It Started With a... Chocolate Bar - Scotland’s Bothy
For this week’s Business Spotlight, we look at another business which shows that ‘fun’ and ‘work’ can actually go hand in hand.
Jason Miles started Scotland’s Bothy in 2010 and has not looked back since. Scotland’s Bothy is a unique gift shop, combining regular gifts with those originating from Jason's natural love and ability for crafts and creativity. From his workshop, Jason crafts a wide range of items such as engraved slate plaques, ornaments, wedding accessories, and offers a T-shirt printing service.
Jason has always had a creative streak. When he first left school and began working in a sign company, it was the creative hands-on tasks that provided him with the most job satisfaction. In particular, it was through using the flat bed CNC routing machine that gave Jason his biggest sense of creative freedom, while allowing him to add further technical skills.
Jason then made the leap to becoming his own boss, and Scotland’s Bothy was formed, allowing him to turn his creative talents into being his career. As well as being able to incorporate what he love doing into a business, Jason loves being able to come into work and still being able to see his family more often:
"It’s nice coming into work and having morning tea with your family. This is one of the things that has been very different for me from my previous work before I started my own business."
And what of the name? ‘Scotland’s Bothy’ also carries that rustic charm, but not by coincidence. Jason mentions how the name has been heavily influenced by his love of the Scottish landscape, the Cairngorms in particular. Jason also wanted to create a business that could be enjoyed by tourists and locals alike:
"I am quite a passionate Scot and love to promote our country and traditions, especially to the tourists visiting, I get to meet a lot of interesting people from all corners of the globe from every walk of life"
Jason has also been grateful for the support that he has received from Enterprise and Business Gateway in Grampian, particularly in helping improve his website:
"We met with David Percival who carried out a free website review. In the initial meeting David examined our e-commerce website and gave us an in depth report on our website which I found very helpful indeed. David was very knowledgeable, and the report he submitted to us was an excellent tool to help us get the most out of our website."
Jason also has clear plans for the near future, looking to open a second floor in the shop, as well as getting lost in his creativity again to develop a host of new lines.
On a closing note however, you could say that although Scotland’s Bothy is Jason's first business, it isn’t his first taste of business:
"When I was a young kid, about age 13, I got a box of Valentine’s Day trinkets from my mother. She also used to run a small gift shop and she said “here you go, do something with these, I don’t need them!”. I got one of my pals- who would yap to anyone and had the gift of the gab, and he sold the lot in an hour for me. He was happy with a Texan Bar, a packet of cheese and onion crisps and a bottle of Moray Cup for his efforts. The rest went straight into my savings."
Scotland's Bothy: 01224 658 077
scotlandsbothy@yahoo.co.uk
www.scotlandsbothy.co.uk
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