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The business lexicon
Have you noticed that the language used to talk about business is often aggressive and confrontational? We can become so familiar with the common phrases that it’s only when you stop and think...
WES policy briefs on women’s enterprise
WES policy briefs focus on business support, pension gender gap, and digital & net zero. The launch of the Women's Enterprise Scotland policy briefs comes as the 2023 Small Business Survey...
Congratulations to the 2024 WES Award winners
The winners of the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards 2024 revealed! Women led businesses from across Scotland were recognised in front of a sell-out audience at last night’s Women’s Enterprise...
Beware – you don’t ‘own’ a trade mark
After trademarking her business' name, Lynne Mann of Supernature Oils shares her eye-opening experience of when another business applied to trademark the same name. [membership level="1"...
BIPC Glasgow: supporting women with IP
Supporting Women with Intellectual Property Needs at BIPC Glasgow: Your Guide to Empowerment This blog is from the Business & IP Centre Glasgow (BIPC), a fantastic service offering free...
2024 WES Awards finalists revealed
2024 Women's Enterprise Scotland Awards finalists revealed! Women led businesses from across Scotland have been chosen as finalists for the WES Awards, with the judging panel facing the...
Learning your IP lesson
Founder of SnapDragon Monitoring, Rachel was thrown into the world of brand protection when her own invention was counterfeited, just as it reached its 50th export territory. Horrified, she...
Empowering Sustainability
Where do you look to find the true cheerleaders for sustainability? Try the small business sector. It may come as a surprise that larger corporations may not be the best example, after all small...
Automating Business Operations
As Operations Director at HOKO Design, a residential architecture company, I've seen first-hand how the right tools can transform a business. In an industry where precision, efficiency, and...
Thriving through Support Networks
“I’m always looking for new mentors and asking people, ‘Hey, if you were in my shoes, what would you do?’ It’s pretty amazing what you can get from that.” Kendra Scott, entrepreneur Being an...
Crowdfunding Case Study A. Pastry Shop
Agne Petroseviciute is the founder of A. Pastry Shop, a vegan and vegetarian bakery in the southside of Glasgow, also delivering locally and shipping wonderful treats around the UK! Agne and her...
The WES Awards 2024 are open for entries
Women's Enterprise Scotland Awards 2024 will shine spotlight on Scotland's women business leaders Entries to the WES Awards 2024 are now closed. All applications will go through first round...
Calculating rewards and target
Planning and running a successful donation and/or rewards-based crowdfunding campaign involves a lot of steps - from deciding on your story, mapping out your contacts, developing your marketing...
Crowdfunding Case Study Beira
Beira stands as a testament to Scottish craftsmanship, intertwining sustainability and luxury to birth beautiful, functional, and limited-edition luxury womenswear. Redefining fashion by...
Crowdfunding Case Study Fodilicious
Lauren Leisk is the founder of Fodilicious, an innovative health food business disrupting the free-from market providing the UK’s first low FODMAP certified products for Irritable Bowel Syndrome...
Crowdfunding Case Study LIFT Edinburgh
CEO Pauline Bowie started the charity LIFT (Low Income Families Together) in Edinburgh six years ago. After funding finished on a project to help people into employment, she was struggling in...
Crowdfunding Case Study Love Scottish
Lesley Landels is the founder of Love Scottish, a gorgeous home fragrance manufacturer based in the Scottish Borders. She ran a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to help her develop a new...
Crowdfunding Case Study Innovare IP
Founded by Claudia Duffy, Innovare IP is a boutique full-service patent and trademark attorney practice working with early-stage businesses, investors, accelerators and universities. They strive...
Crowdfunding Case Study Supernature Oils
Lynn Mann is the founder of Supernature Oils, an artisan food manufacturing business. Along with her husband and they started their farm diversification in 2011 by producing cold pressed rapeseed...
Crowdfunding Case Study Gledfield Distillery
Gledfield Distillery is a craft distillery based in Ardgay, Sutherland and founded by Ciara Bow. Ciara’s ambition is to bring an ancient botanical spirit back to life, inspired by the recipe...
Crowdfunding Case Study TL Tech
Caroline Laurenson is co-founder of TL Tech, a specialist smart home installer that helps people to maintain their independence in their own homes using affordable off-the-shelf hardware that...
Why is Crowdfunding popular for women?
Research continues to show access to finance is an enduring challenge for women business owners. Women-owned businesses are often under-capitalised compared to their male peers and all-female...
