Avril Rennie,br> AFTER working in financial services for most of her career, Avril Rennie set up her first business when she inherited her family home after her mother's death in 2001.

Avril Rennie

AFTER working in financial services for most of her career, Avril Rennie set up her first business when she inherited her family home after her mother's death in 2001.

She relocated from Edinburgh back to West Kilbride, Ayrshire, and turned the house into a B&B. "The motivating factor was to keep our family home - but it had to pay for itself," says Avril, now in her fifties.

"The leisure industry can be unpredictable - and even with my financial background I still considered it a gamble. It was a leap of faith, but I had a hunch it could be done."

Five years later, her unspoiled Victorian seafront villa, Carlton Seamill, is a popular retreat for visitors from all over the world, and Avril says she is happy to be cooking Scottish breakfasts and making beds for a living. "The internet has made a huge difference to my business and makes it far easier than it would have been a few years ago," she says.

"Financially it is not more rewarding than my previous career but there is a great deal more satisfaction and appreciation of what one does. And it can be as intellectually stimulating, too - depending on my guests, some of whom are very able people.

"It seems perfectly normal to be running a new business in my fifties. Fifty is definitely the new 40, and people are much more likely to be forward-thinking and looking."