Every Monday, we ask small businesses key questions. Here we speak to Rebecca Mackellar, who owns and operates RedTag Bookkeeping & Admin Services in Grantown-On-Spey.

How and why did you start in business?

I started in business in late 1999, having moved to Grantown-On-Spey in the Cairngorms National Park to run an outdoor centre and accommodation business.

It was a world away from my previous life as an officer in the British Army, but I loved it.

I sold that business in 2013 having already formed a limited company, The Red Sock Launderette & Cleaning Service, to provide a full laundry and cleaning service for holiday homes, businesses and residents in this area.

My involvement in the daily bookkeeping led directly to me becoming a qualified bookkeeper and adding RedTag Bookkeeping & Admin Services in 2020.

How did you get to where you are today?

I’ve always been a huge fan of slick administration systems and have implemented them in each of my businesses.

Having incorporated XERO cloud accounting into the cleaning business in 2015, I decided that rather than going into other people’s businesses to do the bookkeeping for them, I could help them more by training them on how to do it for themselves.

First, I needed to retrain as a bookkeeper, and so after two years of part-time study with the AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians), I qualified as a bookkeeper and started Red Tag Bookkeeping & Admin Services.

Who helped you?

In the early 2000s my original bookkeeping tutor sat in my home office in the evenings, once my daughter was in bed, teaching me how to use SAGE 50.

I also picked the brains of my accountant when I started with Xero, following that with training in Quickbooks and Freeagent programmes to enable me to become a recognised advisor and help others set up their own cloud accounting systems.

Gaining official bookkeeping qualifications to underpin the cloud accounting qualifications was important.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever had?

“Time spent in recce (reconnaissance) is never wasted” – from my time at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1989.

And “You need to learn how to do your own accounts” – my husband when we first met.

What is your biggest mistake?

I’m originally from Hampshire, though educated in the Cayman Islands where my dad was an air-conditioning engineer, but I would say that my biggest mistake was not moving to Scotland earlier in my working life. I feel totally at home here.

What is your greatest achievement?

The training to become an Army Officer was probably the toughest time of my life, and walking up the steps of Old College (with the horse behind us) was an amazing achievement.

Apart from that it’s definitely surviving Covid with all team members intact.

How is your business managing rapidly rising costs, and what should government do to help?

I run my business from home, so rising costs do not have a huge impact. However, legislation (and keeping up with it) is a massive challenge and burden for smaller businesses to carry.

The FSB’s resources, newsletters and webinars are super for keeping up with the latest changes and updates, and I’ve used the members’ free resource hub on many occasions.

Being able to call the Legal Helpline 24/7 is a great comfort.

Governments should keep the FSB as a close ally, both when planning legislation (the FSB provides hard data and advice based on experience on what will and will not work), and when disseminating information to the business community.

What do you still hope to achieve?

To study further over the next year to enable me to provide more services to clients.

I aim to build a practice to help the self-employed in particular deal with the biggest change facing them  in the near future: MTD ITSA (Making Tax Digital Income Tax Self Assessment).

Quarterly Self-Assessment tax returns will start in April 2026.

What do you do to relax?

I come from a triathlon background and still swim, bike and run regularly, but it’s mainly to help balance my other joy, which is cooking and entertaining friends.

What are you currently reading, listening to or glued to on TV?

I recently finished reading ‘The Spy and the Traitor’ by Ben McIntyre.

I took it on holiday with me and read it cover to cover in a few days. It’s a true account of Gordievsky, a cold war double agent. Fascinating.

What do you waste your money on?

Organising trips with my family – an investment in memories.

What’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?

Put on my running clothes to motivate me to get out into the forest.

What do you drive and dream of driving?

I do have a car, but I choose to ride the Timberline mountain bike that I bought in 1995