SALLY CUDMORE| AGRI ALLIANCE
This interview was published as a collaboration by the team at Creative Consulting and Graziher is proud to support their month-long series of #ruralregional women.
How did your project/business idea come about?
I had been looking to move on from my previous role, which had me on the road and away from home a little too much. Jo and I had been talking a lot about opportunities in the Industry, and I had gone for some great positions in the City, only to be told that I was the perfect candidate for the job but I would have to relocate to the City. On one such interview, I was talking with the CEO of a company, who suggested if I were to ever look at going out on my own then they would definitely be interested in contracting projects to me on a regular basis. Jo and I having previously discussed where we thought we saw an opening in the Industry – Jo having experience in Sponsorship and my experience and relationships in the Industry – we formed Agri Alliance, a company that specialises in sponsorship, events and project management solely dedicated to the Agriculture Industry. The banner allows us to focus on our core role as a sponsorship and event management company, but also allowed me to focus on project based work in the Industry where required.
What stage is your project/business in?
We hit our 1 year milestone in September, which was a pretty exciting achievement, we are definitely still in the growth phase. Hitting this milestone though provided a good opportunity to reflect on what we had achieved over the last 12 months, what worked, what hadn’t worked, and look forward to where we wanted to take the business over the next few years.
We plan to celebrate with our first Christmas Party towards the end of this year – we think we deserve it!
What were you doing before you launched your business/project?
I was working for a global livestock nutrition company. I spent a lot of time travelling and away from home visiting farms, feedlots, studs etc. discussing different methods of feeding cattle and sheep, looking at diet reformulations and additives to boost production, health and fertility goals. It was an amazing job, and I learnt a bucket load about the Industry both here in Australia, and overseas with some great opportunities to travel around the US and Europe.
When was the moment you thought, I might be onto something here?
Jo and I in the early stages sort a mentor who had been heavily involved in the Industry for years, who had taken a step back from her business recently, the response we received from her was phenomenal, when we floated our concept and it was really uplifting for us both to hear such great feedback from a lady who had been so successful and so well respected in the Industry. We then tested the waters attending our first Industry conference as Agri Alliance at BeefEx on the Gold Coast in 2016, conversations that we had over these few days, and relationships that we built formed I think really got us both excited by what we were trying to achieve with Agri Alliance.
