I switched careers and started a business at 30. Here’s what I've learned the hard way.
I left my city job at 30 to start my own business. A decade on, here's what I've learned the hard way.
Plus detailed advice on becoming a garden designer from where to study to what to do next.
May 23, 2026
21,000 likes and 733,000 views later, a post I shared about being a career switcher clearly resonated and raised a lot of questions. Well, here’s the whole story for those interested, and my lessons learned too, of which there are many. At the end of the article is also all the courses, advice and steps I would take if you want to explore a career in garden design too.
Buckle in, its a long one….
I never had a calling. I always envied those that did, who grew up knowing they wanted to be a doctor, a vet, whatever. I did actually want to be a fashion designer. I would sketch ideas for hours, but, much like my sons that want to be professional footballers, I faced a heady mix of parents who definitely did not think that was a viable option, a lack of celebrity parents and, being honest, a probable lack of the necessary raw talent for actual fashion design (though who can tell at 12?) needed to succeed in a very competitive industry, so that career path went unexplored.
I had to visit a very dusty facebook album for this.
Fast forward. I went to uni and studied psychology because, like so many others, I didn’t know what else to do and business studies struck me as boring and unsexy, even though I had an affinity for it. I fell into a management consulting job (oh the irony) because it paid well and had a signing bonus and I wanted to move to London. Reader, I lasted 10 months. I was posted to the arse end of nowhere and had to stay in a B&B Monday to Friday with a male manager and partner in their mid 40s (which I considered ANCIENT at the time). I was frustrated: I didn’t move to the Big Smoke to be posted to the shires, spending my days colour coding powerpoints and telling local authorities what they already knew about themselves. I wanted to be in LONDON.
Just call me Tiger
A not so fun memory has just come to me. I recall the very same single male manager on this project declaring he was going to call me ‘Tiger’ because I was ‘feisty’. Feisty?! I was a people pleasing 22 year old, who was fed up living out of a suitcase and being asked to do the tasks that a trained monkey would be bored by. I wasn’t impressed (what can I say, I’m feisty). This manager then scored me a 1 out of 5 on my performance review. …this review came shortly after I declined dinner with him one night whilst in the B&B. I’m sure they weren’t related…
Buy your own loo roll
After almost a year of packing a suitcase on a Sunday night to travel away from London, I handed in my notice, there ending my brief foray into management consulting. I spent a strange year as an event manager where we had to buy our own loo roll for the office, and finally landed in marketing, working in client relationship management roles for magic circle law firms for about a decade. It was exactly what I needed it to be, a well paid role in the city with good hours, (and my god it made me forensic about detail except for here where there are typos aplenty - but at least you know it’s no Ai) but I am a creative, and the one thing it didn’t do was scratch that itch.
Feeling once again frustrated and unfulfilled, I trained as a counsellor in my free time, believing it would balance out the corporateness. My company at the time were actually amazing about this, and supported me completely, letting me work compressed hours to volunteer and gain my counselling hours, I’ll always be grateful to them for that. This resulted in three years of self growth (you have to be in weekly therapy and regular supervision to qualify - it requires a huge amount of self work) which I still treasure today, and in fact training in therapy provided me with a staggering number of skills to use in business.
I worked in schools, community centres, maternal mental health centres and bereavement charities and met some very special people and I hope, maybe, helped some people along the way. My clients meant the world to me and it was an honour to hold space with them. It also turned me into a walking bruise. I would cry at adverts, I found watching violence on the tv intolerable. Empathy was right there beneath the surface at all times, but then…
Along came babies
I need to be honest here and I feel cringe saying it because we aren’t meant to admit it, but I am unapologetically ambitious. I suspect this is obvious. To that end, I knew even before I had kids that I would not be stepping out of the workplace and staying home with them. I am simply not cut out for it. I applaud and admire those that do and those that don’t in equal measure, I’m not remotely interested in passing judgement on anyone’s choices, you do you, but this was mine.
I also needed to work to contribute to paying the bills with my then husband. Staying home to mother full time wasn’t something we could afford even if I had wanted to. But, having my children did feel like a rare and precious watershed moment where I was afforded the privilege of asking a question I’d been pondering for years: what do I want to do, like really want to do, if I am going to pay someone to look after my babies?
