robbins (19:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And I think that's a thing, like whenever you work with anyone who's in manufacturing or production, and if you haven't been in it before, you're always like, it's always gonna take longer than you think. And there's always errors or mess ups or mistakes. Like, yeah, it's a constant, right?

Kate Pearson (19:28)
There's always, there is always something to fix. But I think that's in any industry. No, yeah, problem solving is something that we're dealing with all the time.

Melissa Robbins (19:34)
Yeah.

Yeah, and being able to put out those fires and manage that. And that's a big part of, that's a big part of business. It's just a big part of being able to adjust and like, okay, what's, what can we do about it? And I guess that's as an entrepreneur generally, as you say, it's problem solving.

Kate Pearson (19:56)
Yeah, absolutely.

Melissa Robbins (19:58)
Yeah. And so you recently also, and you've done it a little bit before, I think, but you've recently just been at the New York trade show. Which one was it Playtime? Is that the one you're at? Yeah. And how was that?

Kate Pearson (20:07)
Play time, yes.

Yeah, it was great. So last year we signed an agent, her name's Tiffany. She's based in LA and she sold summer for us over there. And she was really excited that with the response that she got, which was great. And so we thought, let's see if she can look after all of the country. So Tiffany came across to New York to sell

Melissa Robbins (20:17)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, great.

Kate Pearson (20:40)
the collection with me, which was great. So we got on really well, our values and what we want from the brand really align and we got a good response from the show. But it's one of those things, like we were saying earlier, you just, it's not instant. You have to keep turning up. You have to keep it.

Melissa Robbins (20:59)
No. Yeah. And they have to see that you're, you know, that you've, you've got your back yourself, that you're going to be there again and again, your longevity, that you've got longevity, they've got to see that you're not just a fly by, you know, night and that you're, if they're going to put their, you know, energy and time and money into a brand, they want to know that it's what it looks like year after year or season after season. Yeah, yep.

Kate Pearson (21:14)
Absolutely.

it was the same year when I first started. You know, there was stores that would come past and look at the collection every year and it took them about four years for them to actually go, do you know, I think I might write an order Kate It's like, hallelujah! We got there!

Melissa Robbins (21:33)
Yeah.

You're like, oh thank goodness for that! Hahaha! Yeah! That wasn't me, I think I bought it in the first season.

Kate Pearson (21:44)
You did!

But it's the same thing. I want to

Melissa Robbins (21:48)
But yeah, that's it. It's about that. Sorry.

Kate Pearson (21:52)
They want to know you're going to be around.

Melissa Robbins (21:54)
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, keep showing up, keep being there, persistence. And as you say, like, can you build relationships with, can, with, um, agents to then they've got the relationships with the stores, which makes that entry easier as well.

Kate Pearson (21:59)
Yes.

Absolutely, and it was great because she knew stores that were coming through and so it was a really good experience. And who doesn't love New York?

Melissa Robbins (22:16)
Yeah, great. And did you, I mean, that's right. I mean, this is a thing too. Like when I had my brand, you know, I think we did, I think we did about five New York trade shows in total. And, you know, strong memories, my sister and I had the brand together, but then our other sister would come with us and we went with one of the other brands as well. And we'd have this, you know, crazy apartments that we stayed in before Airbnb existed.

Kate Pearson (22:28)
Thank you everyone.

Melissa Robbins (22:41)
which doesn't exist in New York anymore. But anyway, it's part of the fun of having your brand too that you get to experience these things and go and do these things.

Kate Pearson (22:49)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I enjoyed it. It was great.

Melissa Robbins (22:51)
Yeah, yeah, that's so good. And with the agent, do you have to pay, because I know that's slightly different to here, so I just wanted to touch on that. Do you pay a showroom fee for the agent in the, yeah, yeah. Whereas here in Australia, you don't do that.

