A Perthshire woman who was made redundant during the pandemic has her sights set on growing the glamping business she launched with her husband.
Zoey McClellan described life as “a bit of a whirlwind” since meeting her now husband Steve in 2019.
The following year, Covid hit and Zoey was made redundant. However, they married in December 2020.
Just four months later, they were living in a caravan as they launched The Cabins at the Roost in Blairgowrie.
We caught up with Zoey to find out more.
How and why did you start in business?
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. My husband Steve and I met in 2019, and soon after, the pandemic hit, and I was made redundant.
We decided to build a house and apply for planning for the cabins at the same time on our 14-acre small holding.
The cabin idea was something I had always wanted to do. We married in December 2020.
Four months later we had sold up, and were living in a caravan on site and managing both builds.
How did you get to where you are today?
It has been a crazy few years but we just stuck to the plan and kept going.
Our guests have given us amazing support and I’m constantly blown away by their lovely feedback.
Who has helped you along the way?
I approached GrowBiz early on they quickly helped me find social media and accountancy support which I believe is a huge part of our success.
A planning specialist told us the project would never happen but our house architect thought otherwise and helped us with the successful planning application.
Claire Fleming from Peel Farm was a great adviser at this stage, she has been through it all before.
What was your biggest mistake?
Not enough due diligence on our first set of contractors for the cabins.
We wasted considerable resources on the wrong people but did end up with an amazing team.
What is your greatest achievement to date?
Achieving 90% occupancy in our first year of business, and living in a caravan whilst all this was going on.
How has the cost-of-living crisis impacted your business?
People still like to get away but usually for more last minute short two of three- day stays.
I’m acutely aware that people’s budgets are being squeezed and there is a lot of choice out there now for some fantastic rural staycations, so our goal is to provide our guests with the best value experience we can.
What do you hope to achieve in the future?
We were granted planning permission for four cabins and currently have two operational.
We decided that we would settle there this year to concentrate on finishing the house.
However, we are now used to it being chaotically busy it only takes a quiet spell and we are planning again for the future.
Rising cost of electricity has been a pressure on all businesses, our cabins have spa hot tubs so we are hoping to invest in a more renewable site in 2024.
Maybe a few more animals too, our guests absolutely love our sheep.
Do you want to recruit in the future?
Yes, we would like to take someone on next year to help with the running of everything.
What is the hardest thing about running your own business?
I genuinely love what I do but being site based makes it difficult to escape, it’s getting easier to strike the balance.
It can feel overwhelming to be responsible for all the different business elements.
Any advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?
Do what you love and it doesn’t feel like work, just keep going.
If there is an important part of your business that you may struggle with, get help early on.
I knew I would procrastinate over the accounts and put it this way I would rather clean a cabin than tackle social media.
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