TV Dragon and leading North East businesswoman Sara Davies says now is the ideal time for entrepreneurs to launch new business ventures.
The founder and CEO of Newton Aycliffe based Crafter’s Companion, the youngest ever panellist on the BBC show Dragons’ Den, believes entrepreneurial spirit has been supercharged by the Covid-19 pandemic, with many using lockdown to take their first steps into the world of business.
Speaking on BBC’s Morning Live, the entrepreneur gave business people tips to help their ventures succeed – despite recognising that some might see this as a strange time to launch a business.
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She said: “It might sound ridiculous to a lot of people but I think there is not a better time that you could be starting a business, there really isn’t.
“I think the entrepreneurial spirit in the country at the moment is off the chart. I know that just from businesses I’m involved in.
“You need a couple of things to really make it work - you need to have a positive mindset. Positivity can get you through almost anything.
“You want to be looking for a gap in the market, and what’s really important at the moment is if you think about social media - everybody talks about promoting their business on social media.
“For me, it’s not just about promoting the business. Social media, especially in times of lockdown has become for a lot of people their way of engaging and interacting with friends and family. There are big communities out there, and if you can put your business out there into the community - for example, we do a lot of craft and I know a lot of people who are our customers who have actually turned what was a hobby for them into a business through this time.
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“They’ve been able to talk to their friends on Facebook and Instagram, and these friends want to help support them with their business. So whether you’ve started making handmade soaps, pouring your own wax candles or making your own cards, talk to your friends out there in the community and you’ll be amazed how many want to support you, and help give you custom to get you started.”
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Crafter’s Companion was founded by Ms Davies in 2005, when she was studying for a business degree at York University. Whilst undergoing the placement, she spotted a gap in the market for a tool which could create bespoke envelopes for crafters. She enlisted her dad to make a prototype for The Enveloper and Crafter’s Companion was born.
The firm recently marked 15 years of trading and now exports to more than 40 countries, selling products online, through independent retailers and its own retail stores, on TV shopping channels across the world and through the company’s digital channel, Crafter’s TV, helping to bring in annual revenues of more than £31m.
That figure is a far cry from her first wage – 50p for helping out in her parents’ shop Wear Valley Decorating Centre in Coundon, County Durham, which is now run by her sister Helen Johnson.
Ms Davies recalled: “I grew up around business. It’s all I ever knew. I knew when I was older I wanted to have my own business - I just didn’t know what that business would be. My dad always said: ‘If you’re going to work that hard, kid, you should do it for yourself’.
“The decorating store my parents had, my mum and dad always tried to instill in me from a young age the value of money, and that I should earn my own money.
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“So for me, when I was five or six years old that meant going into the shop on a Saturday morning, getting 50p and polishing all the paint tins - and it really instilled that true value of money.
“So I made sure that now my younger sister runs the family business, I send my eldest son Oliver on a Saturday morning. You’ll be pleased to know with inflation now she gives him a couple of quid, and he polishes those paint tins in the same way.”