To me, the idea of paying to go to a job I didn’t love (and just about breaking even) was absolute madness. Counselling was also suddenly and unexpectedly off the cards as a viable option: the care, attention and empathy you need to bring to a counselling environment is not easy to muster when you’re already emotionally sucked dry by two clingy babies. I found mothering two children under two exhausting, and I just had nothing left in the tank for anyone else. I couldn’t in good conscience pursue it, and interestingly, I didn’t want to.
A little help
After the babies came along, I spoke to a careers coach who helped me figure out what on earth I wanted to do. I will say I think this is an enormous privilege and I am grateful to this day that my now ex encouraged and afforded me the opportunity to exit the corporate world and pursue something I loved, and that we had enough to keep us afloat to figure it out. As long as I absorbed much of the childcare when they were little too, we could just about make it work if I worked when they slept etc.
So onto the coaching: The brief: creative, not interior design (my mum is one and I worried at the time it was a saturated market), be my own boss (this was a big one), no commute, flexible hours (ha, if only I knew). My coach, who was also my neighbour, very kindly pointed out the hours I spent in the garden and asked why this wasn’t something I was considering, given I clearly adored it. I must admit it hadn’t even crossed my mind that I could work in anything related to Horticulture. And then BOOM. FIREWORKS. THAT’S IT, EUREKA. I realised garden design is a career and that was that. HOW HAD I NOT THOUGHT OF THAT?! In fairness I am not sure I knew it was a thing. It just wasn’t on my radar, but my goodness I then set about figuring out how to make this work.
My garden at my old home the year I became a designer
And so it began 10 years ago
I went on to study garden design, practical horticulture and construction design at various schools and set up the studio straight away (I don’t for one second recommend this). It was the biggest learning curve of my life and not an easy path. It was lonely, scary and just incredibly hard work. I started alone and the business grew with the kids, at first I would work in their naps and evenings, (fighting frustration at wanting more time and exhaustion from broken sleep) and then as they went to nursery I took on more work, though it felt like feast or famine, either too much work or not enough, such is the life of working for oneself…
The unicorn
..and then my first unicorn garden, the one we all hope to get: the design that stays true to your ideas and isn’t too tweaked, the build that goes beautifully, the planting that thrives, that is photographable within a couple of years (it can take 5 years for them to be ready) the portfolio maker came along and propelled the business forward. Now, ten years on we are a team of 6, we work across the uk and internationally, and I am very happy with the size we are thank you very much. I have no aspirations to be an enormous studio - we are just right, personal but able to take on projects large and small. We have a slew of awards from Chelsea and Hampton Court shows, a couple of People’s choice awards too, its a joy. I love it. I love it.
So thats my story. If you want to be a garden designer then I’ve done an entire guide on where to study, what to do after studying and niche tips just for you at the bottom. If you work in or are tempted to run your own business, then here are my main lessons learned:
How to set up a business and stay sane (ish)
I think these hold true no matter what your industry, and discussions with other brilliant female business owners seems to be met with cries of agreement, so here goes, what I’ve learned from ten years as a female business owner.
Don’t work for free: I made the enormous mistake of doing this after I qualified in the hopes of starting to build a portfolio and it ended in literal tears. If there is one thing I say over and over: people don’t value free things. You have to put a value on it, even if the value is fifty quid. I have come to believe the mantra in business: no good deed (in this case working for free) goes unpunished, and it holds true even now: without fail the moments I kick myself for are the ones where I have worked for free either because I didn’t want to have an awkward conversation, or out of the hope of winning a project, or the hope of really great photos (only to be ghosted). NOPE. Much like the old adage about lending money: only lend what you are comfortable not getting back. I think the same can be true of free work - only do for free what wouldn’t piss you off if it didn’t pay off. Ask yourself, would you be cross if it didn’t come to anything, or was it a calculated gamble you are happy to lose? Therein lies your answer.