Kate Pearson (23:01)
Yes, yes, yes. So there's a showroom fee. There's a showroom fee and then commission on what the sales are. So which is the same here but the showroom fee I think varies depending on how many people they might have in that showroom and it is set up really quite different here. They have

Melissa Robbins (23:13)
Yes.

Kate Pearson (23:29)
They have like a showroom of one level will be all women's, one level will be men's, and one level will be kids, and there's rooms within that complex.

Melissa Robbins (23:35)
Yeah.

Yeah, well I remember at the time when we had a west coast agent in LA and then we had a New York agent on the east coast too. So at one stage we had agents in both places because yeah, people are going there regularly just to go and look as you say at that whole showroom of all the things that are there.

Kate Pearson (23:55)
Yeah, I call it a marketplace.

Melissa Robbins (23:58)
Yeah, yeah. And it's like a little booth, isn't it? But yeah, so it's almost like having a trade show all the time, essentially.

Kate Pearson (24:02)
Yeah.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, this, yeah, everything's set up in there and they all, you know, it all looks beautiful and so people can go in and touch, see, feel what it all looks like.

Melissa Robbins (24:15)
Yeah. And we haven't, I haven't spoken to you about this separately, but do you have a 3PL set up there or you're just sending straight from your orders at the moment?

Kate Pearson (24:25)
Yeah, so that was interesting. So that didn't quite work out how I planned. Yeah, so that didn't work out. But yes, we did. I reached out to some 3PL, so I've got to get that all sorted out, which I've reached out to some of them. And we'll get that set up for the next drop.

Melissa Robbins (24:27)
Yeah.

Yes, we didn't have a conversation before. It'd be great about this.

Yeah, because they want to know what the landed price is and then how quickly they can get it right. It's a really important part of being an exporting brand.

Kate Pearson (24:52)
Very different, yes. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And different, just legal documents you have to have with importing into parents and things like that. So, yeah, we'll get, that's another thing on my list to sort out.

Melissa Robbins (25:01)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Don't even try and do sunglasses. They need a drop ball test with from China. When we had our China, they classed as a medical device, kids sunglasses. So all these different tests that we found out later. But at least you haven't got the girls from Little Potion who I know you're friends with as well. And they've got a lot of testing to do for their product because of the...

Kate Pearson (25:21)
Surprise!

Yes.

Melissa Robbins (25:30)
type of products, so clothing being compared is much easier.

Kate Pearson (25:34)
Absolutely.

Melissa Robbins (25:36)
Ha ha

Okay, so who is in your business? Who helps you run the business? Like what sort of team do you have? What sort of, you know? I know it's changed a lot over the time, but right now, who's helping you?

Kate Pearson (25:45)
Um, yeah.

Yeah, so there's just two other staff members, Lizzie who looks after the graphics and design and we've known each other for 14 years. We met at multiple birth group, so I've got twins, Lizzie's got triplets and we both had just common interests and Lizzie studied graphic design and so she's always helped me along the way.

Melissa Robbins (26:09)
Oh my gosh.

Kate Pearson (26:21)
She's great. She's thick skinned because some things are like, no I don't like it. So she doesn't take offense to it, which is lovely. And we've got Laura who looks after the social media and marketing. So her background is marketing and advertising and she's fantastic. So she's...

Melissa Robbins (26:31)
You need that, definitely.

Kate Pearson (26:48)
got two young daughters and she's completely immersed in that fashion and advertising and marketing and yeah she's been wonderful. So it's just the three of us at the moment. We definitely do need someone else to give us a hand because I'm just drowning now, I'm not going to lie at times.

Melissa Robbins (27:07)
customer service, production, all that sort of stuff. Yeah.

Kate Pearson (27:15)
At the moment it's a really busy time. Winter's coming in, you know, it's all that back end stuff. Invoicing and stop taking and getting, doing the next collection and yeah, selling summer. Yeah, so whirlwind.

Melissa Robbins (27:31)
Yeah.

