Meet Catherine Dodd, founder of Doddl
Having studied Environmental Management at university, Catherine went on to work as a Waste Manager for a local council. However, it always felt that she had another path to pursue, with new business ideas constantly whirling around her head. Push came to shove when Catherine had her first daughter, quickly followed by twins a year later. With 3 children under 18 months, the nursery fees were greater than Catherine’s income, and with no extended family close by to support her, Catherine became a full-time mum. It was in this role that Catherine experienced the ‘light bulb’ moment that, through determination and passion became doddl cutlery, and the start of doddl.
There’s always a lightbulb moment before the beginning of a new venture. What was that moment for you?
In September 2013, we were on holiday in Portugal. We were tackling another messy mealtime, with pasta twirls being flicked everywhere as my kids tried to eat with the standard plastic forks, we had given them, when my daughter accidentally broke the handle off her fork. She then proceeded to eat her food much more easily with the broken-off, stubby utensil end. It literally was my light bulb moment. This gave me the idea that normal long handled cutlery was the problem. I knew I had potentially stumbled onto an idea that could improve one area of daily stress for parents. I couldn’t wait to get home and start building on my idea.
What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?
Back in 2013 I had been scraping along at rock bottom. My twins were 2 and my daughter was 3. I was mentally and physically exhausted and was struggling to find the joy in anything. I felt trapped inside the house and the kids would start to get cabin fever and squabble, but I was scared to go out as it was hard to keep the 3 toddlers safe. Whilst out and about one day, I had experienced a 'near miss', when they all ran in different directions upon leaving a park. One child ran towards a busy road, one ran the other way towards a lorry reversing down a side-street and the third went to follow ducks that were on the verge across from us. With some helpful motorist intervention, I managed to get them back safely, but after that I felt totally outnumbered and out of control so feared leaving the house. We spent a lot of time at home where basically the focus of our day was feeding and sleeping.
But mealtimes were a challenge - the kids would get frustrated feeding themselves; mealtimes were very messy, and it was never an enjoyable experience. It just became a task to complete, with the aim of getting through it as quickly and as stress-free as possible. Then came my Eureka moment and I knew I had hit upon something that could make a real difference to other families also struggling at mealtimes. That was always my motivation - that I knew I was creating something useful and testament to that is the thousands of 5 star reviews we get highlighting this along with the very personal letters people have written to us to convey how life changing the cutlery has been for them; the financial goal aside, it was always my goal to get doddl into as many little hands as possible because I know it is the best cutlery for them and I want every parent to have an enjoyable experience of mealtimes.
Tell us about your experience prior to launching your business?
Before doddl I worked in Waste Management and Street Services for a Local Authority. This included promoting recycling, designing and building public toilets, managing waste collection crews and generally dealing with a lot of complaints!
However, I was always fascinated with the world of business and specifically entrepreneurship. To build something from nothing - taking just an idea and turning that into a functioning business. I loved the idea of running my own business - having control and flexibility, but also the opportunity to implement ideas. I hadn't been able to do this in my previous 9-to-5 job as the idea for 'change' was not fully embraced. I therefore started to think of new 'inventions'; I would keep a little black book of my ideas. I would then eagerly research them, trying to see if anyone was doing anything similar. However, often the road ended when I concluded it would not be commercially viable for one reason or another. After having my 3 kids, it was not viable for me to return to work, so I became a full-time mum – a journey that would ultimately lead me to doddl.
How did you conquer those moments of doubt that so often affect entrepreneurs or stop many with great ideas – what pushes you through?
I often have had doubts – when things get tough and you feel that everything is conspiring to work against you, you question why you ever started this as it’s not the fairy-tale journey you imagined. I naively thought I would create a great product and boom – we would launch to market and I would be making millions overnight….I had watched dragon’s den and seen the products that went from zero to hero at the blink of an eye. But that’s not reality for the vast majority – it’s a hard slog but then that’s almost the beauty of it….when you have invested so much time, energy and emotion into your business, you will not want to see it fail; it’s like nurturing your baby – no matter how tough it gets, you believe in it, you want it to succeed so you keep on going.
What are your thoughts on failure?