Have boundaries: This leads on from the above. Counselling was amazing grounding for this although again at the beginning I had none. Largely as I lacked confidence . Can I come and do a meeting on a Tuesday at 8pm? Sure. Saturday morning? Sure. Being harvested for free design advice because the first meeting was free? No problem. 15 revisions for an ever changing brief when you only allowed for one? You got it. I fell into all these traps. People pleasing does not go well with business. When you start resenting your work and feel like a ball of rage you soon learn boundaries. And ten years on as a studio we don’t work evenings and weekends, we don’t do Whatsapp with clients (too immediate and too visible and too intrusive on a weekend/evening) and we are clear on fees. It can be uncomfortable but boundaries often are…(and there is no such thing as a garden design emergency).
You are going to have moments where you want to be sick and run and hide under the bed as things have gone wrong. The first I had was very early days when I a message on holiday from a client, where some green oak had leached tannins (a brown tar like substance that comes out of oak) on to their brand new paving. It looked like a crime scene. There was a party approaching (there is always a party in our work). I had never seen this before and I felt physically sick for 3 days. The holiday was ruined. It was all absolutely fine - tannins are easily removed, but at the time, working alone & new to the industry without a mentor, my god I was a mess. (see also - HAVE A MENTOR). This is the nature of the beast, you run your own business, the buck stops with you. The OH MY GOD moments are few and far between as you learn, but its still hideous when they do and they get scarier the bigger the projects become. I’ve taken to asking myself if I will care on my deathbed about this and so far the answer has always been no. It helps. Also, invest in good insurance. We’ve never had to use it, but its nice to know its there.
There is no time off. Ever. Or rather, depending on how ambitious you are - there is no time off. You can work whatever hours you want sure, but I believe it to be a ‘what you put in you get out’ sort of gig. Prove me wrong if you have found otherwise, I would love to hear it. But for me, people ask how I fit it all in. I’m going to try my best to state this without apology as we women (I hope I can generalise, if not then just me) are known to do, I work really f’ing hard. Its not a boast its a fact. Its 7pm on Friday of a bank holiday weekend as I write this. I work ALL THE TIME. I do not have work life balance, but if I am honest, I don’t want work life balance because I get SUCH a kick out of work. I love design, I love our clients, I love building gardens, and working with plants and creating beautiful spaces, and titting around on instagram on the weekend or evenings and in that regard it really really isn’t work to me. What’s the saying - find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life? It’s like that.
Find a tribe. You need other people in the industry to speak to, and lean on and in parallel industries too. I have several whatsapp groups with gorgeous garden designers, who are my lifeline when facing a challenge. I have interior design pals who have remarkably similar challenges, likewise architects. It took a while to build this, but their knowledge and support is gold. I also have a mentor who helps me when I am scratching my head on how to handle something, because even after ten years there are still new challenges.
Imposter syndrome can get in the bin. I get a lot of questions about imposter syndrome and I have a new take on it. If you are feeling like an imposter because you genuinly don’t have the experience and you feel way out of your depth - I don’t think thats imposter syndrome. Thats a sign you might be biting off more than you can chew or you are learning something new. If you have all the qualifications or experience you need, (whatever that might look like for you) then you have as much right as to be in the room as anyone else. There’s some saying out there that men will apply for a job they aren’t qualified for but women won’t believing they need to tick all boxes to earn it. I think the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. You don’t need to be perfect and tick all boxes, but you do need to know enough to be credible. ALSO and this might be my favourite saying: IT’S OK TO SAY I DON’T KNOW. I say it all the time. It’s not a weakness. “I don’t know but I’ll come back to you with an answer” is a strength imo. Blagging is not - it will bite you in the arse.
Delegate. You are one person. You are not an expert in all things. You can delegate things you aren’t good at or don’t have time for. Successful businesses are rarely one person but a team of brilliant people - embrace delegation. Having a team is wonderful (but being a manager is hard) which leads me to…
Running a business is lonely. No one will care about your business as much as you and that in itself is lonely. Working alone at the beginning is lonely. When things go wrong, its lonely. When you are sick but need to work, its lonely. When you’re working late at night on a bank holiday, (Hi) it can be lonely. Employing people who you grow to see as friends can be lonely too, when they inevitably leave. I miss the women I’ve worked with very much and it hurts when they go. Its not personal, but it hurts, because to you it will always be more than a job.
And now - some niche content for those wanting to explore a career in garden design. Here is everything I would tell my younger self including: