The Story Behind Singing Magpie Produce: Farming, Family, and the Art of Selling

Running a business is one thing, but growing and selling your own produce while balancing family life is another. In this conversation, I chat with Sue Heward from Singing Magpie Produce, a South Australian business built on a 100-year-old orchard. Sue shares the ups and downs of running a farm, the challenges of adding value to fresh produce, and the power of marketing in small businesses.

Above is a YouTube interview with Sue, and below is an overview of the interview and the transcript at the very bottom.

The Journey Back to the Farm
Sue’s story isn’t one of a straight path into farming. After working in health for 20 years—including as a media spokesperson for Cancer Council Australia—she decided to return home with her family and start something new. With a passion for food and a deep connection to the orchard where she grew up, she began Singing Magpie Produce, specializing in dried figs, quinces, and unique handcrafted products.

From Growing to Value-Adding
Unlike many farmers who sell bulk to markets, Sue took a different approach—processing and packaging their own produce to sell directly to customers. This has meant juggling everything from harvest and production to marketing and online sales. “If I’m packing orders, I’m not selling, and if I’m not selling, there are no orders,” she says. Learning to delegate has been one of her biggest lessons in running a business.

The Reality of Running a Small Business
Sue speaks openly about the challenges of seasonal farming, managing staff, and the ever-present question of scaling up while staying true to her values. She also highlights how small businesses often invest heavily in equipment but overlook branding and marketing. “People will spend $100k on a tractor but won’t spend $5k on their branding. But if you want to sell direct to customers, you need a story that connects with them.”

Marketing, Collaborations & Community
Building a strong email list has been one of the biggest game-changers for Sue. Rather than relying solely on social media, she ensures her best customers hear about new products first, offering exclusive access and pre-sales. Collaborations with chefs, food brands, and other small businesses have also been key to growing Singing Magpie Produce.

The Future & Staying Sustainable
For Sue, the future isn’t about massive expansion but about growing in a way that feels sustainable. More space, more refined processes, and better infrastructure are on the horizon—but without the pressure of taking on massive debt or chasing unrealistic growth.

Sue’s journey is a reminder that small business success isn’t about doing it all but about doing what aligns with your values. Whether it’s marketing, farming, or building community, staying adaptable and trusting your gut is key.

Follow Sue via Instagram + Website

Video Transcript:

Hello, today I'm chatting with Sue from Singing Magpie Prodgees in South Australia. And Sue and her family run a 100 year old orchard that harvests 20 to 30 tonne of quince.

a year and 20 to 30 tonnes of figs which kind of blows my mind with my three small fig trees that I've got at home that you could harvest that many. We crossed paths through Instagram and it's been a dream of mine to visit her farm one day but in the meantime I thought it'd be great to catch up with her online and find a little bit more out about her business and how her farm operates. So yeah, welcome Sue, thanks for coming on.

Sue Heward (03:05)

Hello. Now do you know where we actually crossed paths? You probably, we probably didn't meet, but I was at that very first weekend that Sophie did, you know, in Orange, and you were one of the speakers. So that's when I first knew you from that weekend. So that week, I have to say, I keep nagging Sophie to do something else like that again, which is obviously too busy, but there were so many people that that weekend was

Honey Atkinson (03:17)

Yes!

That was amazing, wasn't it?

Sue Heward (03:34)

So phenomenal. What was it called? I can't remember what it's called now.

Honey Atkinson (03:37)

I can't remember, was Sarah from Me and All I Was There as well, is that right? Yes, yeah, yeah.

Sue Heward (03:42)

Yes, that's right. And it was

just all these people I met that I then followed on Instagram and that was kind of the start of, I mean I was on Instagram but I, yeah that was the start of you know me being really actively using Instagram and trying to take photos and yeah that was amazing.

Honey Atkinson (03:55)

Yeah, that was a that was a really, really good retreat. I was if

I did meet you, it was probably I wouldn't remember because I was so nervous. Leading up to speaking that I almost like was blacking out. That's how nervous I was. I was like, I can't even speak. I almost was going to get in the car and just drive home. That's how nervous I was.

Sue Heward (04:04)

Yes!

Anyway, was such a fun weekend.

because it takes a fair bit for me to get to Orange. And I when the weekend was over, I was like, oh, God, we need another like, I'm not ready to go home yet. We need another two days at least. So.

Honey Atkinson (04:27)

yeah, yes, yeah, yeah. I know, it would be good

to well maybe we should run a retreat like that near you, Yes.

Sue Heward (04:33)

I'd love to. keep saying

like is that, you know, Jumbled does that, does that mini conference. But it's all always like in March or April or May and we are still in Harvard. unless it's something that's running June or July, I pretty much can't do it. So I'm always hanging out. I was scaring the things in winter. Anyway, so be it.

Honey Atkinson (04:40)

the one, yes, yeah.

Yeah, yes. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, which kind of makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. So you were coming out the back of like one of your busiest times post Christmas. Is that fair to say that? that your busiest time of the year?

Sue Heward (05:09)

So, well,

it's sort of two-pronged. So, yes, from a singing mad pie point of view, we sell a lot of things leading into Christmas, our griff boxes and all that fruit and whatever, but it's the end of our season in terms of dried fruit. then, so now, like literally this week, we just started picking figs. So we're about to go into harvest, which is then another

busy, slightly mental, crazy time. yeah, yeah, so that is the thing about when you value add, not just grow fruit, but there's not really any off time. So if you're growing a commodity where you have a whole harvest, then you sell it, then you do have some time. I mean, there's probably orchard maintenance or whatever. It's not like you're not doing anything. But if you're then taking on the job of being the marketeer or the manufacturer,

Honey Atkinson (05:42)

crazy.

Yes.

Sue Heward (06:08)

As I'm learning, you don't really have any off time. It's just on all the time.

Honey Atkinson (06:09)

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Which is exactly why I wanted to chat to you. I think it's for me, I connect with a lot of business owners who do sell direct to customer and do make a lot of their own stuff. Whether they knit themselves or whether they like they hand make some level of it. But I think for you, what I find interesting is that you're growing it as well. So it's like adding another level of complexity to the whole pathway. And it's like, that's what I'm fascinated about. Yes.

Sue Heward (06:34)

Well, we have multiple teams. mean, Mum and

Dad are 79 and 78, and they still run the family orchard. So I'm their employee. Oh, you know, I'm their lucky. And then I take over in terms of the marketing of the dried fruit. So they still sell fruit to different customers for different things, but effectively they sell it to me for.

Honey Atkinson (06:48)

Yes.

Sue Heward (07:01)

the value added side, well for the sing-made part. So we have on and off periods, so they're going into their particularly crazy period, but you know there's always an interface when you've got a family business of who does what.

Honey Atkinson (07:04)

Yeah.

Definitely. Yes. Yeah. So there's because there's a whole

sale, which is what they take care of. And then you're doing the making and the production of retail.

Sue Heward (07:22)

Yeah, I I effectively buy wholesale from them now and I'm

probably almost their biggest customer actually or up there with some of their other big customers, just given where the things are at in terms of food manufacturing at the moment. Yeah, and then there's the constant conversation about succession and transition, which is a very difficult conversation and we don't need to go into that. Not because there's any conflict.