An introduction to Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding has really grown in popularity over the years as an innovative way to help people find the money they need – from hundreds of pounds to hundreds of thousands of pounds – to start up...
Crowdfunding Case Study CROWD SUD
J-RAO: The Conscious Cosmetic Collective I’m Jennifer, a sustainability researcher, and whilst completing my PhD at the University of Dundee in 2017, I decided to use my environmental expertise...
2023 WES Awards finalists announced
We've had a record number of entries for the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards 2023! Women led businesses from across Scotland have been chosen as finalists for the WES awards, with the judging...
Discover the network of GlobalScots
As a Scottish organisation, you can have free, unrivalled access to knowledge, advice and contacts which can accelerate your business growth. GlobalScot is a global network of vibrant dynamic...
Empowering entrepreneurial non-native English speakers
Proud of an array of inventions that have changed the world for the better, Scotland continues to ensure innovation and entrepreneurialism are at the core of its society. As a Hungarian born...
The affects of the cost-of-living crisis on ethnic minorities
We are all feeling the pinch, from a rise in electricity to fuel, to our weekly food bill. In March 2023, I was given the opportunity to speak at a Scottish Parliament cross-party group about...
Business awards to celebrate success
Let's Celebrate! Our business awards will shine a spotlight on Scotland's women business leaders. Entries are now open for the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards 2023. These business awards...
Making ecommerce work for women
Ecommerce is technical and complicated. If the wrong advice is taken or the wrong skills are taught it is easy to waste a great deal of money setting off in the wrong direction with the wrong...
All business support in one place
Find Business Support is a unique website that brings together all public sector support available to businesses in Scotland in one place. Women’s Enterprise Scotland became its 100th partner...
Making procurement more accessible to all
Not sure what procurement is? Check out this article first to get to grips with the basics of tendering and securing contracts. Procurement is a big topic that is growing in discussion...
Being the centre of a social media storm
56431; 393; 178; 13………………………………….. A list of numbers but quite an interesting list of numbers for me as these are the latest statistics to a Linkedin post I made on 25th August 2022. The reaction...
Growing a business and growing a family
Co-Founder and Director of The TEFL Org, Jennifer MacKenzie, shares her experience of starting a business as a parent and how to navigate both growing a business and a family. When I see a ‘bio’...
3 top tips for self-promotion in your career
Author, speaker and executive coach Suzanne Doyle-Morris shares her top 3 self-improvement lessons to help you develop your career It’s a lot to run a business isn’t it? Between wondering if...
Be empowered by your skills
Author, speaker and executive coach Suzanne Doyle-Morris explains why sometimes you can be your own worst enemy when it comes to your career development Why is it that women in business...
Get advice from an older you
Author, speaker and executive coach Suzanne Doyle-Morris explains the benefit of 'ageing' yourself to help reduce anxiety. As a WES Ambassador specialising in helping women in male-dominated...
The power of micro questions
Author, speaker and executive coach Suzanne Doyle-Morris explains how you can get the best out of your business meetings with ultra-powerful 'micro' questions. As a leader in a fledgling company,...
The potential of open questions
How you can get more out of business interactions just by changing your language? Read or listen to the video below where Suzanne Doyle-Morris shares her top tips. What’s the difference between...
Highlights from the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards 2022
On the 27th October 2022, businesswomen across Scotland were celebrated in front of a sell-out audience at our Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards 2022 as part of Women’s Enterprise Scotland 10th...
Screen time tips for non-media types
Emma Reid is an employment lawyer, WES ambassador and occasional telly presence. Since setting up Ergo Law with my business partner nearly 7 years ago, I’ve been asked to speak on STV several...
Presenting… The Women’s Enterprise Scotland Award Finalists!
After a record number of entries, the finalists for the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards 2022 have now been announced! This year's finalists showcase the extraordinary talents of women across...
Business awards you should enter as an SME
As a business owner, nominating yourself and your business for an award can be a great opportunity to promote growth and establish your position as a front-runner in your sectors’ community. As a...
The WES Awards are back for you to enter
After a 2-year break due to Covid-19, we’re delighted to announce that this year the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards are back! These business awards come as we mark 10 years of work by WES to...
Women’s Enterprise Scotland International Conference
In February 2022 the Women’s Enterprise Scotland International Conference set out to forge a path to economic equality. Over 400 attendees in Scotland and across the globe gathered to advocate...
Performing your way through a pandemic
If there is such a thing as a seven year itch in business, we were too busy to notice. Our seventh year was spent morphing an in-person arts festival to an online one. We were one of the first...
