Search begins for business champs
NOMINATIONS for this year’s Rossendale Business Awards have just opened, and one of last year’s big winners has already devised an ingenious way to sustain success through lockdown.
Since taking over Cronkshaw Fold Farm and Study Centre in Helmshore from her mum Joy around four years ago, Dot McCarthy has introduced innovation, including goat yoga and Zoom. The farm also has four AirBnBs, including a converted tree house. All are individual and offer stunning views over the Alden Valley.
The farm’s quirky offering led it to feature in a BBC documentary that went national and helped the business to thrive, culminating in landing the Visit
Rossendale trophy last year.
Covid-19 temporarily suspended educational visits, an essential part of the farm for years. But, ever the innovator, Dot, who worked on farms in Croatia, Norway, Finland and Scotland before taking over the reins at Cronkshaw Fold, introduced Facebook Live farm tours that were viewed by thousands of people.
When friends grumbled about Zoom business meetings becoming dull, Dot suggested ‘hiring a goat’ to spice up online meetings...and it went viral. No kidding!
Now a number of the farm’s 40 goats are available to ‘book’, each has its own personality, there are no Equity issues and they cost just £5 for five minutes.
Dot, 31, said: “The Goat video call idea was originally just meant as a joke, but now they have ‘visited’ many countries around the world.
“Some bosses did not get the joke when their employee added a goat to meetings. We also had bosses adding goats to their employees’ meetings to check if their staff were paying attention.”
The money from the video calls enabled Dot to reemploy her apprentice and part-time member of staff and to take on three more part-time workers to manage the demand for goat video calls.
Her goal is to raise enough money to switch farm vehicles and machinery from diesel to electric, convert to lower carbon farming models and to buy renewable power technologies for the farm to not only supply all the farm’s electricity needs, but also feed energy back into the National Grid.
Nominations for the 2020 Rossendale Business Awards will be open until October 21. To nominate a business log on to http://rawards.co.uk/