Often, women venturing into Entrepreneurship, kick off their small business a little differently than their male colleagues do. Often, they are faced with additional levels of responsibility, such as caring for their children, parents – often delaying or interrupting education or workplace opportunities for advancement. Women entrepreneurs will often start small with a home-based business – but here too, there are challenges as many women are nervous about taking on that debt, worried that it will have implications for their family and finances. That is why anyone who is seeking to realize their dreams, to tap into the knowledge and experience of the experts at their financial institution, such as a credit union, which can be nimble and pivot to support businesses in non-traditional ways.

Danée Lambourne is the owner of Inventing Eden Landscaping, a very successful Victoria business that has thrived through different iterations over the past 15 years. If you think this is your typical landscaping business, you would be sadly mistaken. The slogan of her company is Cultivating Quality of Life and she pours her heart and soul into her work, which ranges from garden care, installation and build management, and project manager to therapeutic companion gardening and private horticulture therapy sessions.

Like many entrepreneurs, Danée has endured her share of challenges and successes – but today she enjoys a level of both personal and professional success, that now finds her firm fully booked until the fall of 2020.

SO HOW DID IT HAPPEN?

Danée was raised in the Fraser Valley where her parents loved to garden. Later in life, she moved to the Cowichan Valley where she fell in love with the land and began gardening again. In 2002, Danée moved to Victoria where she enrolled and graduated from The Hort Centre of the Pacific with a major in food production and a keen eye for design and composition. After running a maintenance company for a couple of years, Danée began renovating gardens. It’s important to understand that at that point, a woman in the landscaping or garden maintenance didn’t stand out - but a woman who was a general contractor, especially one designing and physically participating, wasn’t common.  Furthermore, a woman on site, sourcing products, managing teams, showing up muddy, asking questions and providing the answers was viewed with (how shall we put it) cynicism. While Danée’s work spoke for itself and she was well received, men would try to “educate” her. At one point, she had an all-woman crew and while it was enjoyable, it also became a novelty for some. There were a lot more comments, doubts, and catcalls. Staff had to closely review their outfits on a daily basis to make sure they were well covered, and she also says It was exhausting to have to consider things that no man would ever have to take into account.  

Today, Danée still deals mainly with male contractors, but also helps women find positions with firms and tries to work with as many female trades as possible. She suggests that on the West Coast, the evolution has been easier for women in this field of work but it’s not so for those working in trades. Women are out there in force now functioning as electricians, plumbers, builders, fabricators, technicians and heavy-duty machine operators. They are out there facing the fight that she finds is now somewhat immune to because of her position.  

In the early days of her company, Danée realized she wanted to move beyond being a maintenance gardener. She approached Coast Capital for a small start-up loan, worked closely with a lending agent who helped develop a financial plan and coached her until Danée felt confident that she had a plan worthy of bringing forward – and with that came success. When she paid off her loan, Danée took a hiatus to focus on her kids - and when she was ready to come back, Danée started the journey to become a certified Horticulture therapist and make her way back into Design and installation.

One unfortunate day, Danée suffered a significant injury on the slopes of Mt. Washington and nearly lost her leg. However, the recovery period provided an opportunity to create an alternate path and worked in Finance and then Web development to develop the management and process-driven skills she is now very proud to rely on. When it was time to return to the field, Danée worked with some talented professionals and was back out there running her own projects, rebranded her business - and here she is, booked until next Fall and loving every minute of it, or as she suggests, “at least when I look back I do :).”