But as you say, like having things like your agent, just managing sales, because often when you're doing it yourself with your sales too, because you've got all these other things going on, often it can just be like something you get to and you don't always get to it. And so then you're like, oh, I haven't got enough sales. Like, yeah.

Kate Pearson (27:50)
Absolutely, absolutely. And if you're not in their face all the time, they do, people do forget. And if they're not going to trade shows or, you know, for whatever reason that might be, or I'm not there, we need to be able to, I feel, hand it to someone that can spend the time on it.

Melissa Robbins (28:10)
Hmm. Yeah. So focus on sales. So they know that that's their priority. And with an agent, you know, like obviously they get in that commission. So the more, the better they do their job, the more they're going to get paid. So it's in their interest to really focus on your brand and try and get more sales for your brand.

Kate Pearson (28:26)
Absolutely. And I feel that we've got good years behind us, that, you know, we're a solid brand and we still love it. So we're not going to go anywhere anytime soon.

Melissa Robbins (28:39)
Yeah, yeah, that's great. And so what are some things that you would suggest to others about investing in from the start? Like where should they focus if they're just getting going? What would be your suggestions there?

Kate Pearson (28:55)
Good one, Mel. Do you know what? I think don't be shy of giving it a crack. I know when I started, especially when you've been in the industry, for a long time and you talk to people, they're like, oh, why do you wanna do that? But I've never been like that. So I always think just give it a go.

Be conservative with your spending. It's really easy to go, oh yeah, I'll invest money in that and that. But at the end of the day, we need to get the stock in and the sales out. So I would research your factories and if you know anyone that has potentially used them and if you can go see them.

Melissa Robbins (29:43)
Yes.

Kate Pearson (29:44)
I mean, before COVID, I'd go a couple of times a year to visit our factories. It just really, it shows your commitment to them and what your expectations are. And you can go, hey, no, we need to do this, this and this, or can we do this? And finding out all their skillsets, because not all factories can do everything. So I would definitely spend time looking at that.

Melissa Robbins (29:56)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and as you say, working with them and figuring out what, you know, the more you've worked with them and you have that relationship with them, if there's issues or things come up it's easier to solve and to work through because you've got a good solid relationship as well.

Kate Pearson (30:27)
Yeah, and don't be shy to reach out to other brands. You know, people are really lovely and often people will help you or go, do you know what, no, don't go, start with this first or go down this path or my friend has done this and reach out to her or so definitely reach out to someone in the industry and don't be shy of it.

Melissa Robbins (30:31)
Yeah.

Yeah. And what do you believe are key areas to success in having a product business?

Kate Pearson (31:07)
We ended that video now.

Melissa Robbins (31:08)
I wish we could see that question.

We can edit this bit, that's all good.

Kate Pearson (31:13)
You definitely have to look at it. You have to have a big passion for it. You know, if you don't have a passion and a drive to do it, you're not gonna do the grind. You really have to. And you really have to hustle and...

Melissa Robbins (31:26)
Yes.

Kate Pearson (31:31)
you know, push your brand and I'm shy of doing that. I really, and another thing for this year is I don't blow my own trumpet enough, you know, and you've probably realised that I don't do it and I need to do.

Melissa Robbins (31:39)
Yes, yes. Yes, that's why I was like, hey, will you come on the podcast thinking you were not gonna say yes? And then you're like, yes. I'm like, what? This is amazing.

Kate Pearson (31:49)
Yes, I'm going to do it. So definitely this year I need to do more of that. So that is something I would encourage people to do. Yeah.

Melissa Robbins (31:56)
Yeah, celebrate your journey and how long you've lasted. Yeah, and I guess that's where you talked about, you know, that you've got to love to have the passion and you've got to be resilient and know that there are going to be ups and downs and no one has a perfect, smooth path of growth or trajectory of, you know, perfect sales increases. It's going to go through, you're going to go through some stuff, right?

