1. The document discusses ideas for utilizing additional funding to support business in Tayside, Scotland. It considers both short-term options focused on immediate outputs as well as long-term economic development initiatives. 2. One short-term idea is to increase the number of Business Gateway advisors to provide support to more businesses. This could help increase the number of startups and businesses supported. 3. Longer-term ideas include establishing a rural enterprise hub and introducing a branded Business Gateway vehicle to promote services across the region, especially in rural areas.

1. Business Gateway Tayside
Steering Group
Report from Director of Operations, Elevator
Tayside
September 2019
Confidential

2. Overview
The Tayside Business Gateway Steering Group will introduce
on
a recurring annual basis commencing April 2020.
We are within an ideas generation phase whereby a number of
ideas are to be considered before focussing on the initiative(s)
to be taken forward.
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3. Considerations
Short Term Impacts (target outputs) v Long Term Investment (economic development activities)
Business Gateway Tayside’s contract performance has been strong
over the past 10 years, however associated business support activities
have a relatively short-term focus and this sees 1-2-1 engagement
periods with clients lasting up to 18 months with outputs reported
on an annual basis. If the Steering Group was keen to utilise the
additional funding in activities that will create an immediate impact
amongst clients, then building upon the activities that are already
working well would be the best approach. This would involve
increasing the availability of Business Gateway support to greater
numbers of businesses and would be reported through already
established Business Gateway mechanisms. Activities would continue
to focus on delivering short term impact and would be measured
in the manner of increased numbers of businesses supported and
increased numbers of workshops and Masterclasses delivered.
The Tay Cities Deal does reflect a longer-term economic vision for
the region however and should the Steering Group seek to direct the
funding to support these activities then these would most likely be
seen through the introduction of new initiatives that would need to
complement existing service provision. It would likely be more difficult
to measure the impact of these activities in the short term and the
nature of these would lend themselves more to an evolution of the
local business support landscape.
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4. The Ideas
While perhaps not the most innovative suggestion, this would very
quickly increase the impact that the existing operation can have
within Tayside. Business Gateway Tayside at present handles a
significant volume of enquiries from start up, established and growing
businesses. An increase in the number of Business Advisers employed
to deliver the service would immediately increase the opportunity
to work with more businesses across the wider geographic range.
Depending on an agreed area of regional economic focus, the new
Advisers may be recruited specifically to fulfil this requirement be that
with a geographic or sectoral remit.This activity will increase the power
of the existing service enabling more businesses to be supported.
Outputs would be reported within the existing service template
and so we would anticipate seeing an increase potentially across
several output areas. By way of illustration, prior to the contract value
reduction Business Gateway Tayside delivered 820 start-ups, some 100
more than the subsequently revised profile. Across Scotland, Business
Gateway deliverers are consistently failing to achieve their start up
targets and this is resulting in a trend of declining outputs in this area.
This is an area of strength within Tayside and were the Steering Group
keen to see more start-ups supported this would present a strong
message both locally and also nationally that we value new business
creation as a key component of economic development.
Rural Activities – Business Gateway is of course a nationwide service
however we do need to work particularly hard to maintain our
presence across rural Tayside. In Perth and Kinross some two thirds
of Business Gateway start up clients are rurally based which reflects
fairly positively on the local markets reached. There are still significant
1. Increase Business Gateway Advisory Resources opportunities to improve our rural positioning however as we seek to
obtain consistent presence and service availability across rural Tayside.
Additional Business Advisers would increase Business Gateway’s ability
to service rural parts of the region. Tayside has a large rural hinterland
and more Business Advisors would greatly enhance the ability of the
service to reach towns and villages throughout the region. It is felt that
increased support for businesses in rural areas through two designated
Business Gateway Rural Business Advisers would be timely as the
current LEADER programme will culminate in 2020. Following several
years of successful delivery, there are a greater number of businesses
who have subsequently utilised this funding to expand their offering
and which now will be in a better position to utilise additional growth
support provided by Business Gateway including Digital Boost,
market research and growth orientated workshops. An example of this
would be LEADER funded Cardney Estate near Dunkeld who have
established an excellent wedding venue through LEADER funding but
who now require the next level of help to grow their venture through
digital marketing, strategic planning and employment growth utilising
local rural employment initiatives.
Micro enterprise support is presently provided by Angus Business
Connections (ABC) and Growbiz in Perthshire and this has been
well received reflecting the market demand for 1-2-1 micro business
support in rural locations. These businesses would typically not qualify
for any significant 1-2-1 support through Business Gateway’s core
contract guidelines and criticism has often been directed towards the
service for not providing more localised support or requiring clients
to travel to attend meetings or workshops. Were increased funding
orientated towards supporting Business Gateway’s rural activities