I really struggle with this. I want to say ‘it is ok to fail’ but then I wouldn’t be being honest. For me personally, it is not ok to fail. I struggle to take the positives from failing and therefore failure can be very self-destructive; I interpret it directly as ‘you were not good enough’, and as a perfectionist, not being good enough is a difficult pill to swallow. Maybe it’s because I see no reason for failure. If you are sitting an exam for example – providing you prepare thoroughly and do the revision, then you shouldn’t fail. A lot of businesses fail because people have made bad decisions (even if they can’t necessarily see it). I too have been near the brink of failure with my business…maybe I made some poor decisions to get to that point, maybe I was unlucky that I was trying to build a business on a shoestring, maybe I was lucky that my business didn’t fail, or maybe I ultimately made good decisions that meant I didn’t fail.
How did you fund the business in the early stages?
The business was entirely self-funded in the early days, with the support of family members and taking out a loan against the house to provide a small amount of working capital. Due to the severe restrictions on finances, I focused a lot of my energies on securing grants or ‘in-kind’ support. This support contributed about 30% to the pot, so was very significant in terms of getting us through the early stages of developing the business.
Is word of mouth working to your advantage?
Word of mouth has created an incredibly strong foundation for our business, and it is what helps us grow to this day. doddl really solves a problem, it delivers an experience that is so impactful, emotional and enjoyable that parents want to share it. Parents have always shared their experiences through videos and pictures on social media as we all as directly to friends and family and that is something that, for our target audience is invaluable. They are really proud of the moment their child eats with cutlery, or when they sit together as the family at the table and enjoy a mealtime. As a parent, you need to be able to trust any brand or product that you are going to use with your child, and who better to help build that trust than other parents who can give an honest account having experienced it.
What impact would you like to have on women around the world through your business?
I want women to feel more empowered, whether as a parent or as an entrepreneur. As a parent, knowing that they’ve got the right tools to work with when trying to deliver the best mealtime experience for their kids. There are plenty of challenges to overcome as it is when you’re raising your children, without adding to the pressure by giving kids equipment at mealtimes that are counter-productive and counter-intuitive. As an entrepreneur and hopefully as a role model on the business front, I want to show that if you believe in what you’re doing, even with limited experience, means to start a business, a family, an illness – that none of this need be a barrier to pursuing your ambitions to being successful.
Why do you think your business has had such a positive impact across your industry?
Doddl products have infiltrated the large space between cheap, mass-produced cutlery and the high-end expensive stainless-steel sets. Doddl is premium, beautiful (as far as cutlery goes!) and long lasting but sits within reach of being affordable.
Doddl has inspired massive innovation in the children’s cutlery sector. Doddl was the first to re-design cutlery to produce a much more compact and ergonomic design specifically for children; many brands have attempted to follow suit, with has resulted in much greater focus being placed on mealtimes. The growth in this sector has helped create a buzz and increased awareness amongst consumers, which ultimately is beneficial for family mealtimes in general.
What’s the most important question entrepreneurs should be asking themselves?
I think the most important question to ask is can you afford to do it? By this I mean both in terms of financially and emotionally. Financially you will likely be having to stump up a proportion of your own (and families) money, and whatever you estimate that to be, at least double it. You will also have to be patient as you’ll likely not earn any money for a considerable period of time – accounting for the period of research, testing and product development, not to mention once launched as initial revenues maybe very small, so you need to be clear how you are going to support yourself/your family. Secondly in terms of mental capacity. Trying to build your own business from scratch is very tough and can be a lonely place; there are constant knock-backs and setbacks that you must keep picking yourself up from and carrying on. You may hit a brick wall at every turn, so you need to be confident in your resilience, versatility and ambition that you know you will keep on going, no matter how hard it gets.
What are your thoughts on ‘no sleep’ culture as an entrepreneur?
It’s not for me. And why? I wonder whether this is driven from some in the industry who feel it is a ‘rite of passage’ i.e. you are not really a true entrepreneur unless you are working every hour god sends. It’s what you do with the hours that counts not the total amount of hours that you sit at your desk. I also think quality of work is directly impacted by clarity of mind, and you only really get that with some form of balance in life. Ultimately I need sleep to function so if I don’t sleep, I’m useless to the business.
