Soul Economy

Soul Economy had the pleasure of speaking to Fair Trade entrepreneur, Sally Oulton, the owner of Go Fair recently. Go Fair provides multicultural and educational children’s toys and resources from communities in South and South-East Asia as well as from our very own indigenous communities here in Australia. And, they recently celebrated their first birthday! Learn more about Sally’s inspirational journey which began with sailing around the world for 10 years – spending 3 months of the year in St Tropez and being chased by pirates in the Red Sea.

1. Tell us a little about Go Fair. How long have you been operating?
Go Fair was established in May 2008 to provide children with hand made multicultural and educational resources while helping those in need. We have just celebrated our first birthday and there are now seven of us on board working throughout NSW, QLD and New Zealand. In the next year we will continue to expand our team and move into other parts of Australia.

2. What inspired you to start the company? What were you doing before this?
For a decade I worked as a chef on board privately-owned yachts based in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Scandinavia and here in Australia. Those 10 years brought many exciting adventures while working for some wonderful people and a few not-so-great wealthy people. I had some unforgettable adventures and some of my favourite memories include:

• Shopping in exotic ports all over the world and trying local cuisines
• Being based in the middle of St Tropez for three months of the year (over three years). The Hotel Sube was right in front of the yacht and I loved sitting on the balcony with a glass of wine in the evening watching the world go by
• Sailing across the Southern Ocean with 47+ knots – took 23 days from Auckland to the bottom of Argentina
• Rounding Cape Horn – oddly in flat calm sea
• Being chased in the Red Sea by pirates – fortunately we got away!
• Visiting exotic and remote islands throughout the Mediterranean and Caribbean
• Cooking and racing with 22 Norwegian sailors in European regattas
• Celebrating my 35th birthday at the Astoria Hotel in St Petersburg with Beluga Caviar & French Champagne – all paid for by the boss

After so many years of working in this environment of extreme wealth, I began to feel a little disillusioned. I thought there had to be more to life than looking after rich people. Don’t get me wrong, I felt extremely fortunate and grateful for the lifestyle, and the opportunities it had brought, but after seven or eight years I felt pretty drained.  A turning point took place when I was looking after one of Britain’s wealthiest men (worth $1.4 billion). He was arrogant, with no respect for anyone, including his wife. His demands were over the top and for 10 days he belittled me, the crew and every dish that was sent out that he had requested (and also instructed me how to cook).

I woke up one morning not long after this had happened, packed my bags and left. No amount of money is worth such impertinence and the shattering of my self-esteem. But it took me another two years of working on board superyachts before I decided it was time to go home and find something else to do. For the first year after leaving boats I spent time with my family and wrote a book about my adventures at sea while trying to figure out what to do next.

It was while I was in Canada with my partner, Mark, who was there for work, that we caught up with a friend who had just returned from four years of working for NGOs in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. I felt very inspired listening to her describe her work helping others. It was the extreme opposite to what I had been doing. And then we went to a fair trade shop together called ‘Ten Thousand Villages’ and it was there I experienced another turning point. I knew I could do something similar but at the same time, didn’t want to work overseas again. This was when thoughts of working with fair trade organisations in Australia first came to mind…

3. Tell us a little about your range of children’s toys. Which are the most popular?
Our entire felt range – including puppets, story telling puppets, handbags, strings and games – come from Nepal. The wooden blocks, spinning tops and puzzles are made in Sri Lanka. Our gorgeous wall hangings, lanterns and strings come from India. The Worry dolls are from Guatemala, educational charts from the Philippines and soft, funky, soft toys from Sri Lanka. We also support quite a few indigenous organisations here in Australia which sell handmade Aboriginal dolls, educational cards, posters and books. Aboriginal people create all of these products including indigenous children who have written many of the books we sell.

The felt puppets from Nepal are extremely popular. We asked a company to make the story telling puppets for us in response to customer demand in our local Australian market. These include Crocodile & five cheeky monkeys, Mama Duck and the Hungry Caterpillar. When the first shipment arrived we were not only thrilled with what they had made, but also pleasantly surprised when they arrived in recycled paper boxes. This company continues to create products exclusive to Go Fair that we request to meet the demands of our local market. Our products have also been exceptionally popular with organisations in remote communities in Northern Queensland and The Torres Strait Islands where fair trade toy outlets are not so readily available as the cities.

