This 53-year-old ‘fish mongress’ earns $200,000 a year: ‘You just do what needs to be done’

Laura Foley Ramsden’s ardour for fish is in her DNA.

The 53-year-old is a fourth-generation fish mongress in Massachusetts. Her great-grandfather based Foley Fish again in 1906, and it has been within the household since. Ramsden and her husband purchased it from her mother and father in 2004.

Although they offered the corporate to specialty meals distributor Cooks’ Warehouse in 2021, Ramsden and her husband stay actively concerned with the enterprise her household began.

Over time, Rasmden has performed a job in practically each facet of the Foley Fish enterprise, from packing fish to constructing a social media presence. Her annual wage began at $23,000 recent out of faculty, and he or she earned $200,000 in 2021, when the corporate offered. Her official title was most lately VP of gross sales, however she’s higher referred to as the fish mongress.

Although the world has modified lots since her great-grandfather began promoting fish, Ramsden says the enterprise nonetheless appears fairly related: “We’re actually simply targeted on getting the fish off the boat reduce, packed as rapidly as doable and turned again round to our prospects.”

Ramsden clocked her first hours for Foley Fish through the summer season she was 15. “I labored in the future packing fish, making bins, opening tins, and I believed it was actually chilly and actually lengthy and actually terrible and informed my dad I modified my thoughts and I needed to be a bus woman in any case at a restaurant.”

However her dad informed her Foleys do not give up. His phrases caught: Other than a quick stint in public relations, she’s been with the corporate ever since.

Grateful to her mother and father for making her work on the plant ground, Ramsden has realized about practically each position inside the enterprise. From packing and transport to shoveling ice, she’s gained quite a lot of abilities out of necessity.

“If you run a small enterprise, you simply do what must be performed,” she says.

Many assume the corporate’s head fishmonger can be male. Folks have even gone as far as to ask if Ramsden’s brothers can be those to take over the household enterprise. However this was the trail she needed, and he or she’s proud to be a lady in a male-dominated business. 

“When my mother joined the enterprise, she was the fish mongress. And so then when my husband and I purchased the enterprise, I used to be the fish mongress,” she says.

Ramsden hasn’t had issues as a lady in a male-dominated business, she says. She’s armed herself with data and expertise to be a useful resource and collaborator for her male colleagues.

And being a fish mongress has by no means meant much less work for her than a person would tackle. In Ramsden’s position, daily can look completely different relying on what must get performed, from package deal design to product evaluations.

“In a small enterprise, you are sort of carrying plenty of hats, and as a fish mongress, I undoubtedly put on plenty of hats,” she says.