Rural life and work. Picture the countryside of Scotland, and images of the mountains, lochs, wild landscapes, highland villages, and ancient castles will likely come to mind. It’s a beautiful place to live and work, and around 17% of Scotland’s population live in a rural location. If you visit the Scottish countryside you may have stayed in a hotel or B&B. During your visit you may have dined in country pub or enjoyed coffee and homemade cake in a rural café or taken part in a Scotland-specific sport or outdoor activity. Perhaps you bought locally crafted souvenirs or locally produced food like honey. Maybe you purchased Scottish art or books. Everything purchased and genuinely ‘made in Scotland’ supports an array of Scottish businesses in one way or another.
Rural businesses
Rural businesses include a wide variety of industries, some traditional like farming, forestry, deer stalking and fishing and other sectors such as tourism, food and drink, creativity, crafting, art, and energy. For years, some small businesses ran successfully from people’s homes across Scotland. Many shaped their business around their home life, another job, and family commitments, or aligned it with the tourism and sporting seasons.
Rural workload
Running an established or newly emerging rural business requires commitment. A business needs a great deal of energy, determination, time, skill, talent, creativity, focus and much more! If you are a small business or self-employed, mastering a number of tasks will be common place for you. A small business may have a great product or a invaluable service but has the business content been taken care of? The first words customers read, and the images they see on your website, leaflets, newsletters, can either keep customers or send them away. Great content is an asset because it creates positive experiences for your customers. Creating appealing content that keeps customers coming back is an important chapter of your relationships with your audience.
We can’t all be experts in everything
Time may be in short supply if you are self-employed, running a small or a medium sized business. Budgets may be stretched. Additionally, it may not be possible to recruit an additional member of staff. Is anyone keeping your website content up to date, is it outdated, stale and lacking in fresh information? Maybe you’d love a newsletter or a new blog? Do you set aside some time to try to do it yourself? Perhaps you do nothing and forget about it? Alternatively, talk to a fellow rural business owner who specialises in written and photographic content. What seemed like an out-of-reach project could commence right away and within your budget. Working with other rural businesses also extends your contacts and your customer reach.
Contact Linda Mellor to have a chat about updating and creating your rural online and offline business content.
