Since the couple made the move, their business Seagrass Design has expanded from selling artwork to ethically-made fashion and homewares as well. Jamie McCabe says he wouldn’t have been able to build a sustainable full-time business had they stayed in Brisbane.
“The benefit of living in Tassie would be cost of living, - it’s a lot cheaper. If you have a massive mortgage in Brisbane, we wouldn’t have been able to take that risk.”
Their fashion sales are partly responsible for their business success, as they’ve seen 500 per cent growth since launching their fashion range nine months ago.
“We decided to get in to the fashion because artwork is probably something you'd buy once or twice every five years, but fashion is obviously something that you want to get every season,” Jamie says.
It’s something the McCabes pride themselves on: they’re able to offer sustainable and ethically-sourced clothing that they hand-designed.
Seagrass Designs started out in artwork and textiles, but have expanded to homewares to fashion. Source: SBS
They’ve been promoted by fashion bloggers and have a steadily growing social media following. It’s important for them to grow their customer base online, as for most of the year, only 20% of their sales come from their physical retail store.
“Over the summer period, Tassie is a popular place that gets lots of tourists, so that ratio goes 50-50.”
However, this expansion into the competitive sector isn’t without its challenges.
The biggest challenge for the fashion side of things would be fast fashion. We can’t afford to have 50 per cent off sales every two weeks. We make everything here, we've got local sewers, things cost money, so we’ve got to rely on good quality.”
Coming from an artistic background, Jamie says the creative side of things is often shrouded by the need to run the business.
“As an artist, I love to create. There’s a lot of different elements to running your own business, and art works are not the main thing by any means.”
While he loves to create new art, Jamie says the creative aspect takes a backseat when it comes to running a business. Source: SBS
“Yesterday I spent most of the day ironing, which isn’t a particularly attractive thing to do all day but it’s something you have to do and there’s a billion different elements to the job.”
Jamie has advice for other creatives who are looking to be their own boss:
“Don’t be afraid to start something different. Some people think you might be a sell out or something if you push your art into a commercial type thing, but you got to make money and you got to do something that works for you.”
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