Sandy had to let the cat out of the bag a few days early as we were going to go away for the weekend; because of our business commitments, we had to rearrange our timetable so that we could drive to the George Hotel in Inveraray. We got there in time for dinner. On checking in to our room, I was stunned to find a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice – gifts from my sister. Sandy presented me with a lovely pair of gold earrings – and we went down for a fabulous meal.

On Sunday we went to Tarbert – taking time to stop at various shops and cafes on the way. We started our shopping in the Scottish Soap Shop in Inveraray, bought a Sunday paper and then had a coffee in Brambles coffee shop before making our way to Lochgair and Tarbert. We bought some soap – and were impressed by the little store.

As we were browsing through the Sunday paper on the banks of Loch Fyne, imagine my surprise to find that the owner of the soap shop in Inveraray had been crowned Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year. It’s inspirational because, after doing some research, it turns out that making soap (albeit carefully!) is a case of following a recipe – just as you would do any baking. It’s not something I would have thought of as a home-based business, but there you go, obviously many people do just that.

OK, I know we sell Scottish soaps in our shop; some from the Scottish Fine Soap company and some from Diana Drummond – but I truly hadn’t considered starting my own Scottish soap business. It just goes to show that a more entrepreneurial spirit than mine has made a go of it and has obviously got a great business up and running.

I am now investigating the soap-making business a bit more thoroughly as I already own a brilliant domain name which would be suitable for this as a business. I’ll keep you posted once I read this book on soap-making for profit.