Jen McDonald of Garden Girls On Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup

“There is a deeper connection to the soul when you work in the dirt, and a reminder that even in the hardest times, a seed becomes a flower.” — Jen McDonald

Startups have such a glamorous reputation. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Uber, and Airbnb once started as scrappy startups with huge dreams and huge obstacles. Yet we of course know that most startups don’t end up as success stories. What does a founder or a founding team need to know to create a highly successful startup? In this series, called “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup” we are talking to experienced and successful founders and business leaders who can share stories from their experiences about what it takes to create a highly successful startup. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jennifer McDonald.

Jennifer McDonald is a certified organic vegetable garden specialist, a cofounder of Garden Girls in Houston, Texas, a mother of three, and a wife with a background in home styling. She and her two partners strive to make gardening more accessible in public and private spaces by conceiving and installing custom garden beds for commercial and residential clients and providing the necessary tools to maintain a flourishing garden.

Jen’s love of gardening began as a child watching her father pluck tomatoes and snap peas from their vines in his garden in Napa Valley, CA. These childhood memories spark her passion to educate kids about where their food comes from, helping schools plant gardens and design outdoor classrooms. She believes that gardening is a form of therapy and aims to redefine gardens as safe places created out of beauty and love.

Jen is a contributing writer for Piney Point Living and a frequent guest on Houston Life. Recently, the Garden Girls’ work was featured on Discovery+’s Martha Gets Down and Dirty.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I’ve always loved DIY projects and home styling. As a little girl, I used to push my furniture around my room so often that my parents joked that it would have made more sense to have wheels installed on the bed and dresser. I grew up in Napa Valley, CA, in a little rented house with a big garden in the backyard. My dad and I would spend hours outside together, he tending to the plants while I tended to eat whatever was freshly harvested.

I carried all three loves–DIY, home styling and gardening into adulthood. Over the past few years, when life felt heavy during a worldwide pandemic, I focused on turning my dinky little garden bed into a full, productive, swoon-worthy outdoor oasis. So, what’s a girl to do? I added garden beds (a total of 14). I studied plant cycles and soil differences and learned everything I could about growing vegetables and herbs in my zone. After some experimentation, this little hobby turned into a passionate career.

What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

My two business partners and I worked for another garden design company for a year or so. We designed hundreds of gardens and managed all of the installations. While we worked for the same company, we didn’t see each other often. And at the end of the day, we were capped on our creativity and efforts to grow professionally because we were working for someone else. It was on a business trip, sitting around a table at an airport in San Francisco that we shared our dreams with each other, and as it turned out, we all wanted the same thing: autonomy, a company of our own, freedom to express our creativity and pursue different avenues for growth, and financial independence!

Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?

My husband co-owns a business with two of his brothers. He was the first person I shared this idea with and is my biggest cheerleader. Jill and Nicole, my business partners, had the same reaction from their husbands. All three partners have been supportive, excited and encouraging.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

When we were forming Garden Girls, we discussed the values that we wanted to reflect at the start of every meeting. The three of us share many things in common, but our binding ties are that we are moms and wives first. We work smartly and efficiently and know that our clients want to do the same. We have fun, both in and out of the garden, which is reflected in our “cocktail gardening / preppy chic” approach to branding. We want a client who has never gardened before to feel excited and empowered by the time we finish installing his or her garden and we provide continued coaching and education to support this.

We had a client who, like me, wanted to garden for years but never knew how to start it right. She didn’t know where to find materials or who to trust to build her garden beds. This is true for most of our clients.

Once she signed on with Garden Girls, we gave her three gorgeous raised garden beds filled with the highest quality soil, drip line irrigation, and bursting with healthy vegetable, flower and herb starter plants. We stayed in the garden with her for an hour to explain what we planted, how it will grow, and what she needed to watch for. A month later, when we returned for her second coaching session, she was excited to show us the growth and eager to learn how to tend and harvest. She said, “You make gardening feel fun and glamorous.” What a perfect compliment!

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Our knowledge, passion and experience has inspired families to learn how to grow their own food. That’s pretty amazing. We’re taking this passion to schools to support outdoor classroom and garden curriculum, and advocating for local schools to start garden programs and clubs, and integrate it into their permanent curriculum.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Self-awareness and the ability to understand each of our strengths and weaknesses. For example, Nicole was a lawyer and has an excellent business background. She keeps us organized and on track, in addition to her gardening talent. Jill is our networker; she knows everyone and we love this! She’s incredibly knowledgeable about gardening, greenhouses, is a beekeeper and has a great eye. I have an outside sales background and enjoy writing on gardening topics. My background in DIY and home styling is also helpful when it comes to designing a new garden space.

Integrity is also instrumental to our success. The three of us trust and respect each other, and if an issue arises, we discuss it all together to reach a solution. Our clients value this because we are asking them to trust us with a vision. Trust us, we know that we can make you a successful gardener if you follow our lead. It’s a big ask, but the payoff is incredible.

Communication is another important factor to our success. There are a lot of moving parts in the design and installation process and we rely on a crew of talented individuals to meet deadlines and provide the very best service to our clients. Finding the right people to work with can be a bumpy road (it can be filled with potholes at times!), but when you find the right fit, synchronicity happens.

Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?

