A Balloch man has told how the easing of Covid restrictions finally ended an 15-month wait to launch his business.
Marc McLean, a former Lennox Herald reporter, has been doing videography work since 2018 and was ready to launch a video production company in October 2020 – until strict lockdown measures halted his plans.
Two months later, the country went into a second full lockdown, hitting the pause button on any hopes of kickstarting his video production venture.
Marc said: “I’d been planning for several months to launch a business producing videos for small businesses, the type of content they could publish on their website and social media channels.
“Online video marketing is huge now, and I thought that this kind of service would be really beneficial for lots of smaller businesses in this area that had seen a real downturn in trade because of the pandemic.
“At that point in the summer of 2020, shops, pubs, restaurants etc, were all open for business but then things began to change.”
As Covid case numbers began to rise, new restrictions on household visits and a national curfew for pubs, bars and restaurants were introduced in September.
The following month, the Scottish Government ramped up restrictions, such as ordering the closure of licensed premises and cancelling indoor exercise classes and non-professional contact sports clubs.
Marc, 39, said: “We’ve got a lot of great small businesses here in West Dunbartonshire, who’ve worked so hard for decades to make a success of things, and the squeeze was really put on them through all of this.
“I’d been in touch with Business Gateway, had everything in place, and was about to apply for the £500 start-up grant – but it was pointless by then.
“My business was aimed at helping other businesses with video marketing – and many of them were either being forced to close, or had seen a huge dip in custom due to the restrictions.
“I live in Balloch, which has always been a bustling tourist spot for as long as I can remember, but sadly it’s been like a ghost town for much of the past two years.
“I’m hoping now that restrictions are easing this week, and we appear to be breaking the back of Covid with this weaker variant, businesses will start booming again over the next year.”
With nightclubs reopened, large indoor events resuming and social distancing rules dropped on Monday last week, Marc officially launched his new business on the same day.
Marc said: “It’s called Uplevel Your Biz. Now feels like the right time to go for it because most people appear a lot more positive about the future now.
“Writing and videography are my passions, and I get to creatively combine my journalism experience with video production skills, while helping small businesses at the same time.”
Visit Marc’s website here.
