Winning pair behind Artisan Shoes

Catherine Macloughlin and Hamish Carter set up and ran Alimento Cafe for seven years. Last year, the parents of four under 6-year-olds traded in the hectic cafe life for a more family-friendly lifestyle running a footwear brand from home.
Hamish

We met in a gallery in Queenstown that Cath was managing. I went in for a browse and came away with more than I was looking for. I can still feel the electricity pulsing, my heart beating a million miles an hour when I left the shop.
Needless to say the magnetism was mutual because Cath left her dream job a few weeks later to head off to Melbourne with me. The rest, as they say, is history, but I do recall her parents were a little concerned about this mystery Romeo who was taking their daughter away.
Arriving in Melbourne we both stumbled into hospitality jobs - actually that's not quite right. Cath got a few jobs straight away and was supporting me to begin with. I remember being a pretty hopeless waiter at the time, so it's kind of funny that I ended up taking the hospitality path with Alimento.
We share an interest in the arts, a love of great coffee, food and wine, and generally having fun with the four children. We both have pretty relaxed personalities, so there were never any concerns about working together when we set up the cafe. It was great fun. We had our roles - Cath oversaw the menu planning and was in charge of operations, I was more the business part of the equation and the general dog's body. Things changed when we had our fourth child, with Cath taking more of a back seat.
Cath's got a great vision and understanding of what will work in the market. She's a fantastic mum, she's a great cook, smart and lots of fun. Cliched though it is, I have to say she is the pillar that holds up everything. Her faults? Good question. Honestly she has no flaws, at least nothing major.
Catherine
When we started working together - setting up Alimento - we had just been on a long camping holiday around Australia and that was kind of the way it continued, like a working holiday.
We get on well and we had this shared vision so it wasn't even really like work, at least not to begin with. But we did have clearly defined roles right from the start.
I can't remember having any major arguments, but I do clearly recall just how long the hours were that we did, especially in those early days. It was hard work, but when you're working for yourself, it never really seems that bad.
To start with, we shared the work, and even when we had our first child Monty, then Rupert, we juggled it so that I still stayed involved working a few days a week, but with Gabriella, then Felix, Hamish pretty much ran everything on his own. Hamish did a great job, but working at least 60 hours a week meant he hardly saw the children. It was then we thought we needed to have a change of lifestyle.
The children have really loved having him around all the time since we sold the cafe last year. It's been wonderful.
Setting up Artisan Shoes so we could run it from home has made work-life balance a cornerstone of the business. I take my hat off to him for managing to work with all the activity going on around the place.
We both love the quiet life and are enjoying playing about in the garden. We also love travelling and fortunately got to go on a few business trips last year to Spain and the US when setting things up. It was great and we had a fantastic time without the children, but I have to admit to being a bit of a sook - I really missed them.
Our major difference? Tidiness. At home Hamish makes the mess and I tidy up, but with the business he comes in and does all the tidying up.
We do complement each other. It works well.