Honey Atkinson (07:27)

Wow.

yes yeah yeah yes

Sue Heward (07:51)

not from that perspective, just how you manage it and best laid plans.

Honey Atkinson (07:55)

Yeah, do you think you have the

capacity to take it on board because

Sue Heward (08:01)

my, well, so there's three siblings and so between my brother and I, we will sort it out when the time is right. But it's the time is right that is the difficult. that's my dog. Let's hope that she doesn't that freebie. Let's hope that she doesn't continue to bark. Anyway, we'll see how we go.

Honey Atkinson (08:05)

Yes.

Mm.

Yes. Yeah it is. Yeah. That's okay. That's farm life isn't it?

So

because of everything you do, I'd love to kind of explain and walk me through the journey that where you kind of are from the beginning stages of thinking about moving back to the farm, because you've kind of had your own life beforehand and traveled and stuff and then why you decided to move back to the farm.

Sue Heward (08:43)

Yeah, so I, you know.

Well, so I trained in actually as a health professional and worked in health for like 20 years. So like a lot of country kids, when I did year 12, our aim was pretty much to leave the Riverland and get out. So a lot of my cohort from high school went to uni and then, you know, whatever you're chosen for.

Honey Atkinson (09:08)

Yes.

Sue Heward (09:17)

was. So I went into health prevention and worked in Sri Lanka and then worked in South Australia and then in Melbourne for a long time. I was the state manager for SunSmart in Melbourne and for the Cancer Council. I was the media spokesperson for Cancer Council Australia in Victoria for skin cancer. But then at 40 I had Frankie. at a

was late, derrietric as you get labelled when you through the public service, public system and I always had in my mind that I would come home, it just was when and how and there's nothing like having a baby at 41 and trying to commute and have not very much family support in the city. Mark's family were sort of out of Melbourne and Torquay.

Honey Atkinson (09:46)

Mm.

Yes, I am too, yes.

Sue Heward (10:15)

And we just got to the point where it was like, this is too hard. And I always knew that I needed to come home. So we just packed up and came home. Literally, we had no jobs or anything. We just had enough of the commute mainly and childcare, know, driving between childcare, then I to be on the freeway and then trying to get to the cancer cancer, which was in a city and we lived in a city, but it still was difficult. I don't know how people do it.

Honey Atkinson (10:20)

Mm.

Yes.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (10:45)

outside

Melbourne and it's a lot worse now. So that was back in, we moved home or my home in January of 2016 and we didn't really have a, we planned, we didn't have a job or anything. We knew that we'd be able to work on the orchard so that's what we did the first year. And also I applied to do commercial cookery. There's a really good taff here in Bury that does a

Honey Atkinson (11:03)

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Sue Heward (11:14)

a like a cert for and cookery. So I kind of took the year off as such and did that which was very luxurious but it helped me work out what I wanted to do. Mark worked on the farm and then that was enough. One year was enough for him to say I'm not working on a farm in the future. Bless him. I mean he's working with his in-laws and he's trying to work with me. mean that's a fair feat.

Honey Atkinson (11:32)

Yeah.

Yes, that's

enough family.

Sue Heward (11:44)

Yeah, and by then we had sort of we had done a bit of business planning and worked out that I'd worked out that I wanted to do Sing Magpie and Mark and I were originally going to do it together and then very quickly we worked out that we couldn't work together which was probably the best decision ever for all of us. And we had different stories, different versions of how that played out but anyway.

Honey Atkinson (12:00)

Yes, that's it.

Yes, I'm sure you do, yeah.

Sue Heward (12:12)

As it worked out, he works off farm and I decided my commercial cookery, as a result of my commercial cookery, I wasn't cut out to work in a restaurant or be a chef or whatever. But I always wanted to use produce from our orchard. And at the time Dad had said to me, look, we're so busy with the fresh figs and with...

Honey Atkinson (12:25)

Yes.

Sue Heward (12:41)

manufacturing figs for other stuff but we don't get time to do dried figs and everyone asks for dried figs and there was really not much of a vote there's not much in terms of Australian dried figs there still isn't not commercially small small orchards but so that was kind of the lead-in for me really I was already using social media to just tell a bit of a story about the orchard I did Sophie's thing that year that might have been 2017 when we I did Sophie's thing I can't remember

Honey Atkinson (12:52)

Yes, yeah.

Yeah, that's about right.

Sue Heward (13:10)

But yeah,

it was a year after, basically a year after we moved from Melbourne back to the orchard here in South Australia that we started seeing mekai. And my plan was, and I had never sold anything online, especially not online either, was just to sell one kilo packs of semi-sun-dried figs. And that's how we started, but I mean that's not, we still do sell one kilo packs, but that's not really what our core business is now.

Honey Atkinson (13:20)

Wow.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Sue Heward (13:40)

But yeah, it's a quick learning, you know.

Honey Atkinson (13:43)

And

with that commercial cookery course that you did, have you always had a really strong connection to food? have you always been, so you've always been into cooking even when you're working? Yeah.

Sue Heward (13:50)

Yeah, yes, always been into cooking and always into

growing veggies and you know, I've always had that kind of bent and quite honestly when I was through, when I was in high school and then uni I was like, I was good at what I did in maths and science so that's why I pursued it academically but probably always in my gut it was going to be about food. It's funny how you get

Honey Atkinson (14:11)

Yes.

Yeah, how interesting, isn't it?

Sue Heward (14:17)

I never got pushed by anyone. It was always me that I had to have a professional career in what I was good at academically, but actually couldn't see. just, yeah, I always had this.

Honey Atkinson (14:20)

Yeah.

Yes.

I feel like it often happens,

doesn't it? Like in opposition, not in opposition but like when you've grown up the way you have, it feels like you need to take that next step. And then...

Sue Heward (14:43)

Yeah, well, you know, the other

side of it is though I'm very grateful that I left the Riverlands because you leave, you know, I lived in Sri Lanka for two years. I worked for the Cancer Council for eight years. I got a lot of media training, a lot of project management training, all of that stuff that wouldn't have got if I stayed here. And then when we came back to the Riverland, I come back with a completely different view of this area than if you stayed here. yeah, so I wouldn't change anything at all, but...

Honey Atkinson (14:47)

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, yes, so really fresh and a new approach. Yeah, yeah.

Sue Heward (15:13)

I always had an inkling, you know, always had a feeling that I would be in food at some point. And you know, things like growing fruit and veggies and stuff. I mean, I've had a veggie garden. I remember my first veggie garden, I was probably about five. I remember it with dad, you know, when we first planted some tomatoes or something out the back. So yeah, it is funny how you kind of deny some of that gut feeling, but

Honey Atkinson (15:20)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (15:42)

I wouldn't have had the breadth of experience that I brought back to singing my pie if I didn't so there's no regrets there not not by any means but yeah

Honey Atkinson (15:47)

Yes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's fascinating. Yeah. And

like, as far as your everyday tasks, I think, yeah, I'm really struck by like how you manage to do all the things like to you, as far as like

Sue Heward (15:58)

that's crazy.

Honey Atkinson (16:05)

you know, for other business owners goes this understanding about how you get stuff done, like when you are growing stuff and then you're drying things and you're packaging and then you're making, you're having like chocolate days. Like, do you kind of those? how do you kind of, can you give me like a rundown of like, you know, your average few days or like week how it works? Yeah.