Kate Pearson (32:21)
Absolutely. It's not.

it's not smooth sailing. But I feel like that's what makes it exciting too, that you do have those challenges. And but that yeah, like you said, it's just, that's just how business runs. And, you know, for us every year, we had good growth, and it has plateaued out and it has changed. But that's up to us to, you know, shake it up and go, okay, I do need to get in front of people more,

Melissa Robbins (32:52)
Yeah.

Kate Pearson (32:55)
So it's definitely you learn these things along the way.

Melissa Robbins (32:59)
Yeah, and I think that's where as well, you know, you've constantly evolved that backend to like looking at what you're selling and which things are working. And, you know, even you're saying the, you know, probably cashflow in the products that aren't selling through as fast. Well, then you're not going to order as much. So are you going to change the range because of that too? Like as a business owner, you've got to be constantly covering all the areas, I guess.

Kate Pearson (33:22)
Yes, and there's no crystal ball. So when you think, yes, this did really well last year and it's happened to us and we've got, you know, I'm going to, you know, order heavy in that. And then it's like, I want that this year. You know.

Melissa Robbins (33:36)
Like what? Yeah, of course, that's always the way.

Kate Pearson (33:41)
Yeah, so, but not to get down on that. And that's something that I've had to learn over time as well when you invest in those types of things, not to, you know, you might lose a bit of money doing that, but you know, you've just got to take that on board. It's just part of it.

Melissa Robbins (33:56)
Yeah. And I guess that's where as well though, having different sales channels allows you to sell through in a different way too, because let's say you have something like that, then you might go, well, let's put ads into a certain thing because that's going to, you know, maybe sell more of that. We've got more of that product now to sort of try and move or let's have a pop up or a retail space warehouse sale or something like that. Like you're going to do different things because of the situations, right?

Kate Pearson (34:19)
Yeah.

Correct, yes, which we were just talking about this morning that we need to have like a sample sale, we've got all these samples sitting here, we need to make them.

Melissa Robbins (34:32)
Yep, and that's it, like it's constantly looking at, well, where do the sales, where are they coming in, what are we doing, are we doing enough to have our product in front of enough people essentially, really, because you've got to be in front of people's eyes to be able to sell to them, right? Or in the inboxes.

Kate Pearson (34:48)
right. And I feel, yeah, and I do feel that we need, there's a lot of noise on a lot of platforms, so it's trying to get through all that noise.

Melissa Robbins (35:02)
Yeah, yeah. And I guess that's where you have a customer for quite a while, so ideally you'd have them for longer, but obviously when you first started you might have only had them, and I had this when we had the kids where we started you know zero to four, so you only have a customer for a short period. So at least having a zero to 12, then you've got a customer for a longer period.

Kate Pearson (35:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, and absolutely. And there's people that we do, you know, it is changing. So we have sort of noticed that we need to get back into more of that baby market, that we can have that customer for that 12 years, you know, going through.

Melissa Robbins (35:38)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, and that's why, yeah, it's important to tap into that early stage too, so that you can have them hopefully, yeah, long term, yes. And so would you change anything about your journey or do anything differently?

Kate Pearson (35:49)
Yes, absolutely.

Oh, I don't think I'll change a thing. We've had a, it's been a great journey. Like, just even thinking back.

So we always worked from home. I had a office set up at home. We lived in a Queensland style house. So I had all downstairs. The girls would come to my house to do the work. We had it all set up and it was a great setup, but we definitely grew out of it. So two years ago, we bought a little warehouse and it's a great space. I love it. You know, it's important to be in a creative space as well.

Melissa Robbins (36:39)
Yeah.

Kate Pearson (36:39)
because you can sort of just sit there and think this is inspiring.

Melissa Robbins (36:47)
Yeah, well you can get stuck in all the minute details of, you know, the non-fun things as well. So, you know.

Kate Pearson (36:52)
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I wouldn't change anything Mel. You know, we've grown and we've learnt and we're still doing that. So I just love it.

