Aussie couple reveal how their $40,000 investment paid off

A young Aussie couple have revealed why they remortgaged their home, maxed out their credit cards and sold their boat.

Ash and Jace maxed out five credit cards, remortgaged their home and invested $40,000 into starting a clothing line.

It was the ultimate financial gamble, and the pair decided to take it in 2023 as the cost-of-living crisis was raging.

The Queensland couple was at a crossroads.

Ash was sick of running an Airbnb and spending her life cleaning up after others, and Jace, who has a background in fashion, felt they should use their skills to create a T-shirt line.

The idea stemmed from the fact that neither of them could find anything they wanted to wear whenever they went shopping as a couple.

“We couldn’t afford to buy clothes that we wanted to wear,” Ash told news.com.au.

The couple started their own brand in 2023. Picture: Supplied

The couple wanted to create clothes that they wanted to wear. Picture: Supplied

The couple knew what they wanted to create: stylish, baggy street T-shirts that you can throw on and look effortlessly cool in. Thus, their brand Sabbi was born.

To start their business they basically sold anything they could live without.

“We sold bikes, Jace sold his boat, clothes, anything we had we sold,” Ash explained.

“We used Facebook marketplace for two weeks straight and hated every minute of it,” Jace added.

It was a scary decision.

They had young children, they had a mortgage, and the couple had so much to lose, but Jace was optimistic.

“Jace worries about nothing, but he is a cruiser! I’m the biggest worrier and I used to have meltdowns,” Ash explained.

“We remortgaged a bit of our house, maxed out five credit cards, and had no money.”

Despite the couple’s dire financial straits, Jace decided before they kicked off the business to book a trip, which he paid for on a buy-now-pay-later service.

“We budgeted $1,000 for food for the trip, but we got drunk on the first night and spent $600,” Jace explained.

“Looking back, I can laugh, but waking up and seeing that astronomical amount. I nearly died,” Ash said.

Jace wasn’t too worried but Ash was! Picture: Supplied

They wanted the business to thrive. Picture: Supplied

At that point, the couple knew they had to make the business work because they couldn’t afford for it to fail.

When they returned to Australia, they got to work. Ash sent hundreds of emails to stockists, looking for somewhere to stock their brand.

“I would spend days sending emails to people and most of them said no. We got 10 shops out of the hundreds of shops we emailed,” Ash explained.

That started to raise some red flags.

“I thought it was terrible,” said Jace. “I thought, ‘Oh my god, people don’t get us!”

Despite this, the couple kept hustling. After two months of selling T-shirts, Ash decided to send one to influencer and comedian Celeste Barber. She found her PO Box online and figured it was worth trying.

“I was like f**k it! I’ll send it,” she said.

Their brand is a huge success. Picture: Supplied

Their T-shirts now sell out. Picture: Supplied

The next day, Ash looked at her phone to see that Celeste Barber, had mentioned their clothing brand in her Instagram story.

“I was screaming! The rest of the T-shirts sold out instantly, and then we had to place a pre-order,” Ash said.

“Our friend came over with champagne, Jace did a speech.”

From there, things snowballed.

Their T-shirts are now stocked in over 60 stores, and whenever they release a new one, it often sells out that night.

They’ve more than earned back the $40,000 they initially invested and are in a good financial position.

“I can go to the supermarket now and buy blueberries and not worry about the price,” Ash said.

They’ve also built their brand Sabbi up. They have six employees, most of whom work part-time, and Ash and Jace work on the business every day.

It’s been an incredibly thrilling experience.

Now they have the problem of people being “upset” and “frustrated” because their T-shirts sell out so fast.

“People don’t realise we order as much as we can and also as much as we can fit into the building,” Ash said.

Every time they launch a new sellout T-shirt the couple are thrilled all over again. It still doesn’t feel like a guaranteed success.

“It feels amazing! I imagine it is like how Taylor Swift feels when she hears her own song on the radio,” Ash said.

“It just is amazing and so good to hear from people who have lost their style and now they’ve found us they’ve found their style again.”

Originally published as Aussie couple reveal how their $40,000 investment paid off