Sue Heward (16:21)

Yeah, so it changes. So right now we're in harvest. So right now we're actually drying fruit. We

just started. So I have a team right now of two other people that work for me for singing magpie and I really try to let them do most of the hands-on work and that is because, although it doesn't always work, especially not in harvest, but if I

end up doing too much of the hands-on, what I mean by like that might be the packing or I don't generally do the chocolate tempering anymore, all the business administration gets left behind and then if that gets left behind then we're just behind all the time. So and same with the selling, so I do all the selling and marketing so if I'm packing orders I can't be selling and if I'm not selling there is no orders.

Honey Atkinson (17:14)

Yes.

Sue Heward (17:18)

Yeah, we've literally just started back for the year. So the last few days have been frenetic. And we've had a lot of orders that have come in while we were shut. So yes, it's been pretty hands on this week. But I've got to pull back. And I think that's such a big learning for small business owners is that at some point you can't be in the business. You've to be looking outside.

Honey Atkinson (17:35)

Yeah.

Sue Heward (17:48)

at the business, but it's very hard to manage that, like if you don't have enough staff. So we did have, I did have three people working for me and then someone, you know, left to go and do her career basically. And you also have to manage salaries, salaries are expensive, but so there's a juggle, you know.

Honey Atkinson (17:49)

I agree, yeah.

Mm.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah. And

what point did you go from doing kind of everything yourself? Yeah, too. Was that scary?

Sue Heward (18:19)

yourself. Well, so that is an interesting

story. So because I had breast cancer in 2020, and I was pretty much doing everything myself with my mum before that. And then of course, I had breast cancer. So I had to, you know, I couldn't do everything myself. So it was actually a blessed summer. My hand was forced. So I had started to employ someone

Honey Atkinson (18:40)

yeah so your hand was forced yeah okay

Sue Heward (18:48)

just to help with gift boxes because it was leading into Christmas and then it was about I got diagnosed with breast cancer probably in November so that's our peak time and we had stacks of orders and I bloody have breast cancer. I just started chemo the week after and it was 2020 so this is COVID so I remember going to be diagnosed and then the oncologist said right you can start tomorrow.

Honey Atkinson (19:07)

I can't.

That is insane.

Sue Heward (19:18)

And then that night the South Australian government says there's a curfew, know, we didn't, it wasn't like Victoria, but we had six hours to get back to wherever our place of where we're going to stay for the next six days. And I said, I can't start chemo tomorrow because the curfew has been called. I have to get back to the Riverlands. So the Riverlands three hours from Adelaide and, and chemo was in Adelaide.

Honey Atkinson (19:26)

Yeah.

Sue Heward (19:44)

So, you know, can I start in six days basically? And that's what happened. I had to come home because, you know, was, couldn't just leave my family for six days, completely unplanned. So it was a very unique time to have cancer, can I say? But actually it was okay. I mean, you just, you're in a bit of a petri dish anyway.

Honey Atkinson (19:53)

Yes, yay.

Whoa, my God.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (20:09)

So yeah, we commuted for five months to have chemo in Adelaide. At that stage, I couldn't have it here in Newfoundland. It has changed a little bit since. So we went weekly. And then yeah, my hand was forced. I had to put someone on. And we were ready to have someone on. So thankfully, Nade could help out. yeah, she stayed pretty much. I mean, she runs her own honey business. But she stayed with me until my active treatment finished, which was

Honey Atkinson (20:25)

Mm.

Sue Heward (20:38)

Yeah, about a year later. Actually, think she had already started to, sorry, I probably got that wrong. I think she had already started on gift boxes, but yeah, she took on a more active role and then we had to put, we put someone else on as well, Tina, who still works with us. So cancer taught me that, you you can't do everything yourself and the business was probably ready for me to stop being so hands on. And I was getting a bit slow anyway, really.

Honey Atkinson (20:59)

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (21:08)

girls are much quicker at packing than me and you know my role is to come up with a creative creative ideas and to you know obviously manage the cash flow and manage where we're gonna go each quarter and yeah so I just feel like you have to be able to step back out but it's sometimes very difficult and if you can't get stuff it's also very difficult

Honey Atkinson (21:10)

Yeah.

Yes.

Yes, yeah.

Yes, yeah exactly. So as far

as breaking up the year goes you have like two distinct harvest times for two different for your... okay.

Sue Heward (21:40)

They kind of flow into each other. So

figs normally start in about December. You have a bit of a flush. Now this last December just gone, we had very late frosts in October and so all of our early figs were burnt off. So we didn't have an early crop, which wasn't a total, it sounds awful, it wasn't a total disaster.

There's just so many things overlying. We have fruit fly, we're a fruit fly free zone in the Riverland and now we have multiple outbreaks. So we can't sell fresh fruit. There's very strict restrictions. So that early crop we used to sell straight into restaurants because they're big, everyone wants things for Christmas, but we can't do that anymore. The fruit's not allowed to leave the Riverland. So it's extremely restrictive for farmers. So value adding really...

Honey Atkinson (22:26)

Yes.

Wow.

Sue Heward (22:37)

I mean, we're already doing that by sun drying and a few other things, but that's really the only option with things like figs because they're not very robust. Or you spray them and we don't spray anything. We refuse to spray and the spray that is used for fruit fly quite frankly, know, it's questionable in my mind. I'm not saying you can't, you don't have to manage fruit fly. That's, you absolutely have to manage fruit fly.

Honey Atkinson (22:38)

Yeah.

yes yeah yes yeah

Yes, absolutely.

Yes.

But there

are alternatives, yeah.

Sue Heward (23:06)

Yeah,

well, it's just, you know, got to ask hard questions of how the process is. Anyway, so long-stay store, we normally have an early crop in December. We didn't this year. And then we got black figs and white figs. come slightly. So there's an early crop of black and then it goes into white and then the blacks come in. So usually by the end of January, we are harvesting both. Now that's a little bit early. We're harvesting now. So we're a couple of weeks early.

Honey Atkinson (23:08)

Yes.

Yes.

Yep.

Sue Heward (23:35)

Then that folds into then we usually have grapes So we did pull most of our grapes out a couple of years ago because there's no you know, the grape industry is in really devastating status in Australia right now So most of the grapes we've pulled out and then we have pecans I'm sorry, then we have quinces. So they come in pretty much at the end of figs And then we have pecans

Honey Atkinson (23:49)

Mm.

Sue Heward (24:04)

To be honest, the time we get to the peak ends, we only have 50 trees. We haven't picked in the last couple of years because we've just been so busy and so worn out. So you get to June basically, and then harvest is officially over. Maybe May, maybe May. It just depends on the season. This season could be quite quick for figs this year. And the quinces are a lot more robust. They can hang on the trees. They can sit in the core room.

Honey Atkinson (24:11)

Yeah.

Right.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Mm.

Sue Heward (24:31)

and they just get better and better. Whereas the figs, once they're picked, you've got to do something with them. They don't ripen. Once they're picked, they just get softer.

Honey Atkinson (24:34)

Yeah, they're done. Yes. Yeah. And so, and so once that

middle of the year happens, what do you kind of have that some downtime or that you kind of go into planning for and marketing for?

