- Mar 19, 2021

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY MINI-SERIES: NAT ASSERAF

Heard of Gummi? No? If you're a lover of all things dog related like us, you'll want to keep reading.

Here at TLSE, we love nothing more than spoiling our furry friends, and caring for them the same way they do for us. This is the attitude that Gummi is built on, and is thus committed to creating products for dogs designed to enhancing their lives the same way they enhance ours.

Based in Melbourne, Gummi was founded in 2003, and is now owned and run by Nat Asseraf. The brand is guided by three things: fun, playfulness and boldness - which permeates the entire ethos of the brand. With Nat's Cavalier King Charles, Wally, serving as the Gummi muse, it really is the hallmark of community, design and pet wellness. We sat down with Nat to learn more about what it's like as a female in business, what Gummi means to her and what advice she would give young girls looking to start their own business.

[TLSE] If you had to pick 3 words to sum up what Gummi represents, what would you pick?

[Nat] Passion, product, positivity.

I am so passionate about the way that dogs enhance our human lives, so my mission is to create product that enhances the elements of their lives. The ethos around the business is to harness on the positivity of pet ownership and bring to that to life in all aspects of the business.

What inspired you to rebrand Gummi?

Having inherited the business from my father, I knew that I wanted to turn Gummi into a long-lasting legacy. In order to achieve that I wanted to make sure that I recreated a brand that was going to have a positive sentiment to it.

Through my experience of having Wally the Cavalier I was able to harness the deep love that we all have for him. Wally has become a beloved family member, and this was a big driving force behind the rebrand.

What is the most challenging part of running your own business?

The biggest challenge that I have faced running my own business is finding a work life balance. Trying to juggle the business, hubby, kids and Wally the Cavalier has been the biggest challenge. With your own business there are no traditional work hours, you are always switched on. Given that the majority of the relaunch was worked on in 2020 I had the joy of managing home-schooling, Zoom meetings with buyers, cutting up veggies for “recess” snacks, and setting up the whole structure of the new company. I certainly was wearing multiple hats as work and home life morphed into one.

As we have started to resume something that feels like a pre-COVID normal life, I am trying to juggle a little better; making sure that I make “me” time and schedule some exercise, which is often a walk with Wally paired with an inspiring podcast.

As a woman in business, what advice would you give young girls starting their career?

My advice would be to always show up as your authentic self. I think too often we are afraid to be heard and seen as our true selves, so we tend to compromise ourselves to please when we are younger. I do believe that the younger generation are much better at this than I was when I was younger. I know that my teenage daughter has amazing sense of self, and I think that there are more female role models now to aspire to.