Megan Lawrence candidly confesses she barely knew how GST worked in 2019 when she and a friend started a small online business selling t-shirts. But necessity and Google are good teachers and Megan is a great learner and these days, she’s the founder and CEO of a separate and fast-growing online store. Called Country Mile Clothing, her brand of durable, stylish work and casual wear and a range of more than 50 products available in various sizes and colours.
“When I’d go out with friends I always noticed they were wearing the same five brands,” she says. “It didn’t take long for my business brain to work out that there was a huge gap in the market offering country-appropriate clothing with a bit of a twist. I started Country Mile Clothing with $200, just enough to pay to have a few samples made. Then I photographed them, did an online presale and waited for the orders to come it. After two presales I had enough orders to begin having stock.”
Megan grew up on a family farm near Riddells Creek, a one-post office, one-pub town in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges. As a school leaver, she studied animal and veterinary bioscience and planned to go on to become a vet until she realised it wasn’t for her. So she became a vet nurse and worked in a range of other animal-centred jobs – a pet barn and an ethical chicken farm – until she took a contract driving a dump truck for an earthworks business. That all came to a halt with the pandemic and Megan started casting around for business opportunities to occupy her ever resourceful mind.
Amidst COVID lockdowns in 2020, the then 24-yearold started sketching designs for country clothes with a “bit of an edge”. She researched manufacturers online and managed to establish a good relationship with a company in Guangzhou, China, where her designs are made up. With little but the courage of her convictions and a supportive family behind her, Megan now has has a community of more than 60,000 followers and customers in far-flung places from one end of the country to the other.
“It’s been full-time for me since the first day,” she says. “But it wasn’t until the end of the first year that I really made a leap and it became clear that Country Mile Clothing had a solid future. About the same time, Mum stopped sending me notifications about job vacancies and we’ve gone from strength to strength.”
Megan adds that her parents have been her greatest advocates, helping out wherever needed, never more than at her annual range launch, which for the past few years has been at the Deni Ute Muster, an annual festival celebrating Australian culture and the ute held in spring at Deniliquin in the NSW Riverina. “Dad tows their caravan with all the stock a week before the muster and then drives a truck with more stock and then we set up our stand,” she says. “They stay in their caravan and I have a rooftop tent on my vehicle, so we live on site for the whole festival. Afterwards, Dad does two trips back.”
The launch of Megan’s first business coincided with the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/20 and she and her business partner decided to add a philanthrophic arm to their enterprise. “We offered cattle tags with a map of Australia on them,” she says. “We sold more than 2000 and raised almost $17,000. The money went to Wildlife Victoria, the Country Fire Authority and affected communities. So when launched Country Mile Clothing and it was going well, I decided to adopt the same policy of giving back to the community.”
At Deni, Country Mile Clothing sells collectable pins with the year on them with all profits going to the men’s mental health support group, Are You Bogged Mate. As well, Megan has fundraised for other charities including Dolly’s Dream, breast cancer research, Beyond Blue and the Salvation Army and has been able to distribute an estimated $13,500 to the various organisations. “It’s amazing how much traction you can gain with a few Instagram posts,” she says.
Customer service is another pillar of Megan’s business strategy, honed from the age of 15 years and nine months, when she began what was to become a seven-year stint working after school and uni at McDonald’s. “If you don’t look after your customers, why should you expect them to come back?” she reasons. “I reply to all their emails and endeavour to sort all issues promptly. I even regard picking and packing as a kind of market research as it gives me a good understanding of where my customers are and what they are wanting.”
Having outgrown the family home, Country Mile Clothing now has a warehouse in nearby Gisborne and is looking at hiring more staff so she can step back a bit from aspects of the business that don’t need her to be hands-on. “I now also have a part-time assistant to help with online content planning and marketing,” Megan says. “While we haven’t looked back since day one, I didn’t for a second think I would be running a business of the size I now have, when I set out five years ago. It’s been a wonderful journey and it’s far from over yet.” AC