Sue Heward (24:49)

No, the

thing is, so mum and dad have go into planning and clean up, but I'm in full marketing. So we don't do Valentine's Day. So it's campaign by campaign. So we don't do Valentine's Day really because we're too busy and of whatever you believe about Valentine's Day. it's very chocolate oriented and it's very hot here to do chocolate in February. So we don't generally.

Honey Atkinson (24:53)

Yes.

Yes, okay.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, yeah.

Sue Heward (25:17)

have much of an emphasis. So our first campaign will be Easter and then Mother's Day and they're usually very busy. then we have a bit of a break. Well, sorry, I mean, the thing is you don't have a break. You've to keep selling. you don't sell, you don't have any money, basically. So we'll have a monthly campaign, basically, but the next big one will be Father's Day. And then Christmas Creeps.

Honey Atkinson (25:21)

Mm-hmm.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Sue Heward (25:44)

like the Christmas it just gets earlier and earlier each year. to be honest we will start Christmas cakes in July and pre-sell them probably in August and we'll make them all. So this year we started out we were just going to do 30 Christmas cakes and we ended up making 100 and we sold them in about two days. So

Honey Atkinson (26:12)

Wow.

Sue Heward (26:14)

So this year we will do Christmas cakes early and then they sit for a few months to get better and better and then we dispatch from November to December depending on what people want. I mean part of my job, Christmas has become such a big thing in terms of gifting. So people pre-order from September onwards for Christmas and you

Honey Atkinson (26:21)

Mm.

Sue Heward (26:42)

because we're at the end of our season, we run out. And it's not a marketing ploy, we're just at the end of our dried fruit season, so we actually don't have any fruit left. So people that have followed me for a few years and that are on our mailing list realize when I say we're about to run out, we are actually about to run out. people, yeah, it's not just a ploy. So I've got lots of customers who order very early, which I'm very grateful for because that gives us

Honey Atkinson (26:49)

Yes.

Yeah, it's not a sales pitch. Yeah, yeah.

Sue Heward (27:12)

the time to plan and pack and whatever. So there's the marketing side or the value added side that is never off really except for the last three weeks. So we will run out by maybe the 10th of December and then turn off. Turn off until, we were gonna try and turn off until the 13th of January but it didn't quite work. Anyway, we turned off for about two and a half weeks. So that was our holidays and then now we're back on.

Honey Atkinson (27:13)

Yes, yeah.

Yes.

Yes, so as far as your role goes, because you've got people doing, know, obviously you need to step in when you need to step in, but you've got people helping with packaging and then the making of some of the stuff. like, and then you're doing the marketing, but sometimes you dip your toes in all those roles. And also are you also helping out as far as your alter goes as well?

Sue Heward (28:00)

So the first

couple of months it will be focused on harvest, our own harvest, and then just ramping up the sales. We don't do chocolate probably till end of February. In the meantime, I'm negotiating with other growers for the fruit that we also buy. So we produce black and white figs, the quince, and some citrus. I buy fresh.

Honey Atkinson (28:06)

Yep.

Yeah.

Mm.

Sue Heward (28:27)

mango and a few other fruits that we sun dry and then I buy from other growers locally peaches, pears, apricots, jujubes, maybe some plums sometime, maybe nectarines for our gift boxes. So it's just negotiating that. So it's a mad negotiation right now, to be honest, just to try and find enough fruit. And you know, like for example, apricots haven't had a great season here.

Honey Atkinson (28:47)

Where?

Yes, yeah.

Sue Heward (28:57)

It's the early apricots, it was a really late rain, really late and lots of people lost their apricots. So you you always have those seasonal fluctuations where the fruit isn't, it's different each year and some fruits a little bit more biannual than others so you might have a big crop of nectarines one year and not much the next year. So that's my job is to manage all of that and that's particularly right now.

Honey Atkinson (29:17)

Yeah, so you have to have

Yes.

Sue Heward (29:23)

So, you know, I've got wholesale orders who they want apricots and I'm like, well, we're at the end of the season from last year and I'm still trying to find the best apricots I can for this year. So our point of difference, we're not just a wholesaler, is I work with people that I try and find the best apricots I can, if it's apricots, for example, and then we re-sort it. So, yeah, we just...

Honey Atkinson (29:29)

Yeah, yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes, yeah. So you've got some really strong

connections with all the farmers in your region. Yeah.

Sue Heward (29:54)

Yeah, and it's all Riverland fruit. I mean,

have tried, I've resisted to go beyond the Riverland because our story is about the Riverland. As things get a little bit tighter, you know, I might have to look at fruit from other regions, but for now it's all Riverland and that's our story. And really, I want to be at a profile. There's so much unique produce that's grown in the Riverland. So part of my job is to work out.

Honey Atkinson (30:07)

That's your first. Yes. Yeah.

Sue Heward (30:22)

All right, so we can get fresh mangoes, we sundry mango, we dehydrate mangoes, which is very labor intensive and quite expensive. But there's a bit of waste with stuff that we can't sundry. So I'm thinking already, all right, what are the other products we can make with that mango? Because people love mango. And I tell you, the mangoes from the Riverland are phenomenal. I've not had anything like it, even when I was in Sri Lanka.

Honey Atkinson (30:29)

Mm.

Yes.

Wow, I can't even picture it growing

in South Australia. Cause I'm from North Queensland, yeah.

Sue Heward (30:51)

I know, I know, there's only really one big row here, but

they do a great job and it's just phenomenal fruit. I have not experienced it before.

Honey Atkinson (31:00)

Wow,

what variety of mango are they?

Sue Heward (31:03)

They've got a couple so Kensington Pride and then there's another one. I just don't know the name They might have three actually. I don't know but I just remember Kensington Pride, but they just like I've never Had yeah, maybe it's just because I get them so fresh and I haven't although in Sri Lanka we obviously had fresh mango, but Maybe I just haven't had it as fresh in other parts of Australia, but

Honey Atkinson (31:05)

Okay. Yes. Huh, wow. Yeah. How fascinating. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Hmm. Yeah. So I guess the key role

of your job now is that adaptability. Yeah, like you're looking at stuff and going, yes.

Sue Heward (31:36)

Product development. So procurement, so one, procuring our own fruit,

procuring other people's fruit, and then looking at unique, innovative products that we can make. They might just be for us online or they might be for wholesale. So that I suppose is another point of, that's something that small business owners need to work out is you don't need to wholesale everything. And some things it's just not viable to.

Honey Atkinson (31:51)

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Sue Heward (32:04)

On sell to someone else Obviously our own produce we can wholesale because we've got enough of it But you know, I might do a small batch of mango chutney this year mango and fig chutney or my mango and kong don't I'm never gonna wholesale that so It's just understanding the difference between online and also we sell a lot a sort of wholesale and then a lot online and Online is core to our business

Honey Atkinson (32:09)

Yes.

Yes, yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

Yes,

okay, yeah.

Sue Heward (32:31)

And

so if people haven't got a mailing list then they are crazy because there's so many people out there that want to know about what you do and want to buy direct from a farmer. You just got to cultivate that relationship and online is the way to do it. I mean we sell

Honey Atkinson (32:38)

Yes, yeah.

Yes, yeah.

