Small Business: Wheelie good branding with The Cartery

The Cartery co-founders Charlene and Gus White spent six months researching what the New Zealand event space was missing, and how they could capitalise.

Charlene White, co-founder of The Cartery, talks to Tom Raynel about starting a business during the pandemic, and how it has grown to work with major brands across the country. Each Monday, we interview a small business owner, which is now a regular feature of NZME’s editorial campaign target="_blank">On The Up, showcasing uplifting stories of success, inspiration and possibilities.

What is The Cartery?

The Cartery is a full-service event management company, and we like to think of it that way anyway.

There’s a few different things for us, it’s about providing that full service, not only our carts. We’re starting to get more into different assets like bars and booths as we grow, but also providing good people to represent brands. We’re also providing food and beverage, we do all branding in-house for clients as well, and then styling, so it’s like a one-stop shop for people.

I think that’s why brands have loved it so much. It’s because they can send us a brief and then we turn up on the day, set everything up, make a great job of it, and then pack it all up and they don’t have to worry about it.

What inspired you to start the business?

We spent a good six months researching and looking at what was overseas, what other brands were already doing in New Zealand event-wise and then trying to bring it all together. I knew that there was this little sweet spot, because I was in that seat where we were trying to bring events together.

My background is in communications and marketing, and we used to have to pull a whole lot of different suppliers when you wanted to do one-off events. It took a lot of time and effort, and there was never any guarantee that everything was going to come together on a day when you’re using multiple suppliers.

We started with one cart and some of our friends were like, ‘What are you doing?’ Walking away from the safety of a consultancy business at the time, we got laughed at a little bit, but there’s just never been a day where I’ve questioned what we’re doing because I knew it was right for the market at the time.

The Cartery brought all of its necessary event management capabilities in-house, and it's allowed it work with recognised brands across the country.

How does the process work from design to being wheeled out?

So we normally get a brief and we’re pretty nimble. Some clients will come in a week or two before and say ‘Wwe’ve got this coming up, can you do it?’ A lot of clients are working a couple of months at least in advance, particularly some of the bigger events. They will send us a brief and then we will come back with exactly what we think we can do for them.

We used to have our branding capabilities outsourced when we first started, by a third party, and we quickly realised that brands are changing their minds and things are evolving before events, so we needed that capability in-house to be able to just roll with things.

So we brought all of the capabilities in-house. We invested in a $50,000 printer last year, and it’s the best thing we’ve ever done because we’ve been able to deliver really quickly to clients when they’ve sent over last-minute things, but also come up with new little surprise and delight things for them at events that they weren’t expecting because we’ve got that capability in-house now to make things easier.

For The Cartery's co-founder Charlene White, the opportunity to tap in to her brand storytelling skills has been a highlight in starting the business.

How much has your background in communications helped with this new venture?

I think a lot of what you do as a communications practitioner, it’s all about storytelling and an extension to that is I get to be really creative, which is what I’ve always loved. You get to tell a story for a brand. When we turn up, everything about our set-up, our people, our food, everything is bespoke for that brand and represents that brand.

When we get a brief, we think of the story and the way that brand wants to be seen and it’s our job to make that story come to life, and that’s the whole satisfying thing with it. There’s so many instances where it’s pinch-myself moments where we’re working with amazing brands like Nike and they’re relying on us to actually be them and tell their story, and that’s the whole thing that I love when it all comes together.

What would be your advice to other budding entrepreneurs wanting to start a business?

I would say be brave. I was thinking about this business for a couple of years before we actually started investing in it. I don’t think there’s ever a right time - just to go do it. But what I’ve learned is you’ve just got to be willing to take a risk and see what happens, and be okay when things don’t go well, but fix it really quickly.

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.