All the indigenous range is popular with the childcare industry because it helps them meet their accreditation requirements and we continue to source other products to fill these ongoing demands.

The soft funky toys and wooden toys from Sri Lanka are also extremely popular. The wooden toys are made by seven families and everything is cut and painted by hand.

But it’s not just children that Go Fair caters for. We are providing products to special needs schools and organisations such as the Alzheimer’s Association. Our products are also proving to be helpful to elderly suffering from illnesses such as dementia.

4.    Where can our soulful consumers buy your products?
Online! www.gofairtrading.com.au

If they are in Brisbane, they are most welcome to pop into our office/showroom. We are open on Mondays and Tuesdays. Or they can contact one of our distributors – listed on our distributor page on the website.

We are actively looking for more distributors throughout Australia. If you know of anyone or are interested, please take a look at the requirements by clicking on our distributor link on the website or email sally.oulton@gofairtrading.com.au for more information.

5. It is wonderful that your products are fair trade. Tell us a little about how you ensure that your products are ethically made and fairly traded?
All the companies overseas that I buy fair trade products are registered with International Fair Trade Association.

The Aboriginal organisations I source products from, here in Australia, are family run businesses employing local Aboriginal people. Our strategy for sourcing new products is to travel to remote communities to meet the talented artists face to face thereby giving us the opportunity to learn about their products first hand and in turn, this information and knowledge can then be passed on to our customers and their children.

6. What have been your greatest challenges in setting up Go Fair?
Finding the right distributors who understand the importance of providing exceptional customer service, has at times been a challenge. It is my number one priority that customers are looked after and I have been fortunate to have found a wonderful team.

Sourcing products of exceptional quality as well as being brightly coloured, can also sometimes be challenging. Colour and quality are of up most importance.

7. What have been your greatest successes?
Succeeding beyond my expectations in the first year and supporting more than 12 organisations. In many cases, demand is greater than the supply and our suppliers are having trouble keeping up.

8. Tell us a little about the communities that you support?
There is so much to tell – it would probably be best to take a look at our artist page on the website where all the information on each company that we support is listed with their story.

http://www.gofairtrading.com.au/index.php?MMID=1289&SMID=1339

9. What advice would you give to others keen on starting their own responsible businesses?Be passionate, love what you do and have a dream. Write down your goals and have a focus. Find a niche and be different.

Now we here at Soul Economy like to get to know our soulful entrepreneurs a little better, so on a more personal note we have 5 quick questions:

1. What are you reading at the moment?
Shirely Maclaine – Saging while ageing. She is an inspiration and quite spiritual. I read her previous book about her spiritual walk to Santiago di Camposta. One of my dreams is to do this pilgrim walk across the top of Spain and enjoy walking, nature and the Spanish food with no outside influences. It takes a month.

2. Who would be your dream next door neighbour?
My girlfriends I met in the yachting industry. They are all scattered around the world. A few live on the Spanish island of Mallorca, in the States and NZ. I miss them and I miss catching up with them in port, having a glass of wine and sharing our tales and adventures. Many have children I’m yet to meet.

3. Where is your favourite travel destination?
There are many but my most favourite is being at sea for days on end, far away from land. I miss the openness, the vastness, the dolphins coming to play and spending time reflecting. I also miss sailing into a new port and discovering the food of the place.

4. What are you passionate about?
The diversity of my life so far has bought many passions. I love the land, the outback, food, the sea, diving, fishing and arriving in a new travel destination that brings such a contrast in culture that it overloads your senses!

Now working in the fair trade industry, I am passionate about making a little difference – not only for people overseas but also our local Indigenous communities – to teach others about their culture – something I am sad that I never had the chance to learn about when I was a child.

5. What one change would you like to see in the world in your lifetime?
Stop over-fishing our oceans and killing whales. It frightens me that our children/grandchildren may not get to see the wonders beneath the sea that we have been fortunate to see.

Go Fair
Shop 6/9 Hubert St
Woolloongabba QLD 4102  Australia
M: (+61) 0405 963 473
E: sally.oulton@gofairtrading.com.au
W: www.gofairtrading.com.au

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