Sue Heward (32:57)

send everything with Australia Post. We don't have Sendal or anything else here. Nothing else works. No one else is committed to supporting rural small businesses, to be honest, more than Australia Post. For all their faults, they do a phenomenal, they're phenomenal for us. we wouldn't be viable.

Honey Atkinson (33:16)

That's great to hear. Without it, you just wouldn't have a business, would you? Yeah,

yeah.

Sue Heward (33:23)

And you need to have a business relationship with it, it's not just posting from the front desk and whatever. Get a business account and, but your local post office is key, even though they don't necessarily manage some of the stuff once, you know, they might not be your account manager, they're your local post office's core. But I wouldn't, can't, I haven't found any other couriers or anything that can,

Honey Atkinson (33:35)

Mm.

Yes, build that alliance with them.

Sue Heward (33:53)

match up to Australia Post in terms of price. Now someone might be able to tell me differently, but that's just where we are. Like we're three hours northeast of Adelaide and we're seven hours northwest of Melbourne. eight hours northwest of Melbourne. So we're right near the border. You know, so if you're closer to a bigger city then it's different.

Honey Atkinson (33:56)

Wow.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we're in a similar position. I think we three hours from Canberra and yes.

Yeah, it is. Yeah.

Well that segues on to my next question I have is that, like I noticed that like when you look at your website and your branding and your social media, if really and your email, like I'm on your emailing list as well, that you do such an incredible job of sort of like stitching that all together and really putting a strong, well, I don't know whether it is,

Sue Heward (34:38)

It's all a fluke. I mean, seriously,

it's dumb. I mean, there is money. Don't get me wrong. My goodness. But.

Honey Atkinson (34:45)

You

Yeah, like I don't know, it's just, think, like I've done stories

on lots of growers and farmers over the years, because it's an interest of mine. And like, I think there's definitely a focus on people being like, of producing a really beautiful product, like they grow, you know, amazing radishes, or they grow, you know, really good. Yeah. And then that's where the thing and it's like a real like hiccup point. And it's like, well, people just should just buy it because it's great. And it's like, well, unfortunately, that's not how it actually works. You know, yeah. And so that's what I noticed.

Sue Heward (35:02)

Yes, but they don't focus on marketing. They don't. I totally understand.

No, it's not enough. It's absolutely not.

Honey Atkinson (35:18)

that you do well.

Sue Heward (35:18)

So I often say to people around here, you're quite happy to spend a hundred grand on a tractor, but you won't spend five grand on your logo. Like it's just, it's a completely different mindset. And so many people I know go, they plant a crop and then they go, we'll work out.

Honey Atkinson (35:26)

Exactly. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (35:42)

what we're gonna do with it later. And I'm like, no, you need to work your product out before you plant that crop. And how are you actually going to sell it? And where are you gonna sell it? You're not just gonna sell a bulk to the fresh market or whatever, or you could. But I mean, that's quite restrictive around here for us because of fruit fly at the moment. so where's your story and...

Honey Atkinson (35:46)

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

Sue Heward (36:07)

you know, see logos done with clip art or whatever it is like that's just not going to work anymore. And you expect that you're going to get a sale, you know, you're going to make all this money on online sales. You've got to build that. You know, it takes years to build your community and you have to be there. It has to be a two way communication. You can't just post things on Instagram or on Facebook or wherever you post TikTok, whatever and not, um,

Honey Atkinson (36:10)

I... yeah.

Mm.

Yeah.

Yes.

Sue Heward (36:35)

respond to people. It's social media for a reason, you actually have to be social. The thing is I like doing it, that's my interest, so to my advantage. then also because mum and dad manage, and my brother, of predominantly the harbour side. Like I'll step in right now,

Honey Atkinson (36:36)

yes yes yeah it's yeah it's social yeah yeah which you're which you're incredibly good at like that i feel like you're getting a real insight into

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Sue Heward (37:04)

there's a shortage of pitch pickers and whatever so we're trying to sort that out and I'll many I might help out with some sales or sorting on you know negotiating a price or whatever but I've read I mean I I'm not gonna get up drive the tractor I can't do all of that so you you do need different teams and yeah so that's what people need to think about is that if they aren't any good at taking a photo even if

Honey Atkinson (37:24)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (37:33)

I mean I don't use my phone, I've tried to use the camera but I don't have time to learn properly even though I'm interested in it. You have to be able to either pay for someone to do photos for you which I do that periodically but I can't, you know, I can't do that every campaign, I can't do a photo shoot. I just don't have time or I don't have money, you know, so you have to learn to be able to do it yourself if that's part of your plan is to sell online.

Honey Atkinson (37:35)

Yes.

Yeah, hear you. Yes.

Mm.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

Sue Heward (38:03)

So.

Honey Atkinson (38:03)

As far as marketing, your products go like I'd love for other people in your position, even if they don't necessarily grow the product, but they make the product and sell it direct to the consumer. Like with social media and email marketing, and you do a lot of collaborations as well. Are there any things that kind of stand out for you as far as like, really moving the needle with sales and connecting to your audience? Any kind of advice that you'd like to give?

Sue Heward (38:28)

Look,

is, I suppose the first thing to say it doesn't happen instantly. You absolutely need to have an email list. what happens is after a few years, so you don't make a profit for a years and then you might be lucky to break even or whatever and then the tax man finds you and then it's difficult. But all that aside, my core, my core.

Honey Atkinson (38:49)

Yes.

Sue Heward (38:54)

customers or my core, I mean I sort of see them as family, is that mailing list. So I base everything around, and this is from the online sales, it's different with the wholesale, but I base everything around those core customers getting access first. They're the first to know, they'll be the only one who gets a discount.

Honey Atkinson (39:07)

Mm.

Sue Heward (39:22)

I rarely put discounts online. You've got to be on that mailing list. Those discounts might be short lived. might only be like five days to buy something and whatever. But it's those repeat customers. They're the people that keep you going. also online means that you've got cash flow. Because in the meantime, you've got your wholesale sales and they might pay in 14 days or 30 days, whatever it might be. But you still need to have cash flow so that your online business is crucial for that. So you have to have an email mailing list.

Honey Atkinson (39:31)

Mm.

Yes.

Yes, yeah.

Sue Heward (39:52)

And you have to have a proper, I mean I think you have to have a proper email that has your brand, like not just a Gmail address. Like you need to go all out. Business name, you have a proper logo. But that doesn't mean that you have to, I mean my logo and my colors and all that sort of stuff, I did that through 99designs because I couldn't afford a marketing company. But that designer that,

Honey Atkinson (39:57)

Yes.

Yeah. Yes.

Sue Heward (40:22)

did our logo, he still does our labels now. you can still have, I mean people say 99 Designs, I mean there's lots of them now, but when I started that was the biggest one. And people can bitch about it and say, well you're just ripping them off. But the person I work with, he's from Italy and I didn't know that. He won the competition to do my logo. So I didn't really know where he's from. But he prefers it to be through 99 Designs because it's an interface for him to get paid.

Honey Atkinson (40:24)

Wow. Yeah.

Sue Heward (40:51)

Whatever, I'm not sure, but that's his preference, and we've worked together for six years now. So you don't have to get it all right at once either, but you do have to work towards, so have an email with your business name in it. Don't pay for that stuff. You just need to spend as much as you're gonna spend on your equipment on marketing. And you can't do it all at once.

