Robert Sproul-Cran
Find out more about our client in the Cairngorms providing creative retreats and collaborating with other creatives. Starting a business in rural Scotland brings its challenges and opportunities and we’re sharing how Robert Sproul-Cran, who is based now in the Cairngorms, came to be here and developed his idea for a business.
Robert plans to run creative retreats in the Cairngorms by working collaboratively with others to provide the venue and other creatives to provide the content for the retreats. He plans to host his first retreat in 2023 and in the meantime has gone through a journey of discovery to build his business model and create a network of partners.
Getting Started
Robert was originally a musician and honed his craft on the streets of Berlin as a busker for a year and half. He says, “I loved the interactions with the audience, and the feeling of getting better and better at doing the thing I loved. But Berlin is a busy,loud and unforgiving place. I needed to find some space for myself. A space to write.
“I journeyed north, to the Arctic Circle, to Norway. There I went in search of cabins in the wilderness. And I found the space to write. The wild opened up my creativity in a way that the city never could. The crispness of the air. The sound of trees creaking in the distance. The shock of the cold as I collected water from the stream. The silence.
“I knew I had found something special. And I wanted to share it. I wanted to bring it back to Scotland and let other people experience it. That is what these retreats are about.”
Returning from Berlin and Norway, Robert immersed himself in occupations that would give him valuable insight and experience. With his carpentry experience in Norway, he helped friends build a house in Nethy Bridge.
“As well as honing the skills I might need to self-build workshops and accommodation, it confirmed to me that the Cairngorms was a great fit for the values and culture of the business,” he says. “It remains to be seen, however, whether the lack of housing for either myself or future employees means that this business will ultimately be located elsewhere.”
He then took a job leading a tree-planting squad near Peebles to see what industrial forestry really means on the ground and finally moved back up to Aviemore and worked at the accommodation and arts location of Inshriach, to see how both of those could fit into the landscape in a sustainable business.
The Enterprise Journey
Robert sees his greater achievement so far as building an amazing network of collaborators and supporters. He says, “Not only is it totally aligned with our goal of connecting people to spark fresh approaches to creativity and the wild, but it is also a support network that benefits us now and, in the future — people who believe in theproject and are excited about what lies ahead: champions for the cause.”
However Robert feels that hesitation has held him back and spending time working out what his next move is has tied up capital and headspace rather than just moving forward with an idea.
The hardest things about running his own business have been self-belief and keeping the momentum going through the challenges of the pandemic and cost of living crisis. Robert feels that if he had started the business when he was younger, he would more likely have taken risks sooner as the majority of them have proved to move the business forward positively.
“Nowadays I’m much more risk-averse, and while that might be good for someonehelping to steer an established enterprise, I find it stifling the dynamism and energy that a young business likely needs.”
The pandemic proved a mixed experience, providing the opportunity to take the time to really delve into market research before taking the plunge. “This provided extra certainty of viability, but ultimately that won’t be truly tested until launch. The delay also massively impacted land and materials prices, meaning that many of these calculations may become outdated before I have the chance to put them to use,” says Robert.
More recently, the cost of living crisis has also had an effect: “The mission of Highland Creative Retreats is to make nature-based arts accessible for any financial demographic, and we will employ many different strategies to achieve this. In the short term, however, cost of living has added to the question of how to pitch what is ultimately a relatively high-end entry product.”
Support
Robert is appreciative of the support he’s had through these and other challenges: “GrowBiz have been fantastic at providing support in many areas: from networking opportunities, through which I met a future collaboration partner; to one-to-one meetings and advice, which have been hugely valuable,” he says.
“The life of a start-up seems to be fraught with unknowns,” Robert continues, adding that he is considering the advantages of getting a mentor: “I feel a mentor would help me to tease out which unknowns to be wary of, and which are simply inevitable, and likely a distraction. There is also the implied vote of confidence and accountability that a mentor would bring, which would lead to greater credibility being felt by me, as well as projected outwardly.”
Looking to the Future
Robert remains focused on the future, with plans to expand. “Growing from retreat weekends in partner venues, we’ll grow these to become longer duration and more frequent throughout the year, leading eventually to a permanent physical location with workshops, studios, multi-function spaces, and accommodation, benefitting both visitors and the local community alike. In other words, the ability of the enterprise to punch well above its reach should grow exponentially with time.”
And he keeps firmly in mind his overall goal: “The core mission of the business is to connect people to nature through the arts, and in doing so provide a sustainable business model for nature restoration - from tree planting to ecosystem rejuvenation, as well as provide inspiration, motivation and education for others to do the same.
To find out how GrowBiz can support your business please contact us here or sign up to one of our events.