Sara Davies’ Strategies For Success

“If you’re going to work hard anyway,” Sara Davies’ father told her as a teenager, “you may as well work for yourself.” It was sound advice—recent research by HSBC shows that entrepreneurs on average earn nearly 60 per cent more than the UK average salary—and Davies took it to heart. While she was an undergraduate at the University of York, she founded her first business, the craft supplies brand Crafter’s Companion.

Crafter’s Companion grew quickly, and by the time Davies graduated it was turning over £500,000 annually. A year later, that number had almost quadrupled and the business was employing a dozen staff; two decades on, it’s one of the leading retailers of stationery and craft tools and supplies in the country, and Davies herself has become a television personality.

Speaking at the Strategies for Success event in London, which forms part of HSBC UK’s Small Business Growth Programme, Davies shared five essential lessons from her path to the top…

1. Passion, vision, drive and purpose
2. If you don’t ask, you don’t get
3. When a door closes, find the window
4. It isn’t personal
5. Don’t divide your attention

Throughout her career, Davies has seen hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their businesses. All those who walk away with investment share the same qualities, she told our audience: “Passion, vision, drive and purpose. If you’ve got those things, you cannot fail to succeed.”

Although a lack of experience or skills can be fixed, she continued, those qualities can’t be taught—you either have them or you don’t. When she invested in the football shirt subscription company Mystery Jersey King, her fellow investors bowed out early because the pitcher didn’t know the average cost of acquiring a new subscriber. Davies, however, saw a man who cared deeply about his business and decided to invest. “I saw someone who knew exactly where he was headed, and he was one hell of a salesman,” she said. “I thought, ‘I can hire and put an accountant in your business, mate, but I can’t bottle whatever it is that is making you like that.’”

Many people—especially British people—can be averse to asking for things directly, said Davies. That might involve asking for an introduction to someone you would like to partner with, or asking to take part in something that will boost your PR. But you’d be surprised at how often you get a yes—and the worst that can happen is that you get a no.

Of course, you need to know who to ask in the first place. “Networking events will be the pivotal moments you look back on in your career, but only if you make the most of them and meet other entrepreneurs.”

No matter how carefully you plan, said Davies, something will come between you and your goals. But don’t assume that’s game over—you’ll just have to find a different way to get there. When Crafter’s Companion wanted to launch its Enveloper envelope folding tool, for example, Davies was quoted £30,000 for the tooling to make the first batch. She couldn’t afford it. “I was still a student,” she said. “I’d saved five grand the previous year, and I had no money.” Instead of giving up, Davies decided to build the Enveloper out of MDF, which had no tooling costs, and bring an inferior product to market for a lower retail price. She made £1 profit on each unit, and within three months had sold the 30,000 she needed to upgrade the product to meet her initial vision. “There’s always more than one way to skin a cat.”

Soon after starting Crafter’s Companion, Davies found herself in a patent battle with a major stationery manufacturer who had copied her signature Enveloper. “They obviously thought: ‘That’s an awesome product, but she’s just a little two-bit businesswoman, and we’ll just knock her product off.’” Davies spent hundreds of thousands of pounds defending the patent but realised she was taking the battle too much to heart. “It felt so personal. Now, I look at it, and they were just making a commercial business decision.”

Compartmentalisation is helpful for all aspects of business, from competition to feedback. “You can’t waste your emotional energy on things that don’t justify it.”

“The biggest thing is to be present in everything that you do,” said Davies. It’s about commitment. If you’ve committed to spending the afternoon on family time, don’t dwell on business matters. “I don’t believe in pushing the kid on the swing with one hand while doing emails on the iPhone in the other,” she said. The same applies in a business setting. Why go to listen to a conference or event and allow yourself to be distracted by your phone? “You’ve got one opportunity to be in this room at this time, hearing what you’re hearing, making the connections you’re making,” she said. “Champion the decisions you make.”