Honey Atkinson (40:51)

Yes, yes.

That's amazing, see? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes I agree and how do you get people to sign up

Sue Heward (41:21)

You know, you just do what you can afford. Sorry.

Honey Atkinson (41:21)

to your email list?

Sue Heward (41:27)

There's a couple of things so they can sign up through our website, can sign up through Instagram. I do ads now on Facebook and through Meta so they can sign up through there. And then if anyone emails me directly for example and they want to be in a waiting list, I always send them the link. We were using Mailchimp for many years and then that has got to be outdated so we changed to Clavio last year. Is that how you say it? Clavio last year?

Honey Atkinson (41:54)

Okay, I'm

ahead of that one.

Sue Heward (41:57)

um,

K-L-A-V-I-Y-O I think. They're quite good, they're much better. I mean people argue there's better ones than them now but I mean I... There's only so many times in the day to search this out. But they have good flows and Mailchip does have flows but it was hard to work it out and Leo's easier to understand so I just swapped to them. And things like email flows are actually quite important for ongoing, you know it's not just about new customers but...

Honey Atkinson (42:02)

Okay.

I think it's a macho macho isn't it? Yeah absolutely. Okay.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (42:27)

your ongoing customers. So email lists for store, good branding, consistent branding. Don't have to have it all fancy though, but you do need to look like you've spent some money on it. Yeah, that's right. Totally. Yeah, that you're actually a business that isn't going to stick around and not, because there's so many scams now, people are really wary of that and fair enough. And that you're going to provide a good customer service. So

Honey Atkinson (42:28)

looking after. Yes, yeah.

Yes, can be be trusted, I guess in a way that you're actually like a business that exists. Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (42:57)

And I generally do all the customer service, which is probably getting harder and harder. But I think it's such a point of difference is that if there's a faulty product that we, if someone, like if a jar breaks when it gets sent or whatever, that we reply to the person, that we reply in a timely manner, even if you're flat out.

Honey Atkinson (43:03)

Mm.

Sue Heward (43:21)

mostly being transparent to say, we're flat out at the moment. I don't have any more stock. can even give you a credit or refund or we'll send you. I just feel like good customer service gets a little bit lost. And it's so, so important because the people who buy from me are buying from me because they want to support me, like our family business. They could get cheaper figs and apricots from the supermarket. They won't be Australian though, but or they could

Honey Atkinson (43:27)

Yes. Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Yes.

Sue Heward (43:50)

if it was about, you know, they really want to support local farmers. And so you have to respect that and just be nice. And I feel like most of my customers are very nice to me. don't like it's a two way. People have to be nice to you as well. But I don't see much rudeness in terms of when people contact me. They're generally asking questions and they might get me when I'm flat out. I can't reply very.

Honey Atkinson (44:01)

Yes.

Mm.

Sue Heward (44:20)

with a very long response but you keep those customers you know if you are kind to them they follow you through thick and thin I find.

Honey Atkinson (44:22)

Yeah. Well I think that's... Yes.

Yes, yeah. Well,

I think that that's the important thread through everything that you do is that

that they are buying from a human being. so like, you know, the things may not be perfect, something might break and your reply might be a bit quick, but you you being honest, genuine, genuine and like really human. And I feel like that that's super lacking in, that automated AI responses where it's like, you know, know that there's no one actually there and you just feel so let down. Like when you, when you get those, you just like, can you just, you didn't even read my email. It's just an automatic response. Can you just reply to me? Yeah.

Sue Heward (44:37)

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah, well you know, I mean we...

Yeah, know, just,

I mean, I do use email AI, sorry, to help me write newsletters. But that's really as an editor or as a when my brain is dead and I have no ideas how to write, put the words together. AI is fantastic for that. But we don't have AI responding to anything, you know, automated, whatever. And we're not at that point. And I don't know that we ever would be at that point because I just

Honey Atkinson (45:07)

Me too, yeah.

I hear you, yes.

huh.

No. No. No.

Yes.

Sue Heward (45:30)

feel like, yeah, you completely miss the boat. you can tell, like on social media, I can see when small businesses, they might have gone to an agency. And I understand why they have to because they just can't manage it. But you can see straight away if they don't respond straight away, like if the agency only responds through the week, you can see it in their profile, I reckon. Yeah.

Honey Atkinson (45:34)

Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a bit more removed. Yeah, yes.

Sue Heward (45:59)

Yeah,

and I know some people it's just, if it's not there bent, then you do need to subcontract out. But I feel like you kind of have to supplement it. If you're going to go with an agency, I reckon you still need to be there. If you're a small business, people want you, they want to be part of your story or to understand your story. So you've got to turn up even if you get maybe all the legwork done by someone else.

Honey Atkinson (46:02)

yes yeah

Yeah.

They do, yeah.

Yes, yeah. And on to that, like as far as sharing like you and your story and stuff goes, like, there's so many women in business that I know that I have the conversation with where they just feel so like scared about showing up like how they look and how their voice sounds and stuff like how do you kind of navigate that because you kind of talk on camera and

Sue Heward (46:43)

Well, look at me. mean, sorry, I'm flicking my hair.

And honey, you know what's happened this morning. I've had the plumber here since 6.30. Anyway, we had no water and whatever.

Honey Atkinson (46:49)

I know.

How do you let that go? How do you like, because for so many people, like, I feel the same way. feel sometimes nervous about showing up, but I, you know, I kind of worked through it, but it's going, oh, well, this is just how I am right now.

Sue Heward (47:05)

Yeah, and you know what, people

really like you showing up even when, if I look at some of the reels that I've done, where quite literally I'm just like, I don't know, an idea comes into my head and I'm just gonna do that and not overthink it and they end up being the best. They really like it, the response can be phenomenal. So, I mean, I don't think you can,

Honey Atkinson (47:22)

Yes.

Yes, yeah.

Sue Heward (47:34)

ramble on too much. Like I think you need to keep it tight. you know, use the rules. I mean, meta says whatever it is, 15 seconds, 17 seconds or whatever it is, you know, try and keep it tight. But, and I don't really do lives, but that's mainly because our internet isn't always reliable and it might cut out or pixelated, whatever. But I think it is about being real. And also, you know, to be honest, I'm 54 and maybe I feel less pressure than if I was 30.

Honey Atkinson (47:36)

Yeah.

Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Sue Heward (48:04)

Like it is what it is man. Life's too short. I've had breast cancer and you know what?

Life is a privilege. either if you don't like what you see then bad. Maybe I'm not the right account to be on. Do you like I kind of can't take that bullshit sometimes. Really and but as you can tell I like talking so you know that's why you see the problem.

Honey Atkinson (48:12)

Yeah.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's good. That's true. Yeah.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, you are a good talker.

Sue Heward (48:34)

can't be on myself and I've got a 12 year old daughter, Heaple, does filter me sometimes and say, my mate, I don't think you should do it like that. any whatever, you know.

Honey Atkinson (48:41)

I don't, yeah. Well, it's like,

yeah, it's just something that I advocate for a lot, like that people don't want to sort of show up. And I'm like, people, like people, people, people buy from people. It's like, yeah.

