After running her gardening company for roughly six years, Anna Haines says she”™s gotten to a point where she picks and chooses her clients.
Taking a break from assembling a fall planter outside a client”™s home in Ridgefield, Haines said she”™s not really interested in picking up more business. She”™s content managing the 20-some customers she has now, making sure each of Avant Gardens”™ designs are unique and bring new life to clients”™ homes.
“I have been holding back the reins,” Haines said, her cheeks red after the first snowfall of the year. “I feel like expanding a company is such a delicate process. I want to be careful about how I do it. I don”™t want to jeopardize my clients”™ service in anyway.”
By slowly adding new customers through word of mouth, Haines, 30, said she”™s been able to give each garden individualized attention. And as time goes on, her clients feel more like friends than customers, as she gets to know their pets, children and grandchildren.
In an era when state officials are seeing entrepreneurs as seeds for economic growth, however, Haines reluctance to grow contrasts with the energy behind each university and towns”™ latest incubator, hackerspace and innovation center ”” all designed to fertilize and accelerate small business growth.
U.S. Census data show more than half of the job growth in lower Fairfield County has come from startups with only one to nine employees over the last three years.
With three to six employees, depending on the season, Haines said she occasionally thinks about hiring additional help or doing more advanced landscaping projects with her existing clients. But for now those dreams are limited. With everything going as smoothly as it is now, Haines said she didn”™t want to disrupt the business. She also had a baby in March.
“I like to do it slowly,” Haines said. “If I got 10 more clients, it”™d get out of control.”
Haines said she”™s never spent any money on advertising and doesn”™t have a website. Each of her clients found her through existing clients. Most of her business is centered in New Canaan, Greenwich and Ridgefield.
“I don”™t want to grow too much,” Haines said. “I want to keep the houses unique. Nothing we do is cookie-cutter. Every house is completely different. If you drove down the street you would never know we”™ve done the same two houses.”
Graduating college at the height of the recession, Haines”™ feelings are not unusual for her age group.
Risk aversion has jumped among Generation Y entrepreneurs, studies show. Whereas 72 percent of young entrepreneurs said they liked taking risks in 2007, just 56 percent of young entrepreneurs like taking risks today, according to a recent American Express OPEN survey.
Saddled with student loan debt and the reality of often living with their parents, those graduating during the recession were half as likely to start a business out of school, according to the study. Of those who successfully did, however, the vast majority now say they are better business owners because of it; they think innovatively in the face of adversity.
Haines said she started Avant Gardens while living at home with her parents immediately after graduating from Pennsylvania State University.
“It was difficult; I didn”™t know where I was going to go, but I knew there were opportunities around Fairfield County,” she said. “Thankfully I had the determination, drive and will to get the work and do anything for it.”
“I”™m so fortunate to have found something I love to do,” Haines said. “There are good days and bad days. I woke up and it was snowing today”¦ But it”™s the relationships and personal connections that make it a wholesome experience for me every day.”
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