Melissa Robbins (37:02)
Yeah. And you know, obviously you've taken risks, you've done different things, like even probably taking on an agent or buying the warehouse, like, but again, how do you determine, or how do you determine which things you should do? Or, you know, have you just, I don't know, what the question is. Yeah.

Kate Pearson (37:19)
I just swing it. Just swing it.

Melissa Robbins (37:24)
Just see what happens.

Kate Pearson (37:27)
you just got to try you know so and if it if it doesn't work it doesn't work you know but you've got it yeah i've got you've got to give it your all to you know to make sure that you've covered all that yeah i look i'm not in i'm i don't have a lot of strategies i'm going to be honest

Melissa Robbins (37:29)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yes.

We've worked on a few strategies, Kate. I'm sure that we...

Kate Pearson (37:53)
we have but I don't have a lot. Maybe we should edit this bit now.

Melissa Robbins (38:02)
We might just chop that bit out. You do, you do have strategies. You're just, you're trying to keep evolving and keep changing all the time.

Kate Pearson (38:04)
Yeah. Oh, yeah, I know. Yeah, that's true.

Melissa Robbins (38:13)
Yeah

Okay, let's go. I'll ask you another question.

Kate Pearson (38:19)
Okay.

Melissa Robbins (38:22)
Oh, are you thinking about opening a retail store? Actually, that's something that I, um, we talked about years ago. You, you considered that.

Kate Pearson (38:22)
I'm sorry.

Yes, I know I still want to do it. It's still, it's still on, it's still out there. I, yeah, I would really like to open that space but I just don't know what it would look like at the moment and I think with the things that we want to change this year with Bella and Lace in the future years I think it would work really well. So.

Melissa Robbins (38:33)
See you.

Yep. So what does it, what does the future look like for Bella and Lace? What's, what's some new things that are happening or some things that are coming up that you can talk about?

Kate Pearson (39:02)
Yes, well, I don't know if we can talk about that. We're thinking of a name change. No, you can't talk about that. We can't talk about it. Just popped around and said, no, we can't talk about it. OK, we won't say that. But that is something that we are thinking about. So that is a big change for us. Maybe you can bleak that out. It just would enable, I feel like we could offer different products. We did used to have a boys' range.

Melissa Robbins (39:06)
Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay, we won't talk about we won't say that.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, what happened to the boys' range?

Kate Pearson (39:29)
It just got really hard in that we would spend a lot of time on prints and they were fabulous and we just, I just didn't feel we put as much energy into trying to sell it or people were a bit more reserved in buying for boys but I feel if we make... Yeah.

Melissa Robbins (39:39)
Mm.

Hmm. I think boys is hard to get right. And people say they want it, but they don't spend money on boys. Like they do with girls as a generalization. Yep.

Kate Pearson (39:58)
They don't. Yeah, they don't spend the same money. So it would be like, it didn't matter how many dresses their daughter might have. If they love it, they're going to buy it. Whereas Boyz was more of a, oh, he's got lots of shorts. Oh, he's got lots of t-shirts. Oh, he's going to ruin them. So there just wasn't the investment there for that kind of spending. But I feel if we do have those changes, we can incorporate them.

Melissa Robbins (40:13)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Kate Pearson (40:27)
within the brand.

Melissa Robbins (40:30)
Okay, yep. All right, let me just check if there's anything else. Well, one thing I ask, which you can just think about this before I ask it properly, what is something that no one knows about you or something you're passionate about right now? Have you got an answer? I'll ask it properly. Okay, hang on. All right, Kate, so what is something that no one knows about you or something that you're passionate about right now?

Kate Pearson (40:46)
Yes!

At the moment, I have just taken up a pottery class that goes a semester and I just love it. It's great. So, I live out there. Last year, I wrote down over a hundred things that I want to tick off and they just keep going. And so, one of them was that. And they could be simple things.

Melissa Robbins (41:03)
Yes. Yeah. Creative again. Yes.

