Community Highlights: Meet Tony Happeny of Tennessee Glamping

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Happeny.

Hi Tony, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve always wanted to start a business, and I got a business degree from the University of Cincinnati. For the first 10 years of my career, I focused on making enough money to one day start a business when the right opportunity presented itself. That opportunity presented itself while on vacation. We got inspired by glamping accommodations offered around the world that weren’t available in the united states. This took around 12 months of planning to go from an idea to opening our first glamping dome in Tennessee. During that planning period, we contacted the Discovery Channel to see if they’d be interested in filming us building this dome on the side of a mountain in Tennessee. Within 3 weeks, they were on-site, and we were starting our episode of Building off the Grid. The first dome was such a success that we knew we needed to reinvest our revenue into building more domes. Within 1 month of opening our first dome, we ordered more and began site prep for the second and third domes. We continued to reinvest our profits into the company to accommodate more guests as demand continued to increase. We had to learn how to grow a business and a brand. As Tennessee Glamping has evolved from a single unit, I’ve had to continuously learn many aspects of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. As a small business, you must take on all aspects of business such as social media, accounting, customer service, guest relations, design, construction, managing staff, legal, and even paying taxes. We’re now partnering with other properties to grow our property management business by listing other properties on our website to provide other unique vacation rental stays for our customers. Going forward we’re opening a new vacation rental site, so unique nobody in the USA currently has anything like it.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Although I went to school for business, I learned more in the first 6 months of being is business than during my 4 years in college. The pace you have to learn when starting your first business is unmatched. This caused me to choose between keeping my corporate sales job and betting on Tennessee Glamping’s success. Choosing to bet on yourself is one of the most stressful but rewarding things I’ve experienced. Building a business from scratch means you are jumping in the fire and have to learn fast.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
A unique luxury glamping experience in Tennessee!

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My wife, Christina Happeny, is the main reason this business has been successful. Not only did she come up with the great name, but she was also on board with the risk of investing our money in land and domes that most people didn’t think would be a successful business. She’s always supported my ambitious ideas, which paid off this time. She jumped right in and helped build every unit.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tennessee-glamping.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tennesseeglamping/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TennesseeGlamping/