Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Perthshire couple’s journey from redundancy woes to running The Roost

The couple said they have set up a successful glamping business after a "crazy few years".

Zoey McClellan at The Roost. Image: The Cabins at the Roost.
Zoey McClellan at The Roost. Image: The Cabins at the Roost.

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.

Inside one of the cabins. Image: The Roost.

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.

The Cabins at the Roost. Image: The Cabins at the Roost.

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.

Business has been “chaotically busy”, Zoey said. Image: The Cabins at the Roost.

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.

The couple set up the business while living in a caravan. Image: The Cabins at the Roost.

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.

Conversation