Jack of all business trades

After 8 years of professional engineering, primarily in the automotive industry, I set out to fulfil the dream of owning my own business.

Seeing a gap in the market, I founded Milton Ashby Toys in 2014. It started from humble beginnings - just a bedroom desk and access to a shed.

Like most new businesses, there were failures along the way, such as trying to build a wholesale business after shops started beating a path to our door. Not that I even had a ‘door’ at that point.

After building up over 40 stockists, it was clear that wholesale wouldn’t work if the manufacturing was done locally. So rather than do what most would, I stopped wholesaling. Next try: direct to customer eCommerce. Plus, designing a lean manufacturing system to enable it.

After a few failed attempts at online marketing, finally, bingo, it worked! Customers started rolling in. Better still, they came back for more. So I moved from a shared workspace (I’d already made the small upgrade from a shed) to a factory of our own. Putting our name on the building made it feel real, at last.

I now have a small team of amazing craftspeople doing the day-to-day operations and do what I enjoy most: being a jack of all trades - digital marketing, product development, photography, videography, making spreadsheets and finding ways to improve our manufacturing processes. But a new challenge beckons.

In addition to the sign on the building, there’s been some memorable highlights along the way. In 2020 we were a finalist in the Australia Post Online Retail Industry Awards for best 'Best Small Independent Retailer' and in 2022 I sold the rights to the designs and manufacturing system to a business partner in the USA.

There’s been a few side projects along the way too. In 2016 I wondered if it’s possible to 3D print a decent pair of headphones. There was little published info on how to do it, so it become a sizeable, challenging project. For the benefit of others, I’ve shared my work via Homebrew Headphones.

As Milton Ashby is now largely run by its staff and with over 20 year of investing in public companies, I’m currently in the process of making my first business acquisition.

Feel free to reach out via shannon@shannonley.com