5. in Angus and Perthshire we would look to build on the foundations
already in place including the programme of Rural Roadshows being
delivered across Angus and Perthshire in Q3 / Q4 in 2019. These
events look to involve partner organisations and provide an excellent
way to communicate a coordinated approach to rural businesses.
We’d look to establish more permanent Business Gateway venues
within rural towns by collaborating with organisations such as Can
Do Crieff and utilising Angus Alive’s mobile library services. We
would look to develop more engaging methods of connecting
with businesses including café take overs and by utilising existing
businesses to host speaker events built around the well-established
Business Gateway GO NETWORK brand.
Dedicated rural Business Advisers would be subjected to the
same accreditation and training requirements that all Business
Gateway Business Advisers go through within their first 12 months
of employment and which result in the Premier Adviser qualification
through the Academy of Leadership and Management. In addition to
the technical abilities, these Advisers would be selected specifically
for their abilities to develop rural network connections across Angus
and Perthshire in order to better connect existing rural infrastructure
with wider business support mechanisms. take overs of cafes for
1-2-1 appointments or local hotels for training events. We’d further
develop our rural partnership connections with PKAVS, ABC, Growbiz,
Perthshire Chamber of Commerce and Dundee and Angus Chamber
of Commerce and others to establish opportunities to better connect
businesses to all of these services in a more successful manner than at
present. We recognise that it is important to ensure that rural business
support complements rather than duplicates services in order to
reduce market confusion and ensure best value for the public purse.
Providing a well branded and highly visible facility within a rural
town. This would provide drop in facilities for entrepreneurs, start-
2. Establish an Enterprise Hub in Rural Tayside
up businesses, business support providers and business mentors. In
addition to providing a base for the network of support providers it
will also provide a catalyst for economic regeneration within the town
and its surrounding area. Employing a Business Gateway Enterprise
Manager, this individual would work to co-ordinate enterprise support
within the area, fully utilising Business Gateway training and advisory
resources. This person would also reach out to local schools to
encourage enterprise educational activities and would introduce
initiatives such as Young Enterprise Scotland.
The initiative would aim to:
- Encourage activity that promotes prosperity and
improves quality of life for the whole community
- Accelerate indigenous business growth
- Stimulate and nurture productivity and entrepreneurship
- Build a more enterprising culture
- Raise the profile of the town and its surrounding
communities as a high quality, diversified and
well-connected business location
And could provide:
- Training for all aspects of business
- Valuable business events, surgeries and workshops
relevant to new and existing businesses
- Desk space in a supported enterprise environment for
potential or early stage entrepreneurs to develop their
business ideas
- Access to enhanced digital support
- Free-to-use, interactive facilities to signpost to wider
business support opportunities, including available
business finance to ensure maximum penetration of
other services and networks available to users

6. 3. Introduce a Business Gateway Branded Vehicle
Intended to support marketing of the brand and availability of services
across the region, this small vehicle would be highly visible with a
wraparound livery that would promote the range of services available.
It would be utilised by Advisers as a pool car as they travelled
throughout the region and this is likely to be particularly effective in
rural locations to signify that an Advisor was present close by.
It may be possible to hire a larger vehicle that would accommodate
mobile appointments within it. This would entail the additional benefit
of providing adhoc meeting opportunities regardless of whether a
venue had been secured in advance and could be located in a wide
variety of locations on a day by day basis.
4. Business Simulation Game
An interactive business simulation experience requiring individuals
or businesses to work through different business scenarios either
together in groups or in competition with each. This would be
software based which sees participants create a virtual business and
where each team then makes decisions based on where they see the
risks and opportunities. Undertaking this type of business education
within a no risk group environment provides a unique opportunity
designed to better prepare business owners for life in business or the
key aspects of growing a successful business including understanding
pricing, budgetary controls, production management and marketing
/ selling. An example product is https://rocket.gwof.uk/. This product
could be incorporated into existing business accelerators in Dundee
and Perth and could be tailored towards specific key industry sectors
for the region such as food and drink or energy, encouraging ambition
and scale up opportunities. Additionally, it could be introduced into
larger organisations and used to encourage team development and
business training in order to boost productivity.

