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Becoming an entrepreneur

It’s Entrepreneurship Week on Bdaily. County Durham-born entrepreneur, Sara Davies, shares her experiences of starting up her business Crafter’s Companion in 2005 and gives advice to others in similar positions.

You started a business while at university - how did you manage the challenge of both commitments?

I’m a very driven and passionate person – especially when it comes to crafts! At university and with my business the one skill I relied on and developed was time management. I used to get up early and start work on the business first thing (I’d always attempt to stick to a 9-5pm because this is when the phone was ringing and emails were flying in) I’d then have dinner with the other students from 5-6pm and at 6pm I’d start on my university work and work until late. When I look back now, I question how I used to do so many hours in a day! I certainly can’t work at that capacity these days (my brain is frazzled if I work longer than a 14 hour day, a few days running) but I guess it’s just the drive of wanting to excel at both the business and my course that kept me going through that period. I also had great support from my friends - the other business management students who I lived with at the time.

When you started out, did you have a clear vision that the business would be as successful as it is now?

Absolutely not! I never dreamed Crafter’s Companion would get as big or as successful as it has. I do come from an entrepreneurial background – both my parents run their own businesses, so being self-employed is something I’ve grown up around and it’s true what they say - it’s definitely a way of life - not a job! So, I saw my parents working hard, running their own businesses turning over a healthy £500k and employing around 3 people each and this is what I aspired to do with my own business.

So, when I graduated eight months after I’d started the business, and the company was already larger than either of my parent’s businesses, I definitely had that unchartered territory feeling. I honestly did not know where it would take me.

What typical entrepreneurial advice do you find to be most misleading?

People always say to start a successful business you need to have a great product. I disagree – for me it’s about the person, their drive and plenty of strategic thinking. A lot of people have said I was ‘lucky’ to stumble across a great product – again, I disagree. I put a lot of effort and hard work into thoroughly researching the craft market because I was interested in setting up a business in it. I then developed a product range which I felt had enough USP’s for me to be able to enter the market, and from there it was sheer ambition, tough work and determination trying to take market share.

I genuinely believe that if you have enough belief in an industry, and you put enough work in, then you can create a product and make it great for the market with a good marketing and sales strategy.

I now spend a lot of time advising and investing in other small businesses and for me, the decision to invest always lies with the person and my belief in them – even if it’s not an industry sector or product area I’m overly familiar with.

What’s the process of setting up at US operation been like?

Stressful! My biggest frustration with the US operation was not being there (you physically can’t be in two places at once) and I was frustrated in the early days because although I could see the opportunity was huge, we just couldn’t grow the US company as fast as I’d grown the UK one, and it was purely because of resource and dedication because myself and my other senior staff were all working so hard on building the UK business, and with the best will in the world – out of sight is always somewhat out of mind.

The big turning point came for us when we employed someone at a really senior level in the States to really grow the US arm, someone who is just like us (my husband and I as we are a husband and wife team now), someone very entrepreneurial and on the same wavelength. Since we did that, the US business has had the driving force it needs to really grow, and we can give it the support it needs from here to facilitate that as opposed to trying (and failing) to be the driver.

What have you learnt about building a team and managing people?

One of my tutors at University gave me an exceptional piece of advice, he said ‘don’t try to be the best at everything, accept the areas you’re weaker at, and hire someone to fill in those gaps’. And whether it’s been internal hiring at a higher level, or using specialist consultants, or even in the early days using my student friends and paying them extra ‘partying money’ that has stayed with me and it is working. As a company we’ve been able to excel in many areas because of this advice.

I began to realise early on in the business, that I wasn’t the best at ‘people management’, my staff were always really driven because my passion and enthusiasm was evident through every nook and cranny of the business, but I was a whirling dervish – I’m definitely not a ‘completer-finisher’, and this would drive everyone around the bend! My husband (MD at Crafter’s Companion, and HR manager) complements me perfectly, he’s organised, and a great line-manager, so we now have driven, passionate, organised, happy and fulfilled staff, who all work so hard and are absolutely the reason we are so successful as a company.

What’s your next big ambition?

To be able to nurture and build the individual members of my team to the point where they are all driving the business in their specific areas with the same entrepreneurial flair they have seen me operate. They say you can’t ‘breed’ an entrepreneur – it’s something you’re born with – and I agree with that to an extent, but I believe that if I build the right cultural environment within our organisation, and mentor those people to have the entrepreneurial mind-set, then together we can achieve this, and then the potential to grow the business will increase exponentially.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sara Davies .