3 Female Entrepreneurs Tell Us Their Stories

Both of us had very little business knowledge before we started. Iona used to manage restaurants, so had some overview of figures and profit and loss sheets, and Romy used to work in healthcare consultancy, so she had a great way with spreadsheets and data management, but neither of us had any knowledge when it came to setting up and running a creative business. Our biggest challenge was: how were we going to make money? For our first couple of weddings, we spent more money than we made, so it was definitely a learning curve. When you start out it’s so normal to undercharge – the imposter syndrome gets to you, and you think no one will spend that much money with you. But they do. In time, we assessed our prices, protected our margins, and learnt to say no to certain projects. 

Sometimes making mistakes is good, but mistakes cost time and money. When we started, we wished there was some magic manual – one that was easy to read, one you could pick up at any point in your journey and find something useful to take on board. That’s why we decided to write it. The Art of Starting is designed to be a companion from start to finish – readable cover to cover, but also easy to dip in and out of when you need some advice. There are chapters on community and diversity, as well on self-belief and imposter syndrome.

Our advice for fellow entrepreneurs would be: do your research. Also, trust your gut and take time out to rest. It can be relentless running a business; to work as efficiently as we can, we need to take time out. We’ve got so much better at making time for ourselves, and telling each other when we need a breather.

Visit SageFlowers.co.uk & buy the book here.