Aussie Stretches Out with Online Store for Tall Women

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

Many people who are differently sized, or particularly tall or short, feel ignored by the fashion world. In Melbourne, Australia, one woman was fed up with the inability of finding clothes that fit her 6 foot 3 inch frame. You'll never guess what she decides to do. Okay, well, she decides to address the problem and starts her own e-commerce shop specializing in clothes for tall women around the world. Welcome to Side Hustle School.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, and the mission of the show is to bring you a different story every day of someone who has a day job but chooses to create more freedom in their life through the form of an income generating project. The whole point is to show you that you can do this too in your own way using the skills you already have. In the story today, that Aussie woman stretches out with an online store for tall women, and the store reaches tall heights. Stay tuned, I'll tell you all about it after this quick thank you to our sponsor. There is a little known plight in this world, often seen usually ignored, but its effects are far reaching and wide ranging.

It's only when the stars align during a solar eclipse that a solution to this plight is found, or at least that's what it feels like for women, over 5'10" looking for genes that come past their ankles or sleeves that actually meet their wrists. Standing in all her glory at 6'3" Natalie Matthews, an ecommerce manager by day and hero to tall women everywhere by night, knew this problem all too well. Natalie spends her days in Melbourne, Australia managing clients and drinking fantastic coffee. Up until she started this project in 2016, she spent her nights dealing with the extreme frustration that comes with the inability of finding clothes that are long enough. After countless hours of online searching and many shrunken items of clothing, Natalie decided to take matters into her own hands.

No longer would she be stifled with a lack of choice or frumpy clothing that more closely resembled potato sacks than cute outfits. She was better than that, and it was time for her to take the challenge head on and create the change she wanted to see in the world. That would be a positive change with better hemlines. Natalie knew she wasn't alone in her struggle. She knew a community of similarly tall women on Instagram, but she also knew it wouldn't be enough to merely source and resell items of clothing.

No, she wanted to reach for the top shelf and design and make the clothing herself. She was well aware of where things needed to fit better, and there would be no better test than her own day-to-day life. She began to think about all the different things she could make. She was excited just daydreaming. She would now be able to reach the height of fashion.

And that's what she called her online store, The Height of Fashion. It helped that she had learned to sew at the ripe young age of 14. So as she set out to start this business, Natalie looked to Upwork to find a pattern maker. This pattern maker worked together with Natalie to take her ideas into pattern form, which she could then send to a manufacturer in China for them to create samples. Because size matters, Natalie had to decide which sizes to work with when creating those samples.

She took to Instagram to ask her audience what sizes they wanted to see represented the most. Most people tend to fall within the small to large range, but if there were significant outliers in the extra small or extra large categories, she wanted to make sure that their risks would be covered too. It took her about six months of countless internet searching and some trial and error to find a manufacturer that she liked. Once the completed products are finished, they are shipped to her house in Melbourne, where they patiently wait to be sent out to their new homes. Since she doesn't have a physical store, she has to rely on her own two hands for order fulfillment.

And her trusty Shopify database helps her get the orders right. Since Height of Fashion is still her side hustle, she does everything on her own or with the help of a very good friend. She's also made some new friends with the people at her local Australia post office. Once she started Height of Fashion back in 2016, Natalie has used about $40,000 of her savings. This is, of course, no small amount, and she knew that investing that much money would be a risk, but she also knew that she had no plans to quit her job.

She knew she'd be at her job for a long time, so that gave her the security to proceed. She had to invest in a website, marketing materials, and in her words, about a thousand other things to get the side hustle off the ground. But now she receives about 25 orders or $2600 a month, with many profits going back into her business as she invests in photography and marketing. She says she isn't exactly reaping a ton of financial benefits from the project just yet, but she believes the areas she's investing in will help her improve sales over time. While it helped that she had a background in e-commerce, she still had to learn a lot on her feet.

She told us that if she had not started Height of Fashion from the ground up, she doesn't think she would have the knowledge, experience, or the expertise in the e-commerce sector that she does now. Her side hustle has actually helped her at her day job, and in her words, "starting something from scratch that touches so many areas across the supply chain really improves your confidence." It sounds like a top-shelf adventure, we'll see how high she can go. So the key point here is that Natalie is in it for the long term. This is not the kind of side hustle you start, and it's going to be profitable from month one. There are a lot of other stories I feature on the show of somebody who spends $100, and the next month they're making several thousand dollars.

And that is remarkable, and that does happen. It happens over and over in different ways, which is why I tell those stories. But something like this is a different kind of vision. It's a missional thing. It's something that actually has the potential to grow to something much more than some of those other stories that have really low startup costs and are profitable right away.

But it does need to be something that you're prepared to invest in over time, which in this case was ideal because Natalie in Australia doesn't have plans to quit her day job any time soon. Maybe eventually she will. Maybe eventually it will go full time. But this is the perfect kind of side hustle to start when you have some extra savings, you enjoy your career, you like what you're doing, but you're just also trying to think ahead to the future, or you're trying to solve a need for other people, or you've encountered this frustration like she had, and you think, "I want to be part of the solution." So everybody has different motivations for their project. I love shining a spotlight on how people are able to find success and the challenges that they are able to overcome.

And I also like how this side hustle has actually helped her with her day job, which is interesting, right, because she works in e-commerce, but presumably she works for a company with a team, and people's responsibilities are kind of siloed or divided, whereas when she's running her own shop, she has to do everything. And you may not want to do everything all the time when you start your own little business or side hustle, but just learning those skills or learning the skills enough to be able to be knowledgeable in them, to understand what other people are talking about them, what they mean. That is tremendously valuable. So good for her. Congratulations, Natalie.

And if there's any tall women listening to the show, maybe you want to check out Height of Fashion. We will link up that shop in the show notes for today's episode, which are at sidehustleschool.com/565. Thank you for listening. Don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. I want this to kind of get you going, make you feel motivated, but perhaps also give you an idea or give you some practical support for the idea you already have.

I'll be publishing a new episode tomorrow. And every day after that, I hope you'll join me. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School.