In our latest ‘What’s Cooking’, we hear from Sarah Ross Founder of Doodles Creek. Founded in 2002 using a family recipe, Sarah created an award winning mayonnaise recognisable to so many of us. Years later, in addition to her mayonnaise, Doodle’s Creek boasts a delicious range of sauces, dressings and relishes.
Sarah tells ‘What’s Cooking’ just how long it took to make any money and how word of mouth positively impacted her business. Sarah also shares how connecting with other food business owners helps her when going it alone can be so tough and often so lonely.
With a strong focus on quality and consistency, Doodles Creek continues to win awards and maintains a remarkable presence on retail shelves.
Your business name: Doodles Creek
How would you describe the business you are in? Australian gourmet condiments
Quality is the most important thing. Followed by margins. Stay passionate.
What do you love about your work?
Creating food that people love, meeting people from all walks of life and travelling.
What part of your job would you gladly give away?
Inventory stock take and some technical issues that come up.
If you were starting out in business again today, what piece of advice would you give your younger you?
Quality is the most important thing, followed by margins and you must stay passionate.
Women start business 41% of the time to solve a problem? Sometimes this means we have a great vision but don’t have enough resources to sustain our business for the long term. Tell us what resources you started your business with.
I started on a shoestring. I got very lucky with word of mouth. But didn’t really start making money for about 5 years.
As you know we are passionate about women #backingthemselves. So tell us about a time in the last twelve months that you’re really proud of.
Our mayonnaise and Indian Wedding chutney won gold medals at the Australian food awards. We have been making the mayonnaise for 14 years now and it is fantastic recognition for a great quality product. The chutney is new and so entering and winning a gold medal in the competition was a great way to launch a new product.
As we are always growing and learning, what is the one thing you would like to take time to learn more about?
Social media.
The world is changing so fast and technology enables us to do so much more. We’re interested in which app you could not live without and why?
Instagram and ANZ banking app.
Why did you decide to become a member of Females in Food®
To connect with fellow foodies. Get help and offer help where I can.
We love to celebrate the successes. Can you give us an example of how VIP membership to Females in Food has positively impacted your business?
I work on my own so chatting to VIPs has helped reaffirm my love of my business. And my photos have improved out of sight after attending the Canon Workshop.
Thank you Sarah for your sharing your story with us. It’s so inspiring to read of a woman growing her businesses through trust and by taking calculated risks. You are a true entrepreneur and we love that you are inspired by other entrepreneurs and are so incredibly supportive of women in the industry.
Interested in joining our community but missed out on becoming a Females in Food VIP Member last week? Make sure you are the first to find out when enrolment opens again. Join our waitlist here.
Want to read more about another successful Females in Food VIP Member? Check out our ‘What’s Cooking’ interview with founder of Carême Pastry, Claire Wood.
We’d love to hear your comments about what’s inspired you in this ‘What’s Cooking’ interview or any one of our other blog posts. At Females in Food we believe in many voices and know the importance of building a community. Your comments are important for women who may be feeling alone, just so they know they aren’t alone and that in fact there is a big #empoweredcollective right behind them.
The Females in Food team