Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Marshall. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sarah , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.

I met my husband working together and when we started a family we wanted to continue working together. Our daughter grew up at the farmers market and events and wanted to start her own business as well. So she now freeze dries organic berries and sometimes candy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I worked in social work for 10+ years. Part of that involved picking up produce from farmers for families and services as well as teaching families how to preserve and make the most of the produce they received. When I began my business I wanted to continue to build a community through food. That meant dealing directly with farmers, salt harvesters, spice merchants, bee keepers, etc… I also wanted to not lose the teaching element so I wrote my first book “Preservation Pantry” and offer classing teaching all facets of food preservation. We learned in our first year that our success was going to look different as our friend’s with food businesses were getting out of production and I very much wanted to be the person who makes each bottle of sauce or spice blend. We are a business built to support local farms and our growth is in efficiency. We make everything with seasonal produce and are very proud of the farmers we get to support.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We are a small business and we do everything ourselves. When covid hit we had to take on more wholesale and big accounts which led to us surviving but also dislocating my fingers (putting lids on an order for 25,000 bottles.) We had lost our in person events and had no choice. We also offered free local porch delivery which was very successful and we continue offering that to this day. As the world opened up again we have dialed wholesale back and focused on our in person events and direct sales.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Our business is built on keeping in touch with our farmers and the people who buy Marshall’s Haute Sauce. We are the people at any event. We are who you get if you email or call us. We both offer classes through Air BnB Experiences. Over the 12 years I have had the business people have seen us start a family and we have grown with people’s families. at the market it is not uncommon for people to share with us what their kids are doing or catch us up on what is going on with them. People know that by supporting us that they are also supporting many lovely farmer families.

Contact Info:

• Website: marshallshautesauce.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com