The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is an online and high street retailer of fine artificial botanicals. We serve homeowners and business across the country, bringing them beautifully realistic replica flowers, plants, trees, hanging baskets and artificial grass & landscaping. We are based in Eastbourne, where we also live. I bought the business from an existing set up called 'Silks' in 2005, so I am approaching 10 years of owning and running the business. In some ways it has flown by, but then looking back, we have changed a great deal since then and been through a lot, so it does seem a bit of a distant memory! What is your role in the business? What do you do day to day? We are a family run business, and my husband Tim and I oversee all that running a retail business involves. Having your own business is often about juggling a constantly expanding 'to do' list, and the more you get stuck in, the more that list grows! You can take your choice of jobs, but those choices have a direct impact on your success, and I think a major learning curve has been organising and acting on priorities, rather than trying (and failing) to get everything done at once. Why did you start up your own business? I knew I had the passion to develop a business in a creative field. I was taking time to decide what business that would be, and how on earth to start it, when I heard that the lady who owned 'Silks' had been trying without success to sell her business, which at the time was upstairs in a beautiful but tucked away unit in a shopping arcade. I had visited the shop and my interest was raised, and once I looked into the products and the potential for them, I was too excited to stop.