BRAND NEW DIRECTIONS: HAPPY GLAMPERS

These women turned their love of the great outdoors into successful holiday businesses

- BECKY DICKINSON

TOP TIP 'The starting point has to be a vision: define what success would look like and work back from there.'

We found a work-life balance by the sea'

Emma Liddle, 43, runs Lydcott Glamping: a collection of Nordic-inspired luxury cabins near Looe in Cornwall. She launched the business in 2019, after quitting the rat race for life by the sea. She lives with her husband, Rich, 47, and their children Tarka, 14, Jonah, 13, and Delphi, seven, plus four labradoodles and 40 chickens.

THE IDEA

Eight years ago, I was exhausted; juggling a highly paid, but stressful career in marketing with raising a family. Rich and I had always dreamt of moving from Buckinghamshire to Cornwall. But it wasn't until we attended a friend's memorial service in February 2014 that we realised life was too short to wait. We immediately began looking for a house where we could have the work-life balance we craved, while making a living in the holiday industry.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

The moment I set eyes on Lydcott - a crumbling farmhouse with incredible sea views and a field we could turn into a glamping site - I knew it was right. We relocated in July 2015 and I contacted hundreds of manufacturers to compare the cost of building cabins ourselves to buying them ready-made. When some amazing Nordic-style cabins popped up on my Facebook feed, I knew they were the ones.

Then it was a case of securing planning permission, ordering the cabins, doing the groundworks and working on the brand and marketing. We opened the first two cabins, The Pasty and Prosecco, in February 2019.

BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT

Besides discovering the cabins themselves, the second breakthrough was having Rich at home during lockdown. Until then, he'd been commuting to London and travelling abroad in his role as MD for a luxury hotel consultancy.