Dustee Secondhand Saddlery

The Dustee Secondhand Saddlery story:

Dustee Secondhand Saddlery began in 2019 as a hobby, a simple way to make some “pocket money” for our family and to help carry the load of financially providing for our family at least in some small way. I was already reasonably well known in the local horse community, somewhat experienced in identifying, valuing, cleaning and presenting of the relevant item

s and as a consumer of the goods myself understood the desperate need our local community had for such a venture due to the dwindling number of options where such items could be purchased in the area with at least two shops selling similar albeit new items having closed their doors in recent years. Only one dedicated equine shop, dealing solely in new items remained in our town and a handful of produce stores that offered a small selection of the most common saddlery items, again new. The prices were often out of reach of beginner horse owners and riders or families like our own that relied on a single income and seldom had much extra left over to waste on what in this area, is very much a recreational pursuit. There was a thriving second hand market for horse gear in our area but people struggled with finding and meeting up with potential buyers due to location, lack of time, work hours, family obligations, lack of knowledge of the items in their possession, inability to market their items effectively and limited ideas of where to advertise. The majority of people I knew were unwilling to post because they found the process complicated and costly, they were unable to schedule it into a day already crammed full of children, household chores and sometimes full time work hours which prevented them from accessing postal services. As a result items were often under priced and remained unsold far longer than they should. In addition, with our families background on working cattle stations and living in somewhat remote and rural areas for most of my life I was aware of the need further out west for many of the items I saw unsold, and at prices that suited the more low incomes of families living on the land. My husband had always maintained I was exceptionally good at selling items for decent money whenever things in our life had reached their limit of usefulness as hobbies were discarded, or kids grew and items were outgrown. Further more we lived immediately across the road from our local post office and with our youngest child less than a year old I was not inclined to return to the workforce leaving her for somebody else to raise. At the time a small front room in our rental house was given over to the project and with the purchase of a few small lots of gear and saddles I began. The community response was very supportive and I was able to turn a tidy profit quite quickly. Within a month, so quickly I am unsure if photograph evidence of this phase even exists, it was evident my venture had outgrown the front room and my husband relinquished his hold of an old single garage on the property. Whilst fitting out this newly acquired space in a budget friendly way we hit upon our ideal look of rough wooden furniture with rustic recycled horse shoes and horse shoe nails to both embellish and emphasise our chosen subject of business. Several of our saddle display stands, the iconic Dustee Secondhand Saddlery desk and wall units to display horse bits and boots were lovingly crafted by my husband and myself out of discarded pine pallets from local businesses, leftover shoeing nails from our own horse supplies and used horse shoes from those of my most supportive customers. Whilst imperfect these items remain a recognisable part of the saddlery today and show case our ideals that items be safe and usable, however may not be free from minor visual imperfections. The backbone of the saddlery a massive almost full length rail for hanging bridles, halters and other gear ran full length along the middle of the single garage and I envisioned lining the open ceiling with discarded horse feed bags to further add to the rustic effect and add just a pop of fun and colour. Additionally I was wanting to send all my goods home in bags made from recycling the very same kinds of feed bags and given the industry with which I serviced I had an almost unlimited supply of the raw products. Supply and demand of equine items continued to steadily grow through word of mouth, free online advertising on websites and most particularly Facebook where I created a page for the venture. As a start up venture, disposable cash was short and rather than turn away offerings of items I could not buy at the time I quickly implemented a service to sell on commission for my customers, for me this meant I could stock my saddlery without needing to purchase every single item and for my customers it meant they could theoretically receive a higher price from it selling to another customer as opposed to myself who needed to buy at lower prices to ensure I could both make a profit and still offer budget friendly items to buy. On March 1st (my birthday) 2021 Dustee Secondhand Saddlery became a fully fledged business and my secondhand dealers license was approved shortly there after. Due to popular request I invested in Square to be able to offer the ability to pay by card and increased my commission prices to offset the cost of the business name, secondhand dealers license and fees payable for each Square transaction. It was a big leap of faith and initial investment especially for a license I wasn’t sure would be approved (almost $1000 for the first year). I feared customers would think twice about the new higher cost however there was no discernible drop off in my patronage. Sadly the rental property where we began this venture was sold in a business deal along with several other properties in the January before becoming an official business and only a few months later we were advised our lease would not be renewed as the property was again being sold. We met with our bank to discuss a house loan however due to being a very newly formed business my income wasn’t deemed suitable enough until I had a minimum of a year’s financial records in place, preferably two. We called it our two year plan to save a deposit and looked for another rental to bide our time. In the middle of COVID conditions the struggle was real but we were lucky enough to find available to rent an older high set house through our previous real estate and the owner was happy to allow us to operate from the location as a business. Better yet we were assured the property was not going to be sold. The space was bigger however much different to that which we had previously and it took some time to relocate family and business and prepare it to open once again. My customers waited patiently through the upheaval, sales I could squeeze in still racked up funds and we were on track again. Our initial six month lease passed and we re-signed for an additional year, of which is almost half gone. Unfortunately several weeks ago we were hit with a bombshell by our real estate agent, the owners insurance policy has been updated and the terms no longer allow for a business to run from the property. On top of that the property was being listed for sale. We were devastated by this unexpected complication to our two year plan. Unfortunately we just aren’t quite there yet, due to the nature of the business where I can be available outside of normal hours for customers with busy lives themselves, and the desire to remain a stay at home mum for our children, lease of a commercial property is less than ideal and not currently within our financial ability. We are currently operating in a minimised capacity whilst we focus on raising the remaining necessary funds to use as a deposit on a house of our own with a suitable space to permanently house the saddlery. The support of our customers in this time has been outstanding and we have no doubt, as evidenced by their words, actions and offers of help, that they will rally behind us even more once we have a permanent place to offer the service they have come to rely upon. Dustee Secondhand Saddlery
ABN 31296714931

Josephine Thornton
Second-Hand Dealer No 4476478.