The year 2025 so far promises to be the most hectic in entrepreneur Sara Davies’ life.
Having started the year by taking back control of the business she launched as a student, Sara has been on our TV screens with the BBC’s The Big Idea Works, been revealed as the host of a new ITV game show and is also now publishing her third book.
The last week alone has seen her journey to Birmingham, America and London for work, take part in events with North East entrepreneurs in Newcastle, take to the stage for an International Women’s Day special fundraiser for Smart Works Newcastle at Wylam Brewery – and she even popped up alongside North East legends Bob Mortimer and Chris Ramsey on BBC comedy show Would I Lie to You.
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Having previously revealed how much she wanted to make the most of the opportunity to rebuild Crafter’s Companion, it should come as no surprise that she is stepping away from the Dragons’ Den. She said it was a very difficult decision, but one that was necessary for her to maintain her focus on the Newton Aycliffe business, which she took back when its directors placed it into administration following two years of losses.
Despite growing to become one of the biggest businesses of its kind over the last 20 years, selling crafting kit and supplies across the world in more than 40 countries through its website and retail stores and through TV shopping channels, the business has been impacted by challenging trading conditions and rocketing costs, which eventually led to backers at Growth Partners putting it in administration.
That paved the way for Ms Davies’ return as CEO, having moved to the side-lines as a minority shareholder a year earlier, after a two-week race to assemble the capital to take back the business and save more than 110 jobs.
Two months on from striking the deal with administrators to buy her “third child” in a £425,000 deal, with support from an undisclosed backer, Ms Davies has spoken of the work she is carrying out with workers, suppliers and customers to rebuild the business. Ms Davies, who was last week announced as the host for new ITV quiz show Time is Money, even met up with some of her loyal customers in the US last week, and told of her excitement for the future of the business.
She said: “It’s been an absolute whirlwind couple of months. I now understand what turnaround looks like, but I am loving it, loving the positive energy, the vibe. I’ve got a brilliant workforce. I’m just leading - it’s the staff that are doing the work.
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“And our customers have welcomed us back with open arms too. I’ve gone out with my heart on a sleeve, being really honest with them, telling the customers ‘these are challenges we’ve had, this is what is being done and this is how we going to do it’. We are putting the customer right in the middle of every decision we make as a business. And they have lapped it up.
“I had some customers in America who reached out to me, crafters who didn’t know each other but were customers of Crafter’s companion and who met on one of our communities online. They became friends and now meet up every month to teach each other crafts. They said when you’re next in America, we’re going to come to you and will take you for lunch.
“So last Tuesday when I was in America, they took me for lunch! It was so wonderful to see their passion, for the products, and for the business. People are so excited to have me back because it’s the Crafter’s Companion that they always knew.”
Ms Davies told us in January how she wanted to go back to basics, and for the business to become more agile, just as it had been in its smaller, early days.
As a result, she is holding regular meetings with suppliers while also actioning change within the company’s operations. She has also been holding meetings with key suppliers and is due to fly to China soon, to talk about how to build the business.
She said: “When I wanted to save the business, it wasn’t just about our business here, but the businesses that have formed as a result of us on the supply base that comes with all of those. So while I was trying to save 112 jobs in crafters companion, there’s probably another 100 to 200 people working in other companies as a result of the supply chain feeding into us.”
She highlighted how the staff themselves are also stepping up to help with the turnaround plan.
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She said: “We’ve done a lot of work in our warehouse and what’s really lovely is we’ve got three young lads in our warehouse who’ve worked with us for many years. They came forward in the first few weeks and said ‘Sara we’re not running the warehouse as efficiently as we could be, but we can fix that. Would you support us?’.
“To have three young lads come knocking on my door wanting to drive positive change made me so proud. It’s not me that’s going to change the business. I am just one of 112 staff. And the biggest thing I’ve learned is that culture is everything. How your staff feel. If you can get your staff feeling good then they will work really well. Last year they just didn’t feel good. But now I can show them where we’re going, what the plan is, and create an environment so they can come and tell me how they can help.”
Her comments come in the week that her third book – The Six-Minute Entrepreneur: 52 Short Lessons for Long-Term Business Success – goes on sale. The book comes three years after the publication of her autobiography We Can All Make It, and was instigated by Fred Sirieix, who presented The Ultimate Wedding Planner alongside Ms Davies and who put her in touch with a contact of his called Jason, who helps the First Dates’ star to construct his speeches.
“I met up with Jason who said ‘you’ve got so much to say Sara, but stop trying to say it all in one go. Break it down into chunks, otherwise it’s too much for people. He worked with me to help me understand my life story, all of the key things that have happened in my life that might be really useful when I go and speak to an entrepreneurial audience.
“I’ve got examples from Strictly and how that’s helped me learn about ‘being present’, things from Crafter‘s Companion that help me deal with the ‘mum guilt’ and I’ve got stories from Dragons’ Den about imposter syndrome and how I felt like an impostor my first time in the den.
“He said ‘do you realise that only a tiny fraction of this is in your autobiography? So I went to the publisher, suggested I had enough content for another book and asked if they would you be interested and they were like ‘hell yes! when can you write it?’.
The book includes 52 chapters, all pertinent stories from Ms Davies life and what people can learn from it, each of which can be read in six minutes.
Sara said: “My big thing is I just want to share what I know with people. For everyone to have my experience so they learn from my mistakes and then don’t make them again, and tell them how I’ve made the successes so they can replicate them. It fills my cup up. The more I put out there in the universe the more the universe seems to return.
“The problem with me is, as you’ve learned, I can talk for England. So I worked with the same ghost writer who helped me with my autobiography. She edited my stories down to get it into six minutes, she is brilliant.
“The whole principal is that everybody’s busy and you don’t want to be reading too long. So if you just learn one a week - don’t try to gabble through the whole book in just one read - take on the reflection points and then if you do them one a week it’s a year’s worth of self-development in which you can learn from my life.”
While Ms Davies might have announced that she is stepping away from BBC pitching panel show Dragons’ Den, after a successful six-year run, she hinted that she could return.
She said: “I had a good talk with the producers. I’ve committed to so much stuff, like the ITV show that was announced last week, all before I knew I was coming back to Crafter’s, which is more than a full-time job. And Dragons’ is a full-time job. The bit that people see on TV is just the tip of the iceberg.
“The 17 days of filming over six weeks I could cope with. It’s the fact I’ve taken on 12 businesses on average each year, and the due diligence process over the next few months is really intense as you get to know those businesses. Then once I bring those businesses in, I want to do a good job of it. I don’t want to half heartedly take a business on and not have time for them, I want to really mentor them and becoming an extended part of their business family.
“All of that takes a lot of bandwidth and brain space. It’s splitting myself into so many places. I’m at capacity in terms of being a business mentor, so it would be irresponsible for me to take on new businesses.
“It’s right to focus on the businesses I’ve got – but hey, this time next year it might be a totally different kettle of fish. All being well, Crafter’s will be absolutely flying, the staff will be flying and there won’t need me to be on the ground so much. But right now, the staff and the business needs me.“