The journey to your campsite is over
Let me start by setting the scene…
The journey to your campsite is over. The tyres transition from hard tarmac to the soft grass you will be calling home for the next several days and nights. A smug smile breeches the corners of your mouth as you look at the array of multi coloured tents around you, relieved that you don’t have to go through the ordeal of pitching a tent. Instead, you pull up to your bell tent, with a mattress and fully made bed, fresh bedding and plumped pillows, soft rugs and the radiating glow of fairy lights. Moments later the shoes are off, being barefoot on the grass never felt so good. The transition between the outdoors and indoors is so smooth and seamless it makes you feel so free. As the sun sets you can feel its warm glow on your cheeks, you can taste the salt in the air from the sea and with that a waft of a nearby firepit smoke overwhelms your nose and your attention is immediately directed to the thought… “let’s light the firepit!”.
How rude, please let us introduce ourselves; We are Jim and Lizzie and together we founded the Blank Canvas Concept. My wife Lizzie very much heads up the Blank Canvas concept and the day-to-day operations and I do my best to keep up with the ever-expanding journey that is unfolding in front of us, adjacent to my full-time work. I’m finding time to do some writing about our experience so far and bring the business to life from a literature perspective while Lizzie is bringing all physical aspects of the business to life every single day. While the words on the page may be mine, this is very much a collaboration of information through our shared perspectives to hopefully give something interesting and/or useful to you, the reader.
Why we started the business…
We met in the May of lockdown 2020 and immediately connected through our shared love of the outdoors. Soon after Lizzie had the sad news of her redundancy from a job she loved as a wedding planner. Ignoring the normal challenges of un-employment we decided to enjoy the invaluable time we had together and get the most out our lockdown experience. When weather and restrictions permitted, we booked our first camping trip without hesitation. Although our camping plans were generally cohesive, our main sticking point was whether we’d camp in my van or Lizzies belle tent. Convinced of my T5’s splendour I insisted I’d take care of everything, and we’d be best off in the van… However, we concluded we’d both set up our chosen accommodation and decide from there on the day.
We arrived at the campsite and proceeded to set up. I must admit I won from a practicality standpoint. Once the van was empty of the belle tent and all the props Lizzie had brought the van was ready. I simply pulled the sheets onto the bed and lent back feeling very happy with myself.
I smugly assisted with Lizzies tent erection. The process was like a furious creation process of things I never thought I’d see camping. This included a king size bed, duck down duvet, cushions, tee light chandelier, door mat, fluffy rug, champagne cooler, and side tables. The realisation reached my face as the final tee light dropped into the chandelier. The door on the van closed swiftly and we stepped into our belle tent Viking palace. My face went from absolute victory to defeat and straight back to joy in less than a nano second. As I flopped on the bed and witnessed what lizzie could do with a belle tent there was no hesitation. We were staying in the bell tent.
That night I said to Liz, “I think people really need to experience this” and so Lizzie advertised the belle tent for hire on Facebook Market place the next day and so the journey began.
A business was carved out of adversity, and yet it felt like it was meant to be. Weeks later we both reviewed notes on our phones and realised that we had written down similar “Blank Canvas” style hiring business ideas years before we met. It turns out that the desire to create a business like Blank Canvas was already engrained into each of us.
