An insight into us
Part 1
Picture 1: Our wedding (2017)
Picture 2: Wanderlust in New Zealand (2018)
Picture 3: Version IX: The business plan (2018)
We are nearly hitting our second year anniversary but in reality our business is a year older then this date and spans back to 2018.
This was the year of change; we put all our belongings into storage, left our stable jobs and went travelling the world. Living in each other’s pockets and experiencing a once in a lifetime opportunity we learnt much more about each other’s dreams and needs. We experienced the pros and cons of one another’s characters and started to establish the first ideas to what we now know as Monty’s.
The next phase was to get the idea into motion. Looking back, I think this was the biggest hurdle. After getting married in 2017 then travelling for 6 months, we looked into the financial needs of what was needed to start a business. This was one of the scariest moments, neither of us were earning a steady income, we were temporary living at our parent’s home and the future looked very uncertain. Throw that in with the path that we made: marriage and travel, a major chunk of our savings had already been spent.
Were we mad to carry on the dream to have a passionate business and put the last of our funds into socks and belts !?
At this stage the easy option would be to go back to what we know, work for large companies and get a monthly wage, keep our savings safe and put them towards our own place.
After much debate and quite frankly sleepless nights, I went back to my creative spark and shaped the idea of Monty's, the brand identity and the first ideas for the collections.
Picture 4: Design time (2019)
Picture 5: Sourcing trip - Porto (2019)
Picture 6: Inside the sock factory (2019)
We were back and forth with a business plan and at this point we sat down and looked at the worked we had already put in. I do remember at this stage I was still anxious about our path. One evening (or perhaps a few🤔) I had a massive meltdown and claimed I could never be a business owner; it wasn’t naturally built into me. It was Nicolas who drove us with positivity and the belief we had the roots of a successful business and time would prove this.
So, the next stage: sourcing trips and finding the right manufacturers to give the last of our savings too.
Reflecting back on these trips, they were a lot of fun. We were back ‘travelling together’ but this time we had established our roles. The strengths were clear. I would be the creative thinker and Nicolas was able to formulate the best spreadsheets and work on anything that included numbers and technical input.
We rolled our working trips into mini holidays and drunk Port into the beautiful warm nights while discussing issues that most married couples would never cover; such as the knit machines of socks and where on earth would all our stock be stored!
Picture 7: Design development - Italy (2019)
Picture 8: Stock delivery (2019)
Picture 9: Mailing to our first customer 😊 (2019)
Fast forward to the present and it’s fair to say, our roles haven’t changed much, except Nicolas from time to time has some fantastic ideas for the collection and photoshoots and I’m getting much more proficient at editing the website and newsletters. As for the tax return, that’s a job I’m quite happy to simply file the paperwork and leave the legal side to Nicolas.
(Part two coming next month)