Fi Bailey, Upper Park Cattery – A purr-fect opportunity

A purr-fect opportunity

‘I have taken away new ideas and been able to consider things I might have otherwise overlooked. From the one-to-one sessions I gained an advisor who really understands my business and the best ways to market the cattery through social media and the website. I’m sure that everyone who attends a workshop will be able to take away at least one thing that will make an improvement to their practices, no matter how much experience they already have. They were really good, I would recommend them!’

Since opening in the summer of 2012, Upper Park Cattery has provided a welcoming, caring and safe destination for discerning cats and their owners. Built from scratch by cat enthusiast Fi Bailey and her family, the cattery, based in Llangarron near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, is a family run business which puts the emphasis on a personal service, attention to detail and first class facilities.

As well as providing a home from home for cats whilst their owners are on holiday Upper Park Cattery also goes one step further, looking after cats for owners who may not be able to currently care for them and fostering families of cats and kittens while they look for new homes.

Drawing in customers from as far afield as Bath and Cardiff, the business has gone from strength to strength since opening and Fi is now looking at making some changes to the cattery’s current website as well as being in the development stages of setting up an online pet store.

A ‘paw-sitive’ experience!

With these changes in mind, Fi attended the Faster Women project workshops on ‘How to get a website for your business’ and’ Selling online’, and is also benefitting from two Fastershire one-to-one business advice sessions which are designed to take a more in depth and targeted look at Upper Park Cattery’s online needs. Fi said ‘The workshops were a great way to get an overview of how I should be using our current website and also what I should be thinking about when setting up our new online store. I have found the one-to-one sessions particularly useful, having an advisor who now really understands my business means that I’m getting bespoke advice and I’ve already started to work on some of the ideas that we discussed.’

As well as having useful hints and tips on ways to improve the cattery’s Facebook page and website Fi also found the workshops to be a fantastic opportunity to network with other local business owners in the same boat as herself. Having joined the ‘Garron Network’, a group set up by participants on the workshops who are local to Llangarron, Fi also now benefits from the pool of knowledge that herself and her fellow business women share.