It’s quite tough to send a message to my younger self, because I firmly believe the only reason I am where I am today is because of the decisions I made when I was younger.
Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t things I wish I knew along the way – I’d even encourage myself to ‘get cracking’ when I was 16 rather than waiting until I was 21 to go after the life I wanted.
It’s this approach that has sometimes seen me being described as ‘cold’ – which couldn’t be further from the truth. You have nothing to lose in seeking what you want when you’re young, free, and ambitious.
It started when I realised I wanted to go into business from sixth form – mainly as a result of TV shows such as Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice. Sitting there in my parents’ living room, I wanted that kind of life.
A plan started to form. Study, meet a life partner, have children, build a business. In that order. The first hurdle? University. It took two attempts at a course – a stab at a Law degree, followed by a year of business and law – before I realised that wasn’t my path. I could have saved myself the student loan.
The reality was, I applied to university because it was considered ‘the done thing’ on the route to starting a career. That, and I needed to be out from under my parents’ feet as I’d started trading on the stock market – way before it started being trendy on Instagram.
Looking back now, I can see how it quickly gave me a taste for business, growth, and investment. I’d sit there, in my student halls, working out the potential return on investment while my course mates were trying to follow the uni’s latest bar crawl route.
Around the same time, I read the book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter, which takes you through the journey from self-employment to business ownership. I believed such lived-experience was an important part of my own growth, so I became an Oriflame representative, selling cosmetics.
It made me a bit of extra cash, but what I wish I’d realised sooner, is that I wanted something that was mine. While I was self-employed and learning the ropes of business, ultimately it was someone else’s vision, brand, and name above the door. It never truly felt right and wasn’t giving me the spark I craved.
Speaking of spark and passion, fast-forward to age 21, and it became apparent that I needed to go into a ‘proper’ business, and be very specific about the people I sought to be around, and what I wanted to achieve.
So, I signed up to Plenty of Fish.
I set up my profile and was clear with what I was looking for. In fact, it probably read more like a job description. ‘Seeking: a long-term partner to go into business with, must possess an entrepreneurial desire and family values – ideally 10 years my senior.’
This online profile was how I met Jason – my now-husband and co-founder of Natural HR. He was the first person to respond to my post coherently. It was rapidly coming up to the time when I had to leave my student halls for the summer, so after three weeks of dating, we moved in together.
Taking that chance was the best decision I ever made. People said I was crazy. Did I question it? Of course. Would I tell 21-year-old Sarah to do anything differently? Absolutely not.
We often talk in business about risk vs. reward, and this decision wasn’t so much of a risk, because if it didn’t work out, I’d have learned a vital life lesson. This was about finding a like-minded person who valued the same things, and not wasting time on the dating phase of personal or professional relationships.
Not long after meeting, Jason spotted a cleaning business that was up for sale. While the sector was something that hadn’t been on my radar, it was an opportunity to fulfil that ‘business owner’ ambition I’d been chasing. Things were falling into place.
Next thing I knew, I was 21, an employer, and I thought I knew it all. In all honestly, I cringe when I’m reminded that I told the first member of staff I didn’t like to: “f*ck right off”. Needless to say, I quickly learnt just how much you need to know, and adapt, to run a company, in the way it should be run.
One of the biggest challenges with that business was the sheer amount of paperwork I’d receive each week, with staff sharing their hours on physical timesheets. It was so cumbersome that Jason – who worked in tech – ended up developing a digital solution tool for me to manage this wealth of data.
It was so good, that we decided to put it online as a free resource to help similar businesses – and within a year we had 50 companies using the software in 10 countries. In truth, the plan was never for that to become our legacy, it was simply something created to make my life easier. Funny how things change.
In all honesty, this wasn’t how 18-year-old Sarah Dowzell thought she’d become the next Deborah Meaden, but the fact that I was on my way was a real ‘pinch me’ moment – I’d unwittingly developed a business that had the potential to grow significantly, on a global scale.
With hindsight, I realise I didn’t need to start in self-employment or go to university – because from that chance ‘connection’ on POF, a seed has blossomed into a successful partnership, strong marriage with two children and a HR Software company that has 250 customers – supported by £1.6m in investment and 50 colleagues.
All because I went after what I wanted.