Sports business: June Hart from Club Hart
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Interview with June Hart from Club Hart
June Hart from Club Hart talks about how she started the business, challenges in starting the business and her key values that are helping with the success of the business.Q. Tell us a little about your business and how you started
A. Club Hart was actually started on a sketch pad on the kitchen table, believe it or not! I am a tennis player, (or should I say was, because I no longer have time to play the sport) and found that there was nothing available that was truly fabulous for comp ladies to wear. I was playing 2-3 times a week of ladies mid-week tennis and grabbing anything that I could find to put on these days. So the idea to start my own business was formed. I would sketch endlessly and before I knew it I had a host of accessories to go along with the clothing too. Tennis wear was the starting point and Golf wear naturally followed. We are planning to include Yoga wear in our next production.
Q. What type of people use your services?
A. Sportswoman of all ages, not just golfing and tennis players but girls who go to the gym wear our skirts because they are so comfortable!
Q. What are the key advantages of using your services?
A. We genuinely care about our customers, be they the retailers or the customers that we come face to face with or our online customers. Our customer service is excellent which mirrors our quality of product.
Q. What are the biggest issues you are currently facing?
A. Staff. Staff are always an issue with any business. To try and find someone who has the same work ethic as the business owner is usually a very hard task. We are currently searching for the right staff to be part of our growing team. At the moment we have an opening for a young designer who might just have completed their studies and is wanting to join a company that has its sights set on expansion.
Q. Where do you see the business heading in the future?
A. The business has just started exporting to NZ and is in talks with a distributor in Canada who also wants to take the label to the US. So, globally!
Q. What is your background, and your most important values or philosophies?
A. I do not have a design background per se so am basically self taught. However, I possess a very high work ethic and a never say die attitude. I have completed many business related courses and a mentoring programme which really got my business off the ground in the first place. These were all done through my local BEC. I have very high values and am a perfectionist which was a draw back in the beginning because I always felt like the product was not quite ‘good enough’. I have had to change this thinking so that I am not so demanding on myself however, I do demand quality, quality, quality from my suppliers!
Thank you very much for your time. Visit the website at www.clubhart.com.au