I love that. Yep.

Kate Pearson (41:25)
you know, run whatever hill or, you know, just whatever it might be. But I felt like I wasn't ticking enough boxes and you just kind of get into that every day, living of the kids and the house and work and the juggle. Yeah, I felt like, hang on, I don't know really what I'm ticking off here. And so it was on my list and I was and I found a course and I was like, do you know what? I'm going to do this and I tick this box.

Melissa Robbins (41:33)
Yeah.

Is there enough on you or for you? Yeah.

Yeah.

Kate Pearson (41:54)
And it's great. So I've just, we've just finished learning the wheel and I was terrible at it. Not gonna lie. But I think it's all right. But yeah, I'm really enjoying it. And it is another creative outlet, which is really lovely.

Melissa Robbins (41:59)
Mm-hmm.

That's okay.

Yeah, that's good. Mmm. And a mindful one too. So you're sort of focusing on that. You're there, like you're focusing on that, as opposed to thinking about all the other things that I'm sure you, most normally, your brain's going 100 mile an hour.

Kate Pearson (42:20)
Thank you.

And I have no idea, like I did no research, I have no idea on pottery or ceramics. So yeah, I was going in blind, which is lovely. You just get to learn all these new different skills.

Melissa Robbins (42:38)
Yeah, I love it. That's great. And so Bella and Lace, 12 years, I think you definitely had a birthday a couple of years ago, like as in a celebration, 10 years celebration. What else is coming? Sorry.

Kate Pearson (42:49)
Yeah, I think I missed it, Mel. I think I missed it.

Melissa Robbins (42:53)
Ha ha!

Okay, well maybe you need a 12th or 13th birthday celebration or definitely celebrate like that journey. Like it's not easy being in business, it's not easy lasting this long over everything that's happened in this time period. Like the change that you've seen, the evolvement of the way people buy, the marketing techniques that you can use, the retail environments, they're all ups and downs and changes that you've been through.

Kate Pearson (43:00)
Yeah, let's do that.

Oh!

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I probably need to take some time to do that celebration. We'll roll it out this year. Thank you.

Melissa Robbins (43:31)
Yes, yes, I think you've done an amazing job. Yes, yeah, good, good, good, good. Sorry, one more question, which I might put into another spot, but what other marketing do you focus on? So what, yeah, what do you do ads, do you do, you know, social media, obviously, it's definitely something you do, email marketing, what do you focus on as your main marketing mix?

Kate Pearson (43:52)
Yes, yeah, we do. Last year we did employ someone, a company, to do some ads for us. I tried to do them ourselves, I just...

It was just another thing to take on. And so we did roll them out. So they did the Facebook advertising, Google advertising. We do the newsletter marketing, which is always works well for us. But definitely, I think worth the investment getting someone who just has the knowledge and the skillset, the understanding to be able to roll it out.

in tune with what you want and what it looks like to the customer as well.

Melissa Robbins (44:38)
Hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll make that creative direction, but you're not actually necessarily the one doing it all at all.

Kate Pearson (44:46)
Yes, yeah, so that has been an investment that we have looked at and we'll continue to roll that out this year.

Melissa Robbins (44:53)
Yeah, amazing. Thank you so much for sharing, Kate. I'm so glad that you said yes and that you've come to share a bit of your journey here with everyone. So really appreciate it. And I'm sure people will have more questions and be like, you didn't ask that question, I wanna know more. So if anyone has any feedback afterwards, they can definitely send them through and ask some things that maybe they wanna know about the brand as well and your journey.

Kate Pearson (45:20)
Thank you, Mel. I'm so pleased you reached out.

Melissa Robbins (45:23)
All right, thanks Kate, we'll speak to you soon.

Kate Pearson (45:26)
Thank you, Mel. Bye.

Melissa Robbins (45:28)
Bye.

Okay, stay on here now, I've got to download it, okay?

Kate Pearson (45:33)
Okay.