Early in my garden design career, I had a client with an incredibly large space in which to work, but of course, budget was an important factor. After rounds and rounds of design layouts, the client and I settled on a formal potager garden (L-shaped steel garden beds with space in the center for an architectural feature). We loved the layout and my crew began work, which included digging sod out of the entire area of the new garden space. My boss at the time did not live locally and flew in to visit the job site. She was unhappy with the layout and advised me to change it. Against my better judgment, I did and when the client returned home, she was very upset. We ended up returning to the original plan–the layout that we agreed upon initially–but this experience taught me a valuable lesson. Whether working for someone else, for myself, or for my client, I need to trust my instinct. My instinct was that the layout should not have been changed, especially without consulting my client. However, I was also balancing trying to be a good employee. I didn’t want to ruffle feathers. Now, I speak up and if a layout feels off, I go above and beyond to express this to my client.

There can never be too much communication regarding a project. At the end of the day, I want to make sure that my client is thrilled, and that we are using their space in the best way possible. I will also speak up if a client wants a garden in the wrong location. I can do a lot of things, but I cannot make a shady location sunny. So, if you want to grow tomatoes and all you have is shade, I’d rather not take the job. It just won’t work!

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

Like most new business owners, I spent a lot of sleepless nights wondering, “Will this work? Will we find clients? What if we don’t? Did I make the right decision of leaving my position with security to jump into the unknown? What if we fail?” The last question trumped all others. “What if we fail?

As a mom of three young daughters, I often find myself telling them that they can do anything. They can be anything. They can and will succeed as long as they try. As a business owner, I had to remind myself of this principle. We can’t possibly fail unless we don’t try at all.

I tell my clients the same thing. Most are moms, like me. Most juggle carpool, housework, pets, spouses, children with homework and sports. Adding a garden into the mix can sometimes sound like more work, especially when they are starting off with zero knowledge.

I remind them the same thing that we remind our children. You won’t fail if you try. Gardening, like owning a business, is an experiment. The pathway to success is not a linear one. We will have great seasons and bad seasons. But if it’s enjoyable and satisfying, we are succeeding!

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard? What strategies or techniques did you use to help overcome those challenges?

I gardened. I ran. I kept approaching friends and acquaintances to build relationships and spread the word about our new company. My business partners and I focused on garden workshops, local press opportunities, and did a lot of complimentary gardening to build our portfolio.

The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy and is filled with challenges, failures, setbacks, as well as joys, thrills and celebrations. Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder?

You have to have a really strong support network, and if you don’t, create one. As moms, my co-founders and I are often pulled in many different directions. We have had to outsource a lot of mundane daily tasks in order to be more efficient and productive while working. We’ve also set hours for ourselves; we’re in the field from 8am-2pm. Computer work is done in the afternoons. The highs and lows are better shared together. When one person is down, there are two others to lift her up. When one person has family obligations, the other two handle work. We balance each other very well.

Let’s imagine that a young founder comes to you and asks for your advice about whether venture capital or bootstrapping is best for them? What would you advise them? Can you kindly share a few things a founder should look at to determine if fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice?

I can only speak to my own experience of starting a small business. Having a solid foundation with money in the bank, even if just a few thousand dollars, provides peace of mind.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Many startups are not successful, and some are very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful startups from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

1. Your startup must offer a solution to a problem or meet a need that people have in their lives. For us, that’s learning how to garden. Our solution is offering a turnkey service, from design to installation and education. This sets us apart from all other landscaping companies.
2. Have a detailed business plan with a timeline. In our case, we were lucky to have a co-founder who happened to be a lawyer. Nicole was invaluable at strategizing and laying a solid foundation for our company.
3. Offer the right message. From day one, we focused on finding the right clients and detailing the right message. We had many brainstorming sessions on who our clients are, where we find them, how we attract them and what message we want to send them.
4. Patience. The hardest part of this process is trusting in it. Building a client base and our portfolio is time consuming. It will be a never ending process. Success isn’t built overnight, so one must have the patience and determination to commit to the process.
5. The right team. I don’t think I would have done this on my own and I don’t think my co-founders would have either. We genuinely enjoy working together and we share our successes. We each bring unique ideas to the table and are better as a whole because of each other.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

Failing to plan = planning to fail. Having an idea is exciting, but without a solid business plan and timeline, businesses simply won’t get off the ground. It’s important to put adequate consideration into not just establishing your business but running and marketing it too.

Keeping a notebook at my side during our initial planning was imperative. I’d record thoughts in sections for operations, marketing, finance and summarize these notes at the end of each week to share with my co-founders. Each one of us would have an agenda to share so that we could address and check-off tasks to be completed or addressed at our weekly meetings.

Startup founders often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to founders about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting a company?

I find that starting the day with exercise helps. I’m up at 5am for a 3–5 mile run. I do my most creative work in the morning: writing, social media, design. I save the mundane tasks or the “response” tasks for late afternoon. At 5pm, laptops are closed for the day. The only way to avoid burnout is to take care of your physical needs with exercise, mental needs with breaks, social needs with sticking to a firm “end of day” time.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Our passion project is school gardens. I would love to see an outdoor classroom with gardens in every school across America.

We are blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Martha Stewart, the OG of all things home and garden!

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at www.gardengirlstx.com for tips on what to grow and when to harvest. We also have a blog that highlights specific seasonal plants and trends.

And of course, please follow us on Instagram and Facebook @gardengirlstx.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!