In 2014, Matthew Childs started an online wine storage business and says he has quickly become a major supplier of wine racks in Australia.
The idea came to him when he was working in his grandfathers liquor store in Sydneys inner west.
There was a lot of people who used to come in and ask, 'Do you sell wine racks? Do you know where we can buy wine racks from?' And my answer to that was always no, he said.
After enough people asked, I sort of got the curiosity, so hey there is a lot of demand for this product and a lack of supply and there's really an obvious market here.
Today Wine Stash is forecasting $3 million in revenue this year and has a healthy supply to the likes of BMW, Howards Storage World, and Sydneys super club, Ivy.
“Where we're at now, we have the biggest range worldwide of wine racks, and we pretty much have a monopoly on Australia in terms of colour size, style and supply,” Matthew said.
Wine Stash wine racks come in all shapes and sizes. Source: Matthew Childs
On top of Wine Stash, Matthew has also started a children’s sports business called Kidz That Move, that teaches preschool and early primary school students how to play a range of sports.
“For most of these young kids, they’re only aged 2 to 5, we’re their first exposure to those different sports.
“At the moment we employ around 10, 12 staff and we’ve got probably almost 100 schools all around Sydney and we're expanding domestically.”
Before Wine Stash and Kidz That Move, Matthew said he had several business attempts that “failed spectacularly” but through them, he learned valuable lessons.
“If it wasn't for those previous failures I wouldn't have been successful with Wine Stash...If I have some advice for other entrepreneurs, it's definitely jump in head first and just do it."
“I know so many people that have so many ideas in the back of their head that they keep thinking about and talking about and it just drags on for years."
“If you want to be an entrepreneur, just jump in head first and try something. Even if you fail, you learn from that and keep moving forward.”
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