Giving up a steady income to start your own business in the middle of a pandemic may seem a crazy idea.
After all, in the first year alone, 20 per cent of new start-ups registered in the UK will fail.
But Nights Under Canvas owner Steven Bradley would take a leap of faith again after his business got off to a great start and his work/life balance greatly improved.
Nights Under Canvas hires luxury bell tents throughout Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, and Gower offering experiences in all shapes and sizes for weddings, birthdays, staycations, hen dos, movie nights and more. The company even has a bubble tent for star gazing.
“I lost an uncle to Covid and that really showed me how quickly things can happen in life,” said father-of-two Steven, who wanted a change from the working environment that he’d been in for 25 years.
“I’ve always been someone to put my mental wellbeing first and make changes if I was being weighed down, and after making the jump we are now heading into our second year of trading.
“I have always had an ambition to run my own business, I suppose because there is an element of being able to really push yourself and seeing what you can achieve.”
So, with the help of Superfast Business Wales, Steven set about making Nights Under Canvas a success, delving deep into the world of social media management and digital and email marketing from the outset – an area the 49-year-old did not have a great background in.
“Superfast Business Wales really helped me upskill in certain areas such as digital marketing,” he explained. “They’ve really helped support my learning process.
“We’ve also been able to utilise cloud technologies and implement disaster recovery back up through the use of Google Drive and Dropbox, which not only gives me peace of mind but allows me to access my work from wherever I am across Wales.
“There were webinars on search engine optimisation (SEO), building your own website, social media marketing and creating a digital business.
“Superfast Business Wales then put together a diagnostic report on the website and social media. It was new terminology to me but getting the business prominent on the search engines was great.”
The support and guidance from Superfast Business Wales has certainly paid off.
Steven continued: “Analysing our first full year of business, 25 per cent of bookings came via our website and/or search engines, while more than 30 per cent of bookings came from social media channels – 23 per cent from Facebook and 8 per cent from Instagram.
“Creating social media content for our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts has been helped by being introduced to Canva, a user-friendly graphic design tool.
“Some of the best advice I had was around getting the content right and not focusing on the number of followers we had because all that matters is the impact you are having.
“We quickly became aware that our social media channels are there to engage people, not just constantly sell, sell, sell.
“Superfast Business Wales also suggested a ‘how it works’ section on the website we were getting built and a sign up process to utilise email marketing via MailChimp, which was very helpful as they informed us on best practice in terms of content and frequency.”
Nights Under Canvas is set for a busy 12 months that are already set to match the previous year’s financial figures.
And on top of that, Steven, an U11s rugby and football coach, gets to spend his working hours doing what he loves and spends even more time with his young family.
“As a farmer’s son I have always loved working outdoors,” said Steven. “There is nothing like going to bed physically tired rather than mentally tired.
“What’s fantastic is that during our peak times, the summer months that coincide with school holidays, our children, Anna and Steffan, and dog, Gwen, come out to work with me.
“We’ve got a van with the business, so we all get into that, go and set up or take down tents in the morning and then maybe go to the beach in the afternoon.
“The way the business works, unless we’ve got a wedding or special event, evenings are free and that’s great for family life.”
Steven has ambitious plans for the future of the business purchasing more tents to keep up with demand from clients.
“We have some exciting plans for the future, which are yet to be announced,” said Steven. “I’m 50 soon and ready to do some more learning in terms of video content for social media.
“I’ve learned an awful lot with the help of Superfast Business Wales as well as Business Wales, whose advisers laid the foundation for my education, and I know that, as part of the learning process, there is more to come.”