GrowBiz Scotland - Our Stories
2022 is Scotland’s Year of Stories, providing an opportunity to celebrate Scotland’s history, culture and communities. The Scottish rural and island economy is packed with innovative, vibrant businesses with stories to tell.
The GrowBiz Story
GrowBiz started as a small charity in Eastern Perthshire — founded by a group of local people in 2007 to support micro-businesses and social enterprises across all sectors in rural areas. From one enterprise facilitator and a voluntary board of trustees, it now contracts a 25-strong team (who are all self-employed) to provide a range of services to individuals and groups starting or developing rural enterprises.
GrowBiz’s unique community-based approach creates self-sustaining networks and is effective in raising awareness of enterprise and business potential across a diverse range of people and groups. As a leader in innovative rural enterprise support, the organisation actively advocates for change, and its vision is to promote and support the development of a sustainable and entrepreneurial post-covid rural economy. It now provides support to rural businesses anywhere in Scotland, with specific services provided in Perth and Kinross and the Cairngorms National Park area.
GrowBiz Services
Since the initial pandemic crisis started in March 2020, GrowBiz has been able to directly support more than 800 people who were struggling to keep their enterprises afloat. Its team has ensured that telephone and online coaching and mentoring, and a wide range of peer learning and networking sessions, have been available to anyone who needed help, and latterly this has included increasing numbers of people, many of them under 30, who want to start a new enterprise or become self-employed for the first time. This is sometimes because of necessity (ie unemployment or redundancy), but is also often an individual who wants to use a skill or talent they’ve developed, or to develop a social enterprise to provide essential local services.
One of the more positive things to emerge from the Covid crisis has been the increased ‘shop local’ drive in many communities – and to encourage this within rural communities, GrowBiz established Rural Enterprise Directory Scotland (REDS) – which is an online map and directory highlighting the diversity of businesses operating across rural and island Scotland.
REDS members include Britt Harcus, Cornelia Weinmann, The Scottish Deli and Creative Catalyst Scotland
Since Covid, the way in which many small business owners have accessed learning opportunities and increased their digital capability and know-how has altered significantly. When the crisis started, GrowBiz quickly adapted an in-person focused learning programme to online learning.
Many rural businesses have enthusiastically embraced online learning despite the inevitable and infrequent connectivity issues many experience. Feedback says that participating in learning sessions online enables participants to work more efficiently and in the long term will save time and obviate the need to travel, with the environmental benefits this brings. Online meetings have also facilitated a wider network of contacts and opportunities for collaboration that would not have been possible through local physical events.
Video technology has enabled businesses to continue to trade remotely and, in addition to providing e-commerce selling, has also proven invaluable to many service businesses. Dance classes, speech therapists, photographers and even dog trainers are just a few examples of enterprises which have successfully managed to flip their businesses to online. And the creative community who would normally attend trade fairs, craft markets and open studio events have had to find new routes to market and ways to connect with their audience and customers. In Perth and Kinross, GrowBiz has developed Perthshire Artisans – a Smart Village portal with a curated group of more than 30 artisans.
Perthshire Artisan Reuben Els at work
Social isolation continues to be a real issue for rural enterprises, and people want to do more than just learn. They want to connect, hear from others and feel heard themselves. GrowBiz’s relational model of support is valued and provides what many businesses in rural areas are looking for – tailored, experienced support and award-winning mentoring.
Scotland’s Rural Business Story…
Despite the many challenges of the last 18 months, there is a high level of entrepreneurial energy in rural areas – with a growth in areas such as responsible tourism, niche manufacturing, digital design and health and social care all with inspiring and engaging stories to tell.
For more information on GrowBiz and REDS: www.growbiz.co.uk
Information on Perthshire Artisans: www.perthshire-artisans.scot