Business Gateway offers recovery helping hand
Gateway, Scotland’s national business support service, has helped 34,687 businesses over the last 12 months that were forced to adapt and respond to the challenges of the pandemic.
The service also had to quickly adapt its own services.
One-to-one support for businesses and the self-employed and those thinking about starting a business was carried out via video or telephone calls instead of face-to-face and all previously planned workshops were made available as webinars.
Additionally, a suite of new resources – including podcasts and online tutorials – were developed to support businesses trying to adapt to new circumstances.
Now, as businesses across Scotland prepare to look to the future following months of closure and tight restrictions, the service is building on its programme of free support and resources to provide business owners with relevant advice and guidance when they need it most.
Webinars
This support includes national webinars covering key topics including human resources, health and wellbeing, customer service, business strategy, marketing on a budget and writing a business plan, as well as a series of back to business panel webinars where businesses will have the chance to put their questions around re-opening directly to industry partners such as the Federation of Scottish Businesses, VisitScotland and the Scottish Retail Consortium. Alongside this, business owners are encouraged to reach out to their area’s Business Gateway office where one-to-one support from an experienced adviser can help businesses deal with issues they have right now and plan for the future.
Additionally, through Business Gateway’s digital upskilling programme DigitalBoost, businesses have access to a variety of free support and resources to help them gain valuable digital skills with more than 680 oneto-one projects carried out over the past year.
For more information about how Business Gateway and its DigitalBoost programme can help business, visit the Business Gateway website.