7. 5. High Street Retail Focus
Our local high streets are under pressure like never before. We are
seeing more units being vacated as retailers struggle to generate
sufficient sales to meet their overheads. Online competitors can
offer the same or similar products at lower cost to consumers who
are themselves experiencing increasing financial pressures. Business
Gateway could provide a tailored support package to high street
retailers which would incorporate elements of the existing Survive
and Thrive programme, digital support, ideas generation and
merchandising. The objective would be to improve the fortunes of
individual retailers and encourage the transition from a transactional
based service to one that is more experiential.
6. Develop Enterprise Skills in Young People
As Young Enterprise Scotland funding has been reduced, there will
likely be more demand for enterprise activities within schools than
can be offered. This is an opportunity for Business Gateway to inspire
future generations of business owners or to develop intrapreneurial
characteristics amongst future employees. Elevator already owns a
range of developmental materials designed for schools that could be
introduced and supported by Business Gateway client introductions
thereby bridging the gap between school and business. There may
be opportunities here for DYW to develop further work experience
opportunities.
7. Digital Support for Micro Enterprises
Utilising many of the delivery tools available through Digital Boost
including some of the excellent 1-2-1 advisors, Business Gateway
could expand the digital support available to Tayside businesses
regardless of their growth aspirations. This would see a greater
proportion of micro enterprises receive practical assistance in actually
digitising their businesses including web site building training (eg
Word Press) and more basic social media support. This support
fits well with national government economic strategy relating to
digital and can be adapted to suit individual industry sectors. We’d
look to introduce businesses to digital equipment to assist in their
development such as step by step social media profile establishment
utilising IPads.
8. Introduce New Training Initiatives for Clients
We have already established some momentum by introducing
innovation into services. We’d look to further build upon this by
introducing new training materials to better enable Tayside businesses
to make the most of anticipated growth opportunities. This could by
way of example include Service Design whereby Business Gateway
Advisers are developed under license agreement by the Service
Design Academy to train local businesses on how to fully consider
their products and services from a customer’s perspective. All too
often services are designed from a business’s own perspective of
what is required rather than taking the time to fully understand the
problems that need to be addressed. This could see Business Gateway
clients generating their own focus groups of their own clients to
interview them about the experience that they seek and the service
that they are looking for.

8. 9. Expand Upon Business Support Available
for Female Entrepreneurs
Business Gateway Tayside already delivers regular Women into
Business networking events and has delivered a number of Coca Cola
5 by 20 sessions and so has developed a unique understanding of
where further opportunities exist to support womens enterprise. Often
women experience more barriers to starting or growing a business
than their male counterparts. This can be for example through
childcare considerations and also a lack of confidence. It’s important
that we find more ways to encourage women to start up in business
and to do so we could develop a bespoke programme of activities for
Tayside as follows:
An Unconference – A conference comprising a broad range of
speakers inspirational leaders and relatable women who share
their experiences in an open and honest manner. Utilising the
“unconference” format we will engage with the delegates so that
they dictate the key topics to be discussed through further breakout
groups. We will then utilise the output from these workshops to tailor
a support package that will encourage more women to start up and
will encourage business growth from those already trading.
We’ll run regular quarterly focus group events to build momentum
around key topic areas and this will be supplemented by drop in
opportunities to meet with female Business Gateway Advisers on a
regular basis.
We’ll look to run a tailored away day experience for an identified
group of business women exhibiting good growth opportunities.
During this experience we’ll introduce topics including sourcing new
investment.

9. 10. Grey Matters
Grey Matters is an accelerator programme designed by Elevator
to develop new, high growth ventures within senior oil and
gas professional facing redundancy from their employment.
The programme focuses on collaboration, sustainability and
competitiveness and provides a fully funded, rigorous 16
week programme which provides the opportunity to catalyse
entrepreneurship.
Scottish Enterprise have realised the benefits of the initiative which has
developed 11 new ventures since its establishment in 2017. Delivering
this concept in Tayside has the advantage of being able to follow
a tried and tested format and could feasibily be applied to other
industry sectors or to company specific situations where large scale
redundancies are being experienced eg Michelin. The concept might
also be further developed to encompass a “grey / green” approach
whereby experienced individuals are connected together with young
or graduate level talent.
11. Investment
Business Gateway Tayside would look to introduce finance into
promising businesses. This could be in exchange for an equity
stake or delivered as a loan in order to provide some future funding
sustainability. Elevator would prepare businesses for investment
presentation to a Panel before investment decisions were made. large
scale redundancies are being experienced eg Michelin. The concept
might also be further developed to encompass a “grey / green”
approach whereby experienced individuals are connected together
with young or graduate level talent.

10. Director of Operations
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