Sue Heward (48:50)

Yeah, I think you've got to show up more. Like I probably don't show up enough.

Like even last night I filmed something and I was like I really should be in the camera but I just, because we had no water. mean, it's just like I can't do this right now. But yeah, I was like, oh yeah, I probably should film that with my face but I can't do that today. people just appreciate it and...

Honey Atkinson (49:01)

Yes, Cheryl.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes, I think it's about

showing up every day with your face. It's just I think every now and then just knowing who that person's talking to. I think is that building that connection.

Sue Heward (49:17)

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And

it's funny, if I look back on my Instagram feed, the person who used to show up early in was my daughter, really, because she was cute, like, you four year old or whatever. And not that I necessarily would film her face much, but you know, it was more about her. And then as she's got older, she's less interested in that. So that's fair enough.

Honey Atkinson (49:31)

Yes, yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (49:44)

And

then I'm like, well, actually this is my business. It should be me that's showing up anyway. Yeah. So you just have to get used to it. And there's things like, I mean, I don't really use TikTok and TikTok shops is meant to be coming to Australia and I'm not, I haven't caught up and I don't know whether, if it's going to happen or whatever. I probably should be on TikTok, in TikTok, but there's only so much you can do.

Honey Atkinson (49:48)

Yep. So it was like a gentle in. Yeah.

Yeah sure.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Sue Heward (50:14)

So,

Honey Atkinson (50:18)

And have you found any kind of collaborations have worked well for you with any other businesses or?

Sue Heward (50:25)

well, I mean, from a business point of view, there's a few things. you're growing produce, the things I think you need to do is enter competition, so enter awards. So we entered Sydney Fine Foods really early on, and that has been phenomenal for us for traction in New South Wales in particular, but that then leads into work with chefs.

Honey Atkinson (50:39)

Yes.

Sue Heward (50:54)

So a lot of collaborations with chefs and then with other brands. So collaborations small and big. They can be really little or they could be something ongoing. I just think don't underestimate that joint value and it doesn't matter. They might have lots of followers or they might have none. If it works for your business, I think you should do it.

Honey Atkinson (51:02)

Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (51:21)

And, but it's gotta be meaningful. Like I have people with clothing bands contact me all the time to say, we do this. I'm like, there's no, what's the connection? Like, am I gonna wear a hot bikini while I make like sticky quince figs or something? You know what mean? Like it's, some things are silly, but it to be a logical collaboration. But like I said, one that's coming up for us is,

Honey Atkinson (51:23)

Mm.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yes.

Sue Heward (51:47)

we make a fig and rose tea with our fig leaf and rose tea and I saw through by from the bush at Christmas time there's Lainey who makes these tea cozies. So I just contacted her and said look we haven't done our fig leaf and rose tea free, we didn't do it last year but I would like to do a sum again this year. So she's made us a really beautiful unique hand knitted one tea cozy that we will use for Mother's Day.

Honey Atkinson (51:51)

Mmm, yum.

Sue Heward (52:17)

quite worked out how that will be, or we'll reveal that as it comes. it's just such a lovely, and it's so beautiful, the tea cozy, so unique. And then someone else blends our tea for us. So between the three businesses, it's just such a lovely story of predominantly women working together. Yeah, it's just so nice.

Honey Atkinson (52:21)

Yes, yeah.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that and I think that energy exchange that goes on is so beautiful like once you... yeah,

yeah.

Sue Heward (52:47)

And

also he doesn't want a beautiful tea cosy syrup. Even though I'm a coffee drinker, I've got a few tea cosies. And it's so hard to make. Literally with Lainey over Christmas, were just toying and frying and going, it's Figleaf and Rose. And she kind of drew a sketch. then suddenly she sends me a photo like last week. I didn't know it was going to be ready so early. And I'm like, wow.

Honey Atkinson (52:55)

I do like teak iceies as well.

Sue Heward (53:16)

amazing and then she sends it in person I'm like my goodness this is the it's so the chick it so for that person who gets that cozy tea cozy one of a kind it's just phenomenal so you know and then then then there's other things like a couple years ago we did a collaboration with Tokyo Lamington and they did a Christmas Lamington you know that was much but that was quite impromptu as well but it was much bigger but big and small

Honey Atkinson (53:21)

Well...

Yes, yeah so special, yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Sue Heward (53:45)

Whatever,

and things can happen really quickly or they can take a long time to prep. I feel like that you should go with your gut feeling on those kind of things. If you think, oh, this is feeling a bit hard, then sometimes it is. Do you know what mean? I don't know, it depends on people's intuition, but some things work really easily and some things take a battle.

Honey Atkinson (53:48)

Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah. It's not worth it. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Sue Heward (54:14)

They can take a long time, but if it's a battle, then sometimes maybe it's not quite the right mix for you. And that goes for everything. Like we once had a distributor, it took like a year to set it up. And it just, it seemed so hard all the time, but I'd invested so much time in it. And then, and it worked for a little while, but then they went bust. You know, like that kind of afterwards I thought I sort of trusted my gut feeling. Whereas the two distributors I now work with in.

Honey Atkinson (54:15)

Yes.

Yes, yeah,

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you, yeah, you had that feeling that wasn't right. Yes.

Sue Heward (54:43)

Victoria and New South Wales. It's a very open, honest conversation and yeah, just a different feeling. So I reckon you really got to trust your gut on that stuff, whether it's collaboration or anything.

Honey Atkinson (54:50)

It's easy. Yeah.

Yeah,

yes, yeah, definitely. How do you manage motherhood and balancing that with a...

Sue Heward (55:02)

god, it's so...

Well I only... So I should say up front I have one child, so Frank's dad, and I have an older stepdaughter but she's like, you know, her own life and stuff. I feel like it gets easier as you get older but you do have to be quite... You know, school holidays, you've just got to be kind to yourself. Either bring in more stuff if you can. Like I just know I can't work a full day.

Honey Atkinson (55:07)

Yes, yeah, yeah, still.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

Sue Heward (55:31)

And it's probably not so bad now, but a few years ago it was really difficult. And then obviously COVID, but when it was homeschooling stuff. as a small business, like I sometimes say, all right, it might be the third week, third school holidays before last term. So everyone's starting to get a little bit worn out. We might go, right, I'm gonna work three hours. The girls might be working and so they've got their jobs, but I might only work three hours and then.

that's it Frankie we go out and do something. Like and you just got to take like my partner doesn't he doesn't work on the business so he works he's got his own job. So if Frankie's home and we're and we still pack from home like we've got a plant and a different shed for all the fruit production but when we do in the gift box we pack from his dedicated room here. So you know it's in Frankie's house.

Honey Atkinson (56:03)

Yes, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yes.

Sue Heward (56:29)

So you just got to balance that I

just have to be kind but you know what school holidays and what do we got a week to go? We've had a fantastic we've had a fantastic I need to get into my business and you know, I've been There's a lady on Instagram Suzanne Anyway, so she just posted something she's a business coach. She posted something around Christmas time and said you know what?

Honey Atkinson (56:36)

no. I think it's longer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sue Heward (56:59)

If you've got kids or if January is your holiday time, do your planning in February. Just take your pressure off. So I have done a little bit of planning. Well, I know I haven't finished. I know, I know, know. I did start a little bit. I started a little bit and I probably have done more than I've ever done to be honest. But now I'm like, I've got to finish. like, I just have to. There's only a week left of school holidays. Just got to make them.

