My Column

Our future depends on their ideas.

  • Date: Monday 8th May 2017
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It’s not often that entrepreneurs get to go back to the classroom, but we could all do with brushing up on our skills - every day is a school day, as they say.

The Scotland Can Do SCALE 2017 summer school is set to return for a third year from 30 July to 2 August, and it’s great news for Scottish business.

The programme comprises of sessions from world-leading experts in entrepreneurship and business practice and is a fantastic opportunity for self-starters to receive support and advice to help grow their business.

Since its launch in 2015, 127 businesses have benefitted from the scheme in terms of increasing turnover, employing more staff and fuelling ambition.

Two lovely ladies, whose teething business is going from strength-to-strength, attended the programme last year.

Julie Wilson and Amy Livingstone set up Cheeky Chompers in 2013 with a range of chewy dribble bibs for teething babies. Since then, they have launched in a plethora of prestigious stores including John Lewis, appeared on Dragon’s Den, expanded the product range, won awards including Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year, and are even expanding into the Chinese market.

The savvy business women have no doubt benefitted from taking advantage of the support available from programmes like Scotland Can Do SCALE 2017. Sessions like these are definitely worthwhile and a superb source of inspiration when looking to take your business to new heights.

Further great news for entrepreneurs last week included the announcement that the Great British Entrepreneur Awards has expanded the number of UK cities it holds ceremonies in to include Edinburgh.

The awards, now in their fifth year, have recognised some phenomenal entrepreneurs including Scotland’s James Watt, founder of BrewDog.

Hopefully this announcement will see more Scottish talent celebrated for their achievements and will spur on others to follow in their footsteps.

The creator of the awards, Francesca Russell, said that she believes it is important to champion entrepreneurs because “their businesses change the ways in which we live and work”.

I completely agree and think is it vital for entrepreneurs to contribute to more than just the economy.

Josh Littlejohn is a sterling example. His vision to build a social business has not only seen the creation of five sandwich shops, but a first-class restaurant and plans to build accommodation for homeless people.

Supporting those less fortunate has always been at the core of Social Bite, which saw Josh pledge that 25 per cent of his workforce would come from homeless backgrounds, despite the complications which arose, including having to put some of his staff up in his flat so they had an address.

I’ve meanwhile been focusing my attention on my ‘resident entrepreneur’ role at the University of Strathclyde with the goal of supporting tomorrow’s generation of business men and women.

In partnership with the university, I’ve just launched the PropTech Innovation Challenge, offering a share of £25,000 in start-up funding to the best five Dragon’s Den-style business pitches.

I can’t wait to take a look through the submissions and hear the pitches of those shortlisted. I’m excited to hear their ideas and help five of them on the path to achieving their dreams.

I see it as a huge responsibility to support the future of Scottish business and it’s something I’m very proud to have the opportunity to do.

I’ve seen other Dragon’s Den inspired programmes that give back in other ways. The cheekily titled Dragons’ Glen offers budding entrepreneurs a unique way to fundraise for Children 1st.

Groups or individuals can pitch a business idea for the chance to receive £500 funding. The successful entrepreneurs then have five months to turn it into £5,000 for the charity.

This is a genius idea to not only raise cash for a worthwhile cause, but to inspire entrepreneurship.

The initiative has raised £358,758 for Children 1st since the competition began four years ago and there are lots of examples of groups who have smashed the £5,000 target. Staff from Thorntons Law raised £8,544.16 this year which takes their running total to an impressive £27,000 since 2012.

Increasing the support on offer to promising entrepreneurs in Scotland can only be a good thing for the overall wellbeing of the country.

 

SIDE

‘The Bank of Mum and Dad’ is a term we hear a lot. Whether it’s kids needing money for the newest trainers, money for a night out, or the latest video games, they more often than not call on their parents.

But now, this less recognised lender has officially become the ninth largest for homes hand-outs with parents funding more than a quarter of house purchases as young people and first-time buyers increasingly struggle to get on the housing ladder.

The latest figures from Legal & General and research group Cebr, show that parents will provide their children with more than £6.5billion this year alone to help them get on the property ladder, making them bigger than Clydesdale Bank in the mortgage market.

Parents have shot up from 10th to 9th place in terms of lenders with a 30 per cent increase in the £5billion loaned a year ago.

Parents helped provide deposits for more than 298,000 mortgages last year, representing 26 per cent of the transactions. Most of the money goes towards a deposit, rather than helping with mortgage repayments, and the vast majority – 70 per cent – is used by millennials under the age of 30.

Such a situation then starts to have a knock-on effect for KIPPERS of the world – Kids In Parents’ pockets Eroding Retirement Savings. Where does it end?

Not only does this fresh data fuel concerns that the housing market is seriously over-heating but it also suggests that not enough affordable, first-time buyer homes are being built to meet demand, and that parents will continue to be digging their children out of financial holes.

The Bank of Mum and Dad does not like to say yes.

 

LAUGH

It’s been a good month for Glasgow and Edinburgh already.

Not only has Glasgow been named the most caring city in the UK, but Edinburgh has been ranked second in a global quality of life survey, just behind Wellington in New Zealand.

A survey by online card giant Moonpig from around the UK found that Glaswegians were most likely to send “sensitive” greetings cards to their friends and relatives with 84 per cent sending engagement cards and 41 per cent sending wedding congratulations.

Over in Edinburgh, high salaries, good commuter links, and strong healthcare all helped it jump ahead of Zurich, Boston and Melbourne in the quality of life survey.

Just imagine if you were to throw in a bit more sunshine - presumably, we’d rule every survey going.

 

WEEP

Our cities are always full of eager shoppers on the hunt for the best bargains or the next hotly tipped fashion or technology item.

So I was shocked to read that in a recent survey by the Retail Sales Index for Scotland that between the first quarter of 2016 and the same period this year, the amount of goods sold in Scotland only rose by 0.2 per cent compared with British growth of 2.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, the value of shop sales north of the border grew by 1.8 per cent, while Britain saw a rise of 4.8 per cent.

With inflation in the UK set to accelerate faster than earnings growth for the first time since 2014, it is looking like it's going to be an uphill battle for our Scottish high streets.

 

 

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