We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Neive Tierney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Neive, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success at Nectar is achieved if everyone on our team has a work/life balance. My self and my business partner and I met at a previous job where there was constantly high stress, and we were expected to work as fast as possible, put in overtime, and generally act like robots day in and day out. 

When we joined forces to start Nectar, we knew we wanted to cultivate a different kind of workplace. These values have been tested since I had a child earlier this year, and my business partner plans to have her own soon. As two women business owners, we know our business will only work if the systems we set up can also be balanced with our lives as mothers. This is true success.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Nectar Landscape Design is a design office that believes gardens have the power to nourish the earth and our clients’ lives. We craft gardens that tend, restore, and reflect our clients’ true joys. Inspired by our clients’ passions and nature’s wisdom, we create spaces of restoration and revitalization to complement and awaken you every day.

A garden is a buffet to the senses — a smorgasbord of sounds, flavor, scents, sights and textures. When we focus on our senses, we are present, allowing the body to relax and foster a sense of calm. Because of this, a garden can help you focus on the beauty in the present moment, making it easier to peacefully coexist with life’s ambiguity. It’s a portal connecting you to nature and your wild self.

We approach every new project with the mindset of a student devoted to learning the land and our client’s needs. Our gardens are designed with a simple philosophy in mind: Successful spaces are born from a collaboration with nature.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

People pleasing! We are always working to unlearn this. Our business is essentially a service industry so you can easily get in the habit of catering to all the requests of your clients. We have learned time and time again that strong boundaries actually equal happier clients and more successful projects. It also leads to higher fees, which sets both the business up to succeed and, counterintuitively, often makes clients happier and feel more supported.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Consistency and trust. We are working on clients’ homes; it’s very personal, so they need to trust us. They need to trust that their requests are being listened to and that we have the expertise to help them achieve their desires. By consistently standing by our work and our values to clients, we have built a clientele. People spread the word to their friends if they have a good experience. It’s about making sure you treat each client with the same respect and focus.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nectarlandscape.com/
• Instagram: @nectar.is.sweet

Image Credits

SLH Photography