Meet Chelsea Rushworth Cobb | Cookier + Accountant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chelsea Rushworth Cobb and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chelsea, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Before I started Sugar Rush, I baked because I enjoyed it. Sugar cookies were one of those holiday family traditions I grew up with and started taking over as I got older. In college, I started baking them for occasions other than the holidays and received numerous comments about how tasteful they were! At the time, I wasn’t doing any sort of detailed decoration on the cookies. I simply flooded them with a basic icing (not royal). Many people had told me that I should start a company, but I thought no way, it takes a lot to run your own business and I’m only in college! It wasn’t until my boyfriend at the time (now husband) came along and suggested I start a company that I actually considered doing it. In my mind though, if I were to make a business out of it I would want to decorate them (and be really good at it). That meant I would need to use the dreaded royal icing. At the time, I likely had the same thought about royal icing sugar cookies that most do…look great, taste awful. I had one concern – I would not sell cookies that didn’t taste good! So I started messing around with royal icing and figured out a recipe that was perfect. I had my family and friends taste test for me so I could get different opinions on them. All that to say, once I locked down the perfect icing consistency and flavor, cookie thickness and sweetness I was ready to roll. My boyfriend came up with the name Sugar Rush, playing off of my last name ‘Rushworth’, and I picked out a simple logo. Since then I’ve never looked back!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
One aspect of my work that I am proud of is my work ethic. Many people do not know that my cookie company is actually my side job. I work as a full-time accountant and spend a lot of my free time running Sugar Rush. It is not easy and it is tiring, but I love what I do and it is a blessing to be able to do it. The most difficult challenge that I’ve had to overcome is, honestly, saying no. I love baking and being a part of my clients’ special events and I wish I could take on everyone’s order requests, however more often than not I overbook myself and it’s exhausting! I have such a hard time turning clients away, but the more experience I have the more I realize the importance of setting boundaries because after all, I am a one-woman show and cannot do it all – that’s a hard pill for me to swallow! One way I’ve helped myself set boundaries is by designating certain time periods where I am simply closed. This is usually the month of January since it follows the busy holiday season. January is also my birth month so I like to carve out time to relax and enjoy the beginning of the new year. However, even when I’m closed for business, there is still a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into running my company. It’s not all sugar and spice the whole time! I gear up for markets, plan for new additions, review my prior year and start planning designs so I can begin with a bang in February! Perhaps the most important part of a business is the brand. What do I want my customers to know about Sugar Rush? Or rather, what do I want my customers to feel when they get their own Sugar Rush cookies? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about a slogan or a phrase that represents my brand. That I haven’t locked down yet, but what I do know is that Sugar Rush is a boutique experience. There are two aspects of a boutique cookie company that make up the experience I want my clients to have. The first is the design. A large part of my business is custom designs created to coincide with an individuals personality – say birthday, graduation, shower, wedding, etc. When my clients pick up their order, I want them to feel like their personality has come to life in edible form! When I see customers overwhelmed with excitement to have my cookies at their event, it speaks to the importance of capturing the essence of their person or their event – aesthetic matters! It’s more than a cookie, it’s a memory. Second, the taste. When you bite into my cookie, I want pure bliss – perfect thickness, perfect softness, perfect texture, perfect sweetness, perfect flavor. This is why I began offering different flavors. Having different flavors on the menu allow for you to choose exactly what you want in a cookie (which allows you to personalize your cookies further). Currently, I offer plain, lemon, almond (this is the original flavor) and pumpkin spice. These two factors combined are what give the complete boutique experience I strive for all of my clients to have and that is what sets Sugar Rush apart.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
It’s funny – I’ve lived in Atlanta my entire life but there’s so much out there I haven’t done! One of my favorite spots is The Avalon. There is good food and good shopping and you get to walk everywhere! I enjoy going here for dates with my husband or lunches with friends. They usually have an outdoor ice skating rink starting in December that is a fun thing to do in the winter! I think my favorite thing to do is try new restaurants both in the city and the outskirts. I’m a total foodie so I love finding unique spots to go to! One of my favorites has been Umi followed by Himitsu in Buckhead. I highly recommend these for a fancy night out. For a more casual evening, I love Zapata’s in Old Norcross. It is by far the best Mexican food I’ve had!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to shoutout a few people. First, I’d like to shoutout my husband Avery Cobb. He encouraged me to start Sugar Rush back in college and has continued to support me ever since. He’s there when I’m moving at snail speed trying to perfect all the tiny details and he’s there at 3am on those nights where I’m rushing to get the baking and packaging done. I’d also like to shoutout my family Ted, Jackie and Alexa Rushworth. They have been there since I was little and had a love of baking! My parents let me derail their kitchen and oven while I was still living at home and needed a place to bake! My sister, Alexa, well…she’s the best taste tester there is. Finally, my college roommate Megan Smith. We were living together in Athens when I started this gig and she put up with me when I was filling up our kitchen with cookies, hosting decorating parties, etc. I am so thankful for the love and support all of these individuals have given me, I truly would not be where I am today without them!

Instagram: @sugary.rush

Facebook: Sugar Rush Catering LLC

Other: You can share my email sugar.rushworth@gmail.com – eventually I’ll get more social media up and running but for now I’m very heavy on Instagram!