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31.01.10

Jenny Brookes followed her heart all the way from home in Australia (where she met David) to Kirkmichael, where she married her local guy, and where they now live with their son.
After a very successful career in Australia in the tourism industry it seemed a fairly logical step to take on a local hotel that had been closed down for some time. The Log Cabin has been so much a part of Kirkmichael that they wanted to reopen it and get the place going again. With this snowy winter it seems that people are remembering the area and they have had people staying who say they haven’t been there for 25 years - so there is most definitely a bit of a party atmosphere going on.
The Log Cabin has 13 bedrooms, a restaurant, two bars and a function suite so it has been a huge undertaking for them to repopen it from being closed in such a short lead time.
Jenny told Comment: “We had been aware of the GrowBiz project through a conversation around my husband’s business as a honey producer, so it felt quite logical to have what we thought would be a one-off chat as we had it all sorted - or so we thought.”
She went on: “It has been a real eye opener. As someone who has had a fair bit of industry experience it was really interesting to see all of the points we covered before starting off and getting the doors open.”

Hands-On Experience

Jenny explained that GrowBiz’s Fiona McPhail reminded her that sometimes ‘we don’t know what we don’t know’! She sourced people willing to share their experiences so that Jenny spoke to people who could help with advice from everything to menus, laundry, costings and bar stock auditing.
“We were introduced to people who had hands-on experience,” Jenny continued. “You can go on courses and learn so much from books, but there is just no comparison with having a chat with someone who has done it, and is willing to be open and honestly helpful to you.”
“We have spoken to other local hotels who have also been generous with their help and see it as a way of working together and raising the profile to the benefit of the whole area.”
Jenny believes that the GrowBiz service has been something akin to a lifesaver as she encountered all sorts of problems that happened out of the blue and added to the short time frame for opening. The work that then needed to be done created an inimaginable pressure.

Valuable, Free Help

She remarked: “The fantastic thing was that we could put in a call for help and we either got someone offering practical, valuable help in person, or someone on the phone to talk us through whatever it was that was a problem.
“And the help doesn’t stop when the business is up and running. Who’d have thought that something this good can be free? I don’t know how to say a big enough thank you to all those people who have helped us.
Jenny and The Log Cabin can be contacted on 01250 881221 also via www.thelogcabinhotel.co.uk

GrowBiz facilitator Fiona McPhail is delighted to discuss any aspects of her own

and her organisation’s experience with interested folk from any part of

Highland Perthshire.

She can be contacted on 07912 786 864 or fmmcphail@btinternet.com