Honey Atkinson (57:04)

Yes. Yeah. That's good advice, isn't it? Cause I feel the same. I feel really a lot of pressure. Cause everybody's posting about like what they're doing for the year ahead. And I'm like, I'm like a holding pattern right now.

Okay, yeah.

Yes.

Sue Heward (57:28)

and then I'll finish

Honey Atkinson (57:29)

Yes.

Sue Heward (57:29)

it all after that because they just don't have dinner time. And sometimes it's actually easier to do things like pack or do things in the business when your kids are home because you can't sit at desk because then they see that you're open-slab. No, open-slab, you know what I mean. It's time to play, mum, or we've got to go do something. Anyway, so yeah, you just got to do what you can do.

Honey Atkinson (57:31)

the capacity.

Yes.

Yep. Well, you so switched. Yeah, you so...

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, definitely. wow. Yep.

Yep. Sounds like what we're all doing.

Sue Heward (57:56)

And I always

realise that things are never the same. So just because you've had a bad school holidays, whatever, doesn't mean the next one's going to be the same. Everything changes as kids grow up and you grow and your business changes.

Honey Atkinson (58:00)

Yeah.

Yeah, you can make it better next time. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a hard balance, but isn't it? But working with someone else would be, I don't know, like I couldn't imagine that either. Like no flexibility at all. Like that'd just be the worst. Yes.

Sue Heward (58:17)

Yeah.

well, I mean, and then they're in childcare the whole time or,

you know, out of school care, you know, holiday care and whatever. yeah, mean, Frankie did go to childcare, you know, when I was still working at the cancer council. But I mean, that's why we left. It was too much of a juggle, too much of a commute as well. mean, we loved Melbourne. Melbourne was where the time of our life, but there's no way I could live in the city anymore now.

Honey Atkinson (58:28)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I know you have kids and then you get to see them at all. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So what's next for your business this year and moving forward? What do you hope for? Okay.

Sue Heward (58:53)

Anyway.

Well look, we really have to build. I mean this

is the worst time ever in terms of, although let's hope an interest rate will come down soon. But we just need more space. I don't want to over capitalise so it's so funny. I don't know whether this manufacturing is a man's world. not, I think it is. I think it is and so the tendency is to build these massive sheds and have massive debt which I just

Honey Atkinson (59:05)

Yes, yeah.

I think it is. I've heard that.

Sue Heward (59:26)

don't want a bar off. So, you know, people struggle with me because of that and even like, you know, business association, food business association, they're automatically say, well, you're going to export because there's a lot of you can get grants to export. Yeah, it's just like, I know and it's like, but economy scale, you have to take out a $5 million loan or whatever.

Honey Atkinson (59:28)

huh.

Mm.

I know it's like they jumped from that to like that and they start going economies of scale economies of scale and it's like

Exactly. Yeah, I

don't want to do that. Yeah.

Sue Heward (59:54)

I am not interested in that. I

want to do sustainable, I want to be able to use our produce. And there's a place for it, but I just don't feel like the business world or the manufacturing world has caught up with that. I feel like women do it differently and the infrastructure to support women is just not there. Even looking at grants, it's always...

Honey Atkinson (1:00:00)

Exactly.

I completely agree.

They do, yeah.

Sue Heward (1:00:22)

for massive grants, there's nothing for like 50 grand or whatever. I just want to take a small leap. And I've got a very good accountant that does work with lots of different food businesses. And he does struggle with me because he works with big businesses like Hague's Chocolate and whatever. But it actually did make it easier once I had cancer to say, look, my view of the world is different and I need to make a profit and we've got to.

Honey Atkinson (1:00:25)

yes yeah yeah

Yes.

Yes, yeah.

Sue Heward (1:00:52)

We live off of that profit, don't get me wrong, but I don't want to go out and get a massive loan. I just am not interested, but I do. So yes, we do need to build. So we're just trying to look at what's... We just need more space. yeah, there's more things we could do, but we can just do what we're doing now quicker. So you do need machinery and...

Honey Atkinson (1:00:54)

Yeah.

Yeah.

As far as processing, if that's what you're wanting to expand, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, yeah.

Sue Heward (1:01:22)

stuff like that.

There's only so much you can, yeah, we just need a dedicated space and move it out. Some of the things that we're doing in the house out, we just need separation. So I'm hoping I can make that happen this year, but you just don't know. Business last year was for online businesses, we came off of COVID, which really was very good for business and grew, whoops, and grew very quickly. Can you still hear me with that? okay, I dropped it on the ground.

Honey Atkinson (1:01:31)

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

Sue Heward (1:01:51)

And then up to about Mother's Day of last year, business was really good and then it really dropped for a few months and it was a bit of a shock. this is, online was still okay but wholesale, those retail shops were really struggling. And then you know, you have the tax man come in and the...

Honey Atkinson (1:02:01)

Right, yeah. Okay.

Sue Heward (1:02:15)

end of June and say you've got to pay this money and then businesses dropped because it was based on last year's business. Anyway, so that was pretty tough. So it was rocky, but I feel like if you don't over capitalize and if you to go on a tax plan or whatever it might be, payment plan, you can get through. big or not trying to over capitalize, but we do need to build. Yeah. So that's the next thing for us.

Honey Atkinson (1:02:15)

Mm-hmm.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Mm.

Yeah, yes, yeah. Okay, great.

Sue Heward (1:02:45)

I'll probably need to secure a little bit more fruit to be honest. You get to the point where, because we use everything we grow, so you've got to grow more. But I don't want a rapid expansion. There's not enough water. So you've got to do it in a way that's sustainable. So yeah, there's always a constant juggle. And probably just understanding, like I'm just really learning things like Christmas is such a, Christmas gone was such a big period where there's more products we could produce basically.

Honey Atkinson (1:02:47)

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yes.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

There is.

Sue Heward (1:03:13)

to service that end of the year and planning for that. Yeah.

Honey Atkinson (1:03:15)

Mm.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. it's exciting. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Sue Heward (1:03:21)

Yeah, it is exciting. mean, I wouldn't do it if it wasn't exciting. I think you've really got to love it. You're not

going to make a lot of money. mean, you don't make a lot of money. But it's got to be your passion. I couldn't go back to an office job now. I mean, I just couldn't do it, even though I was really good at it did it for a long time. So, you you just got to really love it and then grow your veggie garden on the side because that's my mental health belief.

Honey Atkinson (1:03:29)

Yeah, but it's a lifestyle, isn't it?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, I agree. Yes. Yeah.

Great. Well, I'll the best way to keep in contact with you, I think if you want to have Sue's amazing produce and not miss out, I think when those important comes time is to sign up to emailing list, follow you on Instagram and I'll include all the links underneath, but they're the main point.

Sue Heward (1:04:06)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean they

can sign up through Instagram or Facebook or it's on our website really. In terms of yeah, if you want to get in on those gift boxes and stuff, if you want to just follow us on Instagram to see our story then we'd love you to. thank you.

Honey Atkinson (1:04:11)

Great.

Yeah, thank you so much for your time and your energy