Devon founder turned failure into a thriving business, now helping others do the same

Five years ago, Suzy Greenwood had a plan. She'd bought the family property, Seaflowers, from her parents and once they'd moved out, planned to rent it out largely as it was.

She still had a demanding corporate career and assumed the property would run itself for another five to ten years. It didn't work out that way.

Suzy signed with a local holiday letting agent. Six months later, with six months left before the property fully became hers, not a single booking had been secured. "I could have panicked," she says. "Instead, I negotiated myself out of the contract. I realised I needed to make it work myself."

What followed was a scramble to build something from nothing. Suzy partnered with local artist Bert Fowler of Dartmouth's Bert and Buoy to create a distinctive visual identity for Seaflowers and designed the interiors around it, without the budget to even buy enough paint.

As soon as the first two bedrooms were finished, she brought in photographer Sue Porter to capture them. Those early photographs and the new brand were enough to build a website and start pitching Seaflowers to journalists. The first bookings came in, funding further renovation. 

Sue returned a few months later to take further photos. The dining room light hadn’t arrived in time.

"There were literally wires hanging from the ceiling," Suzy recalls. "Somehow Sue worked her magic anyway." Those photos helped her land her first national media coverage, which led to the first big summer booking, all while Suzy was still project managing a major agency rebrand in her day job.

"That failure with the letting agent forced me into something that ended up being the making of the business," she says. "Investing in the brand, photography and the story is what got it off the ground."

Suzy has since built on that experience to launch Seaflowers Studio, a consultancy helping small business owners find and share their own stories. On 22 September she's hosting Find Your Story, a one-day workshop at Seaflowers for founders who know their business is good but haven't yet worked out how to communicate that to the people who need to hear it.

"So many small business owners are brilliant at what they do, but don't have the time, headspace or confidence to articulate it," Suzy says. "And what many don't realise is that with the right story they can earn the same awareness others pay for."

Find Your Story takes place on 22 September at Seaflowers in Frogmore. There are just two spaces left, both at the founding cohort rate of £399 per person (future workshops will be priced at £525). Secure your space at: https://seaflowersstudio.com/findyourstory.