Alice Bowe was studying fine art at Oxford University when she realised that plants were more interesting than painting.  So she set up her own garden design consultancy offering a range of garden services. She tells Startups.co.uk how her idea has taken root. 

Name: Alice Bowe
Age: 24
Business: Alice Bowe – English Landscape and Garden Design
Type of business: Garden Design
Start date: January 2005

When did you first decide you wanted to start your own business?
I was studying fine art at Oxford University and drawing plants in the Oxford Botanic Gardens when I suddenly realized that the plants were almost more beautiful in themselves. I decided I wanted to become a garden designer and went off to study landscape architecture and set up my business.

Tell us about your business
Although the majority of my business is bespoke garden design commissions, I also offer a postal design service that is particularly popular with property developers and first time buyers.

Was it your first business idea and where did it come from?
Yes, my very first – but the more I find out about business, the more ideas I keep having, so there are a few sideshoots and the odd complete tangent in the pipeline!

What makes you think there’s a market for your business?
The UK market for gardening products and services is growing by over 3% each year and there is a growing interest in garden design fuelled by the media and TV. Inextricably linked to the housing market, gardens can increase the value of property and are becoming more and more important to housebuyers. Gardens are being viewed more as an investment and garden design as a professional skill.

Once you’d decided to start a business, what did you do first?
I carried a notepad around with me everywhere jotting down all the ideas and random thoughts that came into my head. At that time my head was buzzing, I’m sure that’s when you get the best ideas. I also discussed the idea with my partner and then wrote a to do list of all the things I thought would need to happen before I could launch.

What research did you do?
I wrote my own questionnaire as well as examining existing market research and talking to other garden designers.

What advice did you seek?
I was lucky enough to get a place at Nottingham Trent University (The Hive) to study a 12 week business course. They were great, and provided seminars, mentoring and helped me to write my buisiness plan. They regularly brought in external experts to give us tips and critique our plans.

What other help did you get?
I talked to anyone who would listen, and trawled the internet for advice.

Does the government need to provide more help to people trying to start a business?
I think the government are making a real effort to make sure that information is available. This has helped me no end – but you can never have too many grants.

Talk us through the process of writing your business plan.
I was lucky in that I was taken through the process of writing my business plan on my course. We broke it down into sections and have frequent reviews. I think it was ultimately very useful to have so many people’s input into the business plan because they helped me to step back and review it objectively.

How useful has your business plan been and do you think you’ll stick to it as your business begins to grow?
Although I though I didn’t need to write a business plan at the start, it really helped me to think through my decisions and without it I think I would have made some obvious and costly mistakes. I view a business plan as a working document – it is constantly evolving and is a brilliant source of reference for me.