ISB: Tell us how you made your start as an entrepreneur

NM: My entrepreneurial journey started while working at a corporate gifting company, where I helped scale the business to a $28M acquisition. During the pandemic, I launched Snacks With Bite, which I built and sold within a year for $1M. That experience proved I could spot, and act on, opportunities fast. It also opened my eyes to the massive potential (and waste) in the promo products space, which eventually led to buying into and rebranding our business into For Keeps Merch.

ISB: What led you to start a branded merchandise business and how did you verify that this was a viable business?

NM: After working in gifting and launching my own business, I saw how branded merch could create powerful emotional connections, if done right. The demand was clearly there, but I knew it needed a modern, more intentional approach. Rebranding from Promotions Warehouse to For Keeps Merch was our way of leading that shift. My co-founder and I validated the idea through industry experience, customer feedback, and a shared belief that branded products could be both strategic and meaningful.

ISB: How has your business successfully tackled the problem of disposability in branded merch?

NM: It’s literally in our name, For Keeps. Everything we create is designed to be wanted, used, and kept. We work closely with clients to ensure their merch reflects their brand values and lands with purpose, not in landfill. From curation to quality control, we focus on what recipients will actually keep and use, helping our clients build stronger brand affinity while cutting back on wasteful, throwaway items. We also have a tree planting initiative that with every merch box order you place we plant 10 trees.

ISB: What was the most unique business operations challenge you faced with For Keeps Merch and how did you overcome it?

NM: Rebranding from Promotions Warehouse to For Keeps Merch was a huge shift, more than just a name and logo. We overhauled our entire customer experience, CRM, website, messaging, and even the type of clients we targeted. The hardest part? Bringing our existing customers along for the ride. We had to re-educate them without losing momentum. It took time, trust, and a lot of clear communication – but now, our brand finally reflects who we are and the value we offer.

ISB: What business lessons from your previous ventures were you able to successfully apply in this business?

NM: From leading a gifting business to a $28M exit and building a pandemic business to $1M in a year, I’ve learned that speed, culture, and clarity win. The right leadership and team culture can make or break a business. At For Keeps, we focus on building a team that’s aligned, agile, and obsessed with making things better. When your team’s energy is right, your customers feel it too.

ISB: How do you see For Keeps Merch evolving in the next couple of years?

NM: We’re doubling down on creating thoughtful merch with purpose and backing it with smart systems. Our focus right now is evolving our digital experience, scaling our custom merch store offering, offering merch inventory options and merch gift boxes. Also, attempting to stay ahead of shifts like AI and sustainability. But no matter how the industry changes, our mission stays the same, to create branded products that make people feel something, and that companies are proud to send.

The post Q&A: How For Keeps stays true to its brand name through corporate merchandise appeared first on Inside Small Business.

ISB: What was the inspiration behind you and Kirsten founding Soda Grey, and could you briefly explain what the business is fundamentally?

KM: If we have learned one thing from this pandemic it is that flexibility is the key to life – particularly when running a business, as well as a busy household. We wanted to grow a business model that not only allowed our creativity to shine, but it also gave us the ability to work our own hours around our families’ needs.

Soda Grey is a corporate gifting business. We have a laser engraver so we carry out all of the product personalisation in-house. This is a huge time saver which sets us apart from other similar businesses. We create luxurious yet affordable gift boxes for the corporate and real estate industries. We specialise in settlement and vendor gifts as well as staff and supplier gifts.

ISB: What was the biggest challenge in getting the enterprise off the ground, and how did you overcome it?

KM: Building a solid return customer base is always a massive challenge for any small business so we have learned a lot along the way about running a corporate gifting business, how to market it efficiently by balancing the advertising spend against potential profit margins. This was a new industry for both of us, Kirsten has a background in laser eye surgery and I was working in the architectural field so there was a lot to learn.

We overcame this challenge through persistence, talking to lots of other business owners, and also incorporating what we saw as our clients’ needs into our range so that we had a point of difference. We were determined not to simply offer a bottle of bubbly and some nibblies – if a client has a particular yearning for a certain product, we are happy to look into it and find the right supplier. This can take additional time but customer retention is super important to us. Word of mouth advertising is incredibly powerful so we want to give our clients every opportunity to sing our praises!

ISB: Please tell us about the collaboration that involves you designing your products and then having them made locally.

KM: We are very conscious of buying locally made Australian products, and while we have explored other options over the years, our favourite products are those that we have designed and sourced ourselves, such as our timber board range. We found ourselves a talented craftsman who lovingly makes our boards to order out of recycled timber here in Melbourne. They are just beautiful. We also source the majority of our ceramic pieces from Robert Gordon Ceramics in Pakenham – an amazing family-run business.

ISB: I understand sustainability is at the core of the enterprise – how does this manifest itself in your production and distribution processes?

KM: Our timber boards are all made from recycled offcuts, sourced from commercial projects. Saving this timber from landfill helps us feel that we are doing our bit for the environment which in turn, helps our clients to feel the same.

Purchasing items online and having them shipped to us naturally involves the use of a lot of packaging materials. We cringe sometimes to see just how much packaging is used to transport items! We like to reuse this packaging wherever possible and then we recycle cardboard as well as hard and soft plastics. Local customers are welcome to return their packaging when they receive their next order.

ISB: What is your vision for the growth and development of Soda Grey in the next couple of years.

KM: While the world continues to deal with, and recover from, the unprecedented impact that this pandemic has left in its wake we have been developing new ideas for products and packaging so that our customers are always seeing new material in our socials. We also continue to learn how to make social media and related marketing tools work hard for us so that we can spend more time doing what we initially set out to do…see our friends and families!

ISB: And, finally, what is the #1 piece of advice you’d give to other aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start their own business?

KM: You will never be 100 per cent ready to start your own business. Do your research, analyse your target market and competition, then jump in and have a go, it is worth it!

The post Q&A: Gifting by design appeared first on Inside Small Business.