Donna Cuthbertson
An Interview with Donna Cuthbertson of Orkney Dance and Fitness Ltd — A social enterprise delivering face to face, on demand and live-streamed dance and fitness classes for all ages and abilities in rural areas in West Mainland Orkney by utilising the community centres.
When did you set up your rural business, and what inspired you to start it?
We had a soft launch last August in 2021 to see if this is something people wanted, but the main launch was of January this year where we held an open afternoon to sample all classes on offer for free. There were so many people that came!
During covid, like lots of businesses I lost my work over night as I was providing classes for the local council as a self employed instructor. Within a week of the first lockdown I had gone online and live streamed my first class. My strong feeling that people needed some structure and exercise for their mental health and wellbeing more than ever led to a whole other world of teaching, which showed me there are so many more people out there we can reach and need services like mine. In March this year we were officially registered as a limited by guarantee company and a recognised social enterprise.
What is the biggest challenge you face or have faced running your business in rural Scotland?
Definitely being a one person business and tackling poor internet to be able to develop my idea. This has improved with involvement from our fabulous MSP Liam McArthur and we now have super fast broadband at one of the halls I teach from to enable me to livestream and reach more people!
What’s been your biggest achievement so far?
Raising £1200 for our local mental health charity this time 2 years ago during mental health awareness week by live-streaming classes with instructors all over the UK! I also won Community Fitness Instructor of the Year 2020 and received two motions in Parliament that year too.
How do you look after your own health and wellbeing while running your business, and why do you think this is so important?
I make sure I take a full day off once a week for downtime, and always have Saturday nights and Sundays with my family. It is so important to rest and listen to your body. As someone who loves their work, it can end up being a 24-7 kind of job with marketing, accounts, learning routines, applying for funding etc and it's learning to balance everything which comes with practice and sometimes others do need to remind me to slow down. Having chronic fatigue as well can be a challenge but I have never let this stop me and learned to manage it with plenty of rest scheduled in.
What else has helped you in running your business?
I was awarded the social entrepreneur fund by Firstport and received match funding from the local economic and development department in the council. This enabled me to purchase a trailer to transport my equipment around the island.
I was also successful in receiving the mental health and wellbeing fund to enable me to pilot my project Active Movers twice a week. This class is aimed at those 50+ and combines gentle aerobic exercise with balance, strength and flexibility components.
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