Sarah Raven, author, horticulturalist and friend of Country Living, started her eponymous gardening business in 1999. Since then, she has grown her brand from a simplistic mail-oder seed company to a green fingered empire with thriving ecommerce, hands-on courses and events, and the complete renovation of her iconic garden at Perch Hill in East Sussex.

We recently visited Sarah at her home and, to celebrate the launch of The Artisan Collective, asked her to share her top advice for small businesses owners who want to follow in her footsteps. 

From being bold, having a reliable sounding board and trusting the one undeniable fact of entrepreneurship, here's what she wants you to know.

Sarah Raven's top 3 tips for small businesses

1. Take risks

"Firstly, take risks. You’re not going to make it if you go for middle of the road – so stick your neck out and keep it stuck out."

2. Sense check 

"But also sense check. I don’t have great financial acumen, for example, so I always sense check it. Run ideas through with someone else who believes in your creativity. That means you can have the creativity and the ideas flowing but you’ve also got someone to temper them a little bit. It doesn't have to be a full business plan – but enough to make sure the customer is going to like them."

3. Your customer rules

"In any business, the customer rules. That’s just a fact. So, when you’re selling, you need to market yourself and you need to sell into a market that wants you."

You can read more about Sarah Raven's success story here.