How selling online helped Madeleine find the perfect sea change

Life on the country road

A few years ago, Madeleine Lee decided to literally drive away from a lifestyle that was wearing her down and leaving her feeling disconnected from her family. So she and her husband traded their house for a bus, packed up their two kids and dog, and left the Gold Coast, Queensland for the open road. 

As her little family adjusted to their new lifestyle, Madeleine focused on managing her rapidly growing online business - a women’s clothing line named Oak Meadow. That business would be the family’s only source of income for the next few months. 

“Oak Meadow started with a stack of tie-dye baby onesies that I made and uploaded to Instagram,” Madeleine says. “It had such a great response so I designed my first print for kids’ wear and things took off from there.”

While they were on the road. Madeleine ran her business from each new country town they pulled into. She used the free WiFi at cafes to check orders, settled in a park to pack them and then headed to the local Post Office to send the parcels off. 

“Having a local Post Office in every town made the logistics seamless,” she says. “Even receiving international shipment was easy because we’d send it to the Post Office in the next town and then call ahead to let them know we were expecting a parcel. Not a single one got lost in all that time.” 

Soon Oak Meadow was exploding with local and international orders. But what was also skyrocketing was the family’s cost of living. Caravan park fees and fuel were expensive and money soon ran low. 

Madeleine’s husband found a hospitality job in a country town and began pulling double shifts to make ends meet. That meant she was alone for most of the day with the kids, dog and Oak Meadow. 

When the stress and isolation began creeping up again, Madeleine knew their life on the road was over. But rather than throw in the towel and return to the Gold Coast, the family decided to try something else – a short stint in Bali. 

Heading for a sea change in Bali and Byron

“It was the right decision,” Madeleine said. “Once we reached Bali, the pressure of life in Australia disappeared. We felt nourished. That’s where I designed my first bed dress.” 

She posted a picture of the dress to Instagram, launched pre-orders and watched speechless as the numbers rose into the hundreds. That’s when she knew that she needed a place back home with the same creative vibe as Bali. In short, she needed to live close to the beach. 

When the family returned to Australia, they packed up their home in the Gold Coast and headed to Byron Bay, New South Wales. 

“We didn’t overthink it,” Madeleine laughs. “Byron is an inspiring place that’s really nurturing for small businesses. I surf and getting out on the water brings me back to my body and resets me. Byron encourages you to have a good work life balance.” 

Madeleine also decided to return to fulltime work to spare Oak Meadow the pressure of being the main source of income. Then the pandemic hit. While businesses around her struggled, Madeleine says she experienced the biggest turning point of her life. 

“I’d just started this tiny brand of easy wear dresses and suddenly everyone was staying home and living simply. The light just shone on Oak Meadow.” 

In Christmas 2021, her house was filled with merchandise to the point that the family had to spend the night elsewhere. That’s when the growth potential of Oak Meadow truly hit home. Madeleine knew she needed a proper workspace and clear work-life boundaries. 

“Our whole life completely changed in the last three years,” she says. “I now have a beautiful boutique in Byron Bay and a great team. This means I can focus on building the brand and designing dresses that make women feel good.”

Building a relationship with the local Post Office

By the time Oak Meadow expanded from an online store to a physical one, Madeleine had her shipping logistics down pat. Having successfully run her business while living a nomadic life had given her confidence in Australia Post and the understanding of how to save on sending costs with MyPost Business. 

“Shipping is so important for an online business and all our domestic and international orders go through Australia Post,” she says. “MyPost Business plugs into Shopify and is so easy to use especially for someone who isn’t tech-savvy like me.”

“It saves me heaps of time on printing labels and gives me better shipping rates when I spend more on sending. It also lets me treat loyal customers to Express Post even if they’ve chosen Standard shipping.”

But her biggest praise is reserved for the Suffolk Park Post Office Manager, Jo O’Connor and her team. In the early days, Madeleine was making two daily trips to the Post Office to drop off parcels. Not only was this time-consuming but physically exhausting. 

After a few weeks of watching her do this, Jo offered to pick up the mountain of parcels from the Oak Meadow boutique. It was a game changer. Since then, Madeleine says Jo has been instrumental in educating her on the most efficient ways to get parcels out the door. 

“Jo also introduced us to automatic fulfilment so we’re no longer scanning each parcel with our phone. Now we just hover our phone over the barcode for it to connect to Shopify and generate a tracking number. We’re able to fulfil a whole stack of parcels at one go.”

“Jo has gone above and beyond for us. She believes so much in us and is like family. She’s always excited to see our stack of parcels and hear about our growth. It feels like she’s on the journey with us.”

Taking Oak Meadow to the world 

Madeleine’s next goal is launching an international Oak Meadow flagship store. She’s taking small steps but is dreaming big. This is her advice to other small business owners too - listen to your gut and take the leap. 

“Following your gut is important,” she says. “You can make a choice that looks good on paper or in someone else’s eyes but it’ll never be the right one until you feel it. Cultivate the strength and courage to trust what comes from your gut.”

“I know people who’re scared to even move from Melbourne to the Great Ocean Road because they can’t figure out the business logistics. But you can run a business from anywhere. You can make it work. You just have to be willing to take that step. Give everything in life a go. It’s never that hard.”