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Sara Davies built a multi-million-pound business selling handmade envelopes, survived six years of imposter syndrome in the Dragon's Den chair, and still says the biggest bottleneck to growth was never cash, it was her own bandwidth. In this episode she breaks down the simple, repeatable model that took Crafter's Companion from a university side hustle to a £30 million turnover business.

Sara Davies is an award-winning entrepreneur, Dragon's Den investor, and founder of Crafter's Companion, the crafting brand she launched from her student bedroom and grew into a multi-million-pound company. She's spent over 20 years selling live on shopping television, backed some of the Den's biggest hits, and competed on Strictly Come Dancing.

She explains:

Why the real limit on growth is never cash, it's how much of you there is to go around
The three traits, passion, vision and drive, that decide whether she invests in thirty seconds
Why hiring someone smarter than you is the single hire that changes everything

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:10 Sara's 20 Years In Business
00:02:37 Growing Up In A Family Shop
00:04:22 Starting Crafter's Companion At University
00:05:12 Spotting The Gap Nobody Else Saw
00:07:18 Pitching QVC And Selling Live On TV
00:11:05 The Buyer Who Doubted Her
00:13:04 Selling Out And Scaling Production
00:16:08 Learning To Sell In The Family Shop
00:17:22 The Body Language Rule That Changed Her Pitching
00:19:14 Why Setting The Tone Matters
00:22:04 Taking The Leap At 21
00:23:36 The Limits Of Hiring Friends And Family
00:24:56 The Hire That Changed Everything
00:28:47 Managing Ego As A Leader
00:30:11 Doubling Down On Your Strengths
00:31:23 The Website Lesson: Delegate, Don't DIY
00:33:07 Cash Sales And Working Capital
00:34:16 How Maternity Leave Forced Her To Let Go
00:36:04 How Dragon's Den Happened
00:39:06 Imposter Syndrome In The Den
00:47:06 Reframing Imposter Syndrome
00:50:04 Passion, Vision, Drive: What She Looks For
00:51:12 Why She Invests In People, Not Products
00:54:08 Her Favourite Investment Story
00:56:32 Mentoring Beyond The Cameras
00:59:22 Advice For Fearful First-Time Founders
01:01:36 Should You Quit Your Job To Start Up?
01:02:29 Surround Yourself With The Right People
01:04:22 Balancing Guilt, Family And Ambition
01:05:41 Her Husband's Secret To Supporting Her Success
01:08:45 Advice For Scaling Past The Early Stage
01:10:27 Creating An Environment For Others To Succeed
01:11:51 Building A Business Around Values
01:12:54 The Danger Of Being The Only Energy Source
01:13:42 Ten Years Of Coaching
01:16:32 Why Consistency In Coaching Matters
01:17:58 Accountability And What Gets Measured Gets Done
01:26:17 Audience Q&A: Traits Of Extraordinary Leaders
01:28:00 Mental Fitness And Energy Management

Even More Value:

Download your FREE Start, Grow, Scale Roadmap in under 30 seconds: https://bit.ly/4prr8bL

Hear from Adam and some of the country's biggest entrepreneurs on how to SCALE your Business past £1 Million: https://bit.ly/3S7fTIS

Learn how to build a 7 Figure SCALE plan that runs WITHOUT you: https://bit.ly/3Qq2ACO

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