Ross owns and operates Vino Rosso Tours in the NSW Southern Highlands. Since 2020 Vino Rosso Tours he has been helping people to experience the fantastic food and wine venues of the Southern Highlands.
He has a background in Finance has worked for some of Australia’s largest financial insititutions.
After moving back to the Southern Highlands at the start of Covid, Ross decided to start a tour company so that he could share just how beautiful his home town was.
My Name is Ross, I own and operate a Food and Wine Tour company in the NSW Southern Highlands (Vino Rosso Tours).
I have had a series of “Escapes”. I grew up in regional NSW and was desperate to escape to a larger city to attend University.
After working in finance for close to 10 years, I was desperate to escape Sydney and took a job working in Finance in Central Queensland.
A couple of years later I Escaped to Regional NSW (full circle back to where I grew up) and have started a Wine Tour Company, leaving behind corporate finance.
For years, I would take groups of friends and colleagues from the city back to my home town to explore wineries, country pubs etc. I remember one of my friends telling me that he thought I looked truly happy while being the “tour guide” and that is something that resonated with me.
I love wine, I love helping other businesses share their stories and I love helping people have a fantastic time.
I have always wanted to start my own business. I would always dream of being able to do things my way, I just never quite knew what type of business I wanted to run.
Food and wine, and regional NSW has some much to offer. Working with people that take a risk and make wine, grow amazing produce or chase a dream of owning a distillery is so much fun.
These people are dreamers, it takes so much guts to risk it all to be a producer in Australia, but they are amazing people and I get to help share their stories.
To me means always looking for ways to make things better or to look for a different angle.
The amazing entrepreneurs I know, can smell opportunity, and know how to maximise it. It takes self-awareness, creativity and passion.
It means seeing opportunity as a challenge, having a willingness to risk it and fail, but then the ability to be resilient and pick yourself up off the mat.
You learn quickly that you have to try everything. Unlike other workplaces, where you can look for assistance or hire someone to do the marketing, or Human Resources, or the accounting. At least in part, this is all you.
It’s honestly the ability to just get on with it.
It’s also the ability to make decisions. Something isn’t worth it, change it, because it’s now costing you money.
It was something I always thought I would do, we used to talk about it as kids with my parents and I would always be looking for opportunities.
I would walk in to a cafe or restaurant and immediately start thinking about how things could be done differently, how they could make more money.
At some stage, I had to put up or shut up.
I wanted to start my business during Covid. It was such as scary time for businesses and everyone as we really didn’t know where it was heading.
I quickly realised that it was going to take a while for overseas travel to come back and that people were desperate to explore the regions around the city.
Tours were just a way to do that, in a small and scaleable way.
Reach for the stars and maybe you reach the clouds.
Be really honest with yourself.
Don’t just look at the best case scenarios and learn to pivot. Be agile because sometimes opportunities present themselves in unusual ways.
I would also say learn to talk to people, network and always be willing to help someone (if often comes back ten fold).
Connect with Ross here: