Hannah McQuaker
Occupation: Self-employed Landscaper
Location: Corsock
Hannah McQuaker grew up in the village of Corsock. During her childhood amid the peace and freedom of the countryside, she explored the land with her grandfather and worked alongside her father. These experiences laid the foundations and fostered the skills that she now utilises to run her own successful landscaping business.
Hannah’s passion for her home and her work is evident in her contagious enthusiasm as she tells us about her business:
“I do landscaping; specialising in diggers and paving, and all the associated tasks. I started six years ago, working with my dad most of the time to begin with. Then I decided that I wanted to work for myself, and be my own boss, so branched out into my own thing, which is paving. That has become the majority of my work.”
“My business page on Facebook is ‘H.McQuaker Landscaping’ and I cover all of Dumfries and Galloway. I started in the Glenkens, having grown up in Corsock, and I’ve just expanded from there.”
Hannah loves what she does and finds it incredibly fulfilling:
”My job is all outdoor work. Mostly domestic, working around people's homes. The bit I enjoy the most is definitely taking a space and improving it and being creative with it. My favorite jobs are always when the customer doesn't really know what they want and I can draw a plan. I talk through with them ideas and go from there; I love transforming a space. That is the best bit!”
The skills accrued growing up were added to when Hannah left home for a few years to further her education. But she always knew she would return to the area:
“I've always come back. It's beautiful; there's nowhere like the Glenkens… the scenery, the space and the people… so many interesting people live here and it's an amazing place to be. I moved away from home when I was 17, and I lived in Edinburgh for college where I studied agriculture, and then I moved back. I always knew when I was in Edinburgh that I was going to come back. I had a lot of friends that moved up there for uni or college and they stayed, but I couldn't have stayed; it was too busy. In Corsock it’s quiet. There's space. It's amazing!” she smiles, as she looks around at what we can see from where we are standing in the heart of the Glenkens countryside.
Having run built up her business successfully over the last few years, Hannah can see its evolution and has big plans for the future:
”At the moment I have two casual staff. I would quite like to grow to where I have two permanent staff. I'd like to expand the size of jobs that I'm able to do, and the scale as well. I'd really love to have my own group of diggers. I'd love to be able to do that, and offer that as a service.”
Hannah is well-known in the area, both for her friendly and enthusiastic personality, and her high standard of professional work. She enjoys people and it’s not surprising to hear her talk about how community is at the core of any successful business:
“Having a business is all centered around the network of people that you know... and that's what keeps it going. Most of my work comes through word of mouth.”
She believes that anyone wanting to move here with an open enthusiasm for the community and for getting to know people will be able to make the Glenkens home:
“I would definitely say network… everybody knows everybody. There are so many career opportunities, both rurally and in the towns and villages. It's all about who you know, and once you can get to know people, that's where your opportunities come from.”
Taking a pause to consider, Hannah continues:
“The thing about rural places is the sense of community. Everybody knows everybody and you're never far away from someone who is happy to help you out... There's so much to see and do here and I think it's a shame that a lot of people don't know that the Glenkens is as full of opportunity as it is.”
Like many people in rural areas Hannah’s work and life blend together, often being personally recommended for jobs through the vast network of people who all know each other. She works very hard, but still finds time to enjoy life outside of it:
”I love the sense of community here. I think in a big city, you'll have your socialising group, but here you never go into the pub without seeing someone you know. You never go into Tesco without seeing someone you know. I like the familiarity of that.”
When considering what the Glenkens might look like to someone from a more urban area, but who thinks they might like rural life, she ponders:
“People sometimes think, it's just an empty space. There's nothing here. There's nothing to do. It's just all farmers. But that’s wrong… I think it's such a misconception, and that there are far more opportunities; outdoor opportunities and career opportunities, in a place like the Glenkens, where you can build a network and you can work with other people. In a place like this, you can do whatever you want!”
Hannah attributes much of her own happiness, and the growth of her own business, to life in a close-knit community:
“I had a lot of connections when I first started… I think the network for business here is bigger; there's a lot of people living here, especially in the Glenkens, there's people everywhere. And they all talk to each other... I love the setting that I get to work in and I love the people that I get to meet, and that's what makes the job really enjoyable. Going out to work, to all different places, travelling around rather than working in the same place or somewhere boring… and the Glenkens is definitely not boring!”
