By Shannon Edwards // Place Bulimba
After leaving her career in media and PR, Carol Heffke followed her love for shoes, opening The Shoe Garden.
Located in Hawthorne, TheShoe Garden is the ultimate dream for women with slightly longer feet, with the store exclusively stocking sizes starting at size 10.
“Wearing a size 12 shoe myself I have always found it tricky to find shoes, and almost impossible to find nice shoes,” says Carol.
Walking into the shop feels like being welcomed into Carol’s home as you’re greeted by the smell of fresh flowers and her (very loved) pooch CC.
Tell us about The Shoe Garden?
My customers and I all feel the same way. For decades, it's been hard to find shoes that fit, let alone something that's trendy, fun and colourful.
Our range of choice back then was usually black or nude in a frumpy unflattering design.
At the The Shoe Garden I have a rule, ‘only gorgeous shoes, no comfort shoes or nana shoes allowed’.
What makes the The Shoe Garden unique?
Not only is The Shoe Garden unique in the way that I only stock beautiful shoes from size 10 and up, but it’s also a business that cares about the community.
The Shoe Garden is a ‘not just for profit’ retailer. This means with every pair of shoes purchased, I donate anywhere from 25c to $5 to Microloan Foundation Australia.
Microloan Foundation is an amazing charity that supports women in Malawi to start or grow their own business.
My customers love that element of the business because it means they not only get a gorgeous pair of shoes, but they they’re also helping women in Africa find a better life for themselves.
CC is also unique to The Shoe Garden. She’s here with me every day and the customers love giving her pats.
She’s very popular and a lot of my customers actually remember her name before they remember mine!
Tell us about your book “In My Shoes’?
Late last year I launched my own book called “In My Shoes - What It’s Really Like to Start Your Own Business”.
Basically the title says it all - when opening TheShoe Garden I had no previous experience in running a business, the shoe industry or in retail.
I decided to write the book because it’s the sort of book I wish I had read when I was starting my business.
The book is a really honest account of what it’s like to start and run a business because, as I’ve found out, it’s amazing and wonderful but also terrifying.
There’s lots of things I’ve learnt along the way that I really wanted to share with others who are considering doing it themselves.