Where It All Began - The Story Behind The Aesthetic Cove
A straight deep dive into how TAC came about.
2020 was the year of the greatly known Covid-19 lockdown. I was 18 years old and a certified swimming instructor, working part time at a local pool 2 days a week. I had also just started university to study a bachelors degree in sport and exercise science. Restrictions came about, businesses closed and people were stood down, myself included. I unfortunately did not meet the employers pay threshold by two weeks, which meant during lockdown my employer was unable to pay me for the duration of lockdown.
I was a fresh 18 year old with a mindset that she shouldn't depend on her parents so I explored ways to generate some sort of an income. I completed surveys, I looked online for remote jobs and just wasn't successful.
During lockdown there wasn't much to do other than stare at a computer or tv screen and binge watch movies or Youtube. My mum has always been a very artsy crafty person and always watched arts and crafts videos. For the fun of it she wanted to purchase a vinyl cutter. At that point in time, I believed I didn't have any kind of artistic ability or desire to even try be creative. So, I helped my mum purchase this machine and it arrived on the 7th of August.
Just to experiment we each created very mediocre fathers day stickers designs, put them to cut and stuck them onto beer glasses. Just for the lols we took some basic pictures and put them on marketplace and wow! Was I blown away by the response. I listed them as $10 a glass and in one hour I had 10 separate orders for over 15 glasses! $150 in one hour! Who would've thought?! And just like that the idea was born to personalise different items and sell them on facebook marketplace.
By the 15th of August I had figured out a business name, gotten an ABN, created both an Instagram and Facebook page and registered my business officially as The Aesthetic Cove. For about 11 months, I went from glassware to iphone cases, drink bottles, wooden home signage, candles, gift packs, keychains and so much more which were all sold through facebook and instagram. This worked out quite well to the point I decided to take a gap year from university to really think about what I wanted to do career wise. It was only then I decided to launch my own website, to showcase all the different products I was personalising.
I opened up a Shopify account and worked for 2 weeks during the free trial period setting up a very basic website. On the 28th of July 2021 I officially launched my website. I posted it all over social media and had over hundreds of visitors on the first day and even received my first order, valued at $75 for a gift pack. It was on this day I realised with passion and commitment I could go far in business and expand my product range.
From there I continued to introduce new products, I worked with resin, tried out sublimation, opened a Tiktok account and filmed for hours only to get 20 views. I researched transition videos because thats what was trending, only after months of posting did I see a dramatic change in views and engagement. My first viral video was for our beaded car diffusers and then again for budget binders. The budget binders were the product that made my business go global, we shipped internationally to Canada, the UK, the USA, Ireland, Malaysia and so much more. It was only because of this one viral video that sales were through the roof and allowed me to purchase my first laser machine in 2022. This was probably where my business hit its peak, sales were insane because customisation options were endless with a laser.
In 2023 I became known as the one stop sports gift shop for our VIRAL sporting collection, including gifts for coaches, keychains for players in the form of netball dresses or football/soccer jerseys, bag tags and so so so much more. We shipped to so many countries and made so many goodies for different teams and clubs around the world.
Running a business is probably the best decision I ever made but it's also the toughest. Its not as glamorous as social media makes it out to be. You go from potentially working a 9-5 to 24/7. Every aspect of the business solely depends on you. From the customer service to the designing to making, assembling, filming, packing and shipping, its all done by one person if you don't have a team. Persistence, determination and passion are all vital to keeping up and maintaining a successful business.
Almost 6 years on and not a single regret. My main audience and sales are driven directly from Tiktok where I have 21.3 thousand followers which is insane! I graduated from university with a bachelors degree in Business in 2025 so now I can dedicate all my time and energy into my business which I'm so proud to call mine 🥰
