A Cut Above
By Bridget Gourlay
It’s a success story that sounds a bit too out-there to believe. A young mum from rural Waikato starts a fashion line from a dairy farm and within a year it makes a million dollars.
Not only does the small town girl continue her fashion success, but she goes on to launch a magazine, a business network, a mentoring programme and to work tirelessly for a range of charities.
Regardless of how fairytale-esque this entrepreneurial story may seem, it’s all true and it belongs to Annah Stretton.
Of course, no successful business falls into place all on its own and Stretton works long hours (her alarm usually goes off at about 5am). Her strategy is to immediately get the most pressing and least interesting tasks done first. Using time wisely is another strategy – she often has to drive from Morrinsville to Auckland, which can take up to two and a half hours. Instead of spending that time sitting impatiently on the motorway, she invested in a hands-free phone and tells her mentorees to call her while she is driving for advice. On flights Stretton doesn’t watch movies, but brings her laptop and paperwork and works.
Annah Stretton is a born and bred Waikato girl. She attended local high schools (Karamu and Tararua) and, other than a few years in her late teens studying art in Otago, she has lived here all her life.
She started Stretton Clothing Company in Morrinsville, and that’s where it’s remained. Other manufacturers may have embraced globalisation and exploited foreign sweatshops, but Stretton chose not to, citing moral and practical reasons.
“As I drove forward and set up a retail base, I really believed a big part of our point of difference was that we were New Zealand made. That’s very important to people. We’re still price sensible, especially in the provincial environment, there’s no need to go offshore.
“I can still make a profit and pay the team at market rates. It’s good for our industry. People believe that we make our clothes in our Morrinsville head office when really we contract with CMT factories throughout New Zealand.”
Humble beginnings
Annah Stretton started Stretton Clothing Company in 1992, selling clothes under the label Annah S. Her office was the spare bedroom in the house on the rural dairy farm she and her husband owned and she combined her business operations with being a full-time mum to her two pre-school aged children.
Within a year, she made $1 million with 50 percent profitability. Originally Annah S clothing was sold into other stores, but a few years later Stretton began opening her own boutiques in the Waikato. Today it is a multi-million dollar business that sells internationally and has stores throughout the country.
In 2005 Stretton bought Her Business magazine and worked as editor, commissioning stories on successful women entrepreneurs and giving business tips. Within a few months it was one of New Zealand’s fastest growing business titles.
A good team
With 150 team members and an 18 year old company, Stretton knows about being a good employer. A fundamental lesson she’s learnt is the necessity of a good team – and that spending time and money on them is an investment, not an expense.
“Great people cost money. That needs to be factored in as marketing spend. Engaging a great retail girl is better than putting in an ad for your product into local media.”
Stretton sees retail as a career and is working with Waikato’s Wintec to develop a study certificate. Some of the sales assistants in Annah S shops earn upwards of $60,000 a year, something Stretton says is absolutely worth it. She advises employers not to fill a position if they haven’t found a good fit, because she thinks it’s better to leave a position open then hire the wrong person.
At Annah S, they have a 10 point checklist for the attributes they look for in employees and if the candidates don’t meet at least nine of them, they are not considered for a retail role.
Stretton doesn’t believe for a second she’d attract a better team if her head office was based in Auckland or Wellington. She says she employs extremely capable women from the local area.
“The calibre of women that are around locally is huge. I’ve never had problems filling key positions. I’m spoilt for choice.”
Stretton likes sharing her business experience with budding entrepreneurs and other business people. In September a book titled ‘Wild Heart’, with 10 of her top business success tips will hit the shelves.
Stretton thinks that women in the work place allow their emotions to factor far too highly in their decision making process . She admits this opinion may be “contentious” but says she’s seen many women take problems with employees and setbacks personally, and make emotional decisions, instead of the very black and white decisions that a company needs.
“Business is business. It’s never personal.”
Tall poppy
Taking things personally can be easy when you have your critics. Stretton’s had her fair share of them too. She’s been lambasted by animal rights groups for using fur (even though it’s from possums killed humanely as part of pest-control).
The first copy of Her Magazine under Stretton’s stewardship got a front page article in the local Waikato paper for its grammatical and spelling errors. But Stretton says her defence against tall poppy syndrome – which she sees as being firmly entrenched in New Zealand society – is not to listen to criticism, because she knows herself when she’s done a good job or not. And if she hasn’t, if something goes wrong, she looks at it as a lesson.
“If something doesn’t work I see that as a learning exercise. Failure has been the foundation stone of my success. There’s so much I’ve learnt from tripping and falling. If I do have a challenging day there’s not much a glass of red wine and an early night wont fix.”
Surviving the recession
Stretton’s companies have survived the recession – a period she sees as being “like a damn good frost– wiping out below average businesses that don’t generally deserve to be trading”.
She says the economic turmoil gave businesses time to batten down the hatches and look at their core business.
“We get slack in buoyant times because we can make money a lot easier. During a recession, businesses must look at their products and services which is always positive for the consumer… the down side is where people lose jobs. But great people will always find jobs, perhaps they could look at difficult trading times as an opportunity to upskill.”
Doing what you love
The one thing Stretton can’t give advice about is a work-life balance – because she doesn’t really have one. She spent ‘quality time’ rather than ‘quantity time’ with her children when they were younger and her hobbies tend to involve more work – pro-bono organising and speaking for charities and mentoring budding fashionistas and entrepreneurs.
There’s no recipe for success and Stretton’s story proves that you don’t need an MBA or to work for a multinational to do well in business. Passion, attitude and integrity are all that she attributes to her success to. “I’ve never experienced doubt. Doubt is the one thing that handbrakes people, to not follow that dream, take that trip, buy that car, but I’ve never had doubts.
“I’ve always had a huge belief in myself and my ability to achieve. It was nothing but passion and drive and excitement. Obviously you have to consider all the roads that you travel and it becomes about making calculated decisions.
“After all, business is always about profit. But I’ve never doubted myself. That’s the key to our success. If you don’t love what you do, get out.”
Confucius said that if you choose a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Thousands of years later, and from a very different person, these wise words still seem to be ringing true.