Finding your purpose for business success
Women’s Enterprise Scotland Ambassador and Business Coach, Mel MacIntyre, gives a preview of her contribution to a book which explores overcoming adversity. Discover how Mel found her ‘why’ and...
Young entrepreneurship is everywhere
Katie Birrell shares her experience of student entrepreneurship as a young person at the University of St Andrews. St Andrews is home to one of the...
Ambitious plans with Queen Margaret University
We’re excited to announce that Carolyn Currie, the CEO of Women’s Enterprise Scotland (which delivers the Women’s Business Centre) has been appointed the first ever Entrepreneur in Residence...
How can we all support women in business?
Women’s Enterprise Scotland Ambassador and business coach Mel MacIntyre has dedicated her career to helping women unlock their potential. We talked about Mel’s journey to become a business owner...
Embracing self doubt productively
Starting a business can be daunting, and all-too-often, we consider self-doubt as the enemy of action or success, because it reminds us of all the things that could go wrong. However, what...
What are the advantages of an internship?
Given that SMEs comprise 98% of Scotland’s business ecosystem, should more small businesses ask: what could my business do for an intern, and what could an intern do for my business? When...
Recognising you are an entrepreneur
Before I started my first business ten years ago with my husband Chris, I didn’t think of myself as an entrepreneur. My business is an on-farm diversification that was borne out of necessity as,...
Press ‘Pause’ to Begin
Your business journey doesn’t always go according to plan. Entrepreneur and data pioneer Vicky Brock has been named Scotland’s Most Inspiring Business Person of the Year and Everywoman Innovator...
Finding resilience to keep going
“Maybe this is the end of the road…” I thought as I stood in the darkness in my beautiful studio, surrounded by blue ikea bags filled with items I’d grabbed to take home with me, in case I would...
How to flourish during lockdown
In this series of 3 blogs Sara Roberts of Healthy Nibbles guides us through how to stay happy and healthy. See also – The importance of gut health and Find time for physical activity. With the...
Time to stop ‘sorry’, ‘just’ and ‘I think’
At the Women’s Business Centre, we have the real honour and privilege of helping women start up and grow their own businesses. On a daily basis it never ceases to amaze us the creativity, courage...
Saying ‘No’ with grace
When you start out in business, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by your never-ending to-do list which seems to grow arms and legs every day! There is always something else to be done, someone...
Women’s Enterprise Scotland has launched its ‘Manifesto for Change’!
Women’s Enterprise Scotland has called on the next Scottish Government to make commitments to support women’s enterprise. WES, who delivers the Women’s Business Centre, has launched its...
Covid-19 and women debated in the Scottish Parliament
During the pandemic, women have been impacted by a combination of increased pressures to take on care and household responsibilities, as well as being more likely to work in, or own, a business...
Leading and growing my business through COVID-19
My experience on the challenges of operating during COVID 19 – juggling family commitments, supporting clients, supporting others, my team and business. The pro's and con's 2020 was a year like...
What stops us from turning business dreams into reality?
Scottish women starting and running their own businesses are pointing to care commitments, discrimination and financial challenges blocking progress, according to new survey results released this...
Sign up for extra support from Women’s Business Centre
We’ve launched even more support, with a series of webinars especially for women thinking about, or at the very early stages of, starting a business. At a time when some of the funding streams,...
Authenticity – being true to you
Rejection in business is never easy, but something you simply can’t avoid. How you handle rejection and how you move forward is key to both your professional and personal development. Lisa...
The great juggling act
Of all the life-changing reasons that women say prompted them to start a business, having a family regularly comes up top. And let’s be clear – that’s not because anyone wants to have an easier...
When things don’t go to plan
Success and how you measure it will be different for everyone – it’s a very personal thing and changes at different stages of our life. It’s not something we openly discuss as usually it’s tied...
The power of networking
Networking can be fun – and great not just for your business growth but also for you as a business leader. Amanda Pickford is one of our Ambassadors and the owner of award-winning ThermaFy. She’s...
Say goodbye to the mumpreneur
“When the eleventh edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published on 6 October 2011 the word ‘mumpreneur’ was listed for the first time. ‘Mumpreneur’. It’s right up there as one of the...
My start-up story: Hermine Kinkela
Hermine Kinkela runs Mbikudi, a social enterprise selling natural, organic hair- and skincare products. She points to over-marketing and over-use of chemical hair products, coupled with a...
My start-up story: Gillian Crawford
“Looking back, the seeds of my business were sown in my childhood. Not only did I spend every spare minute making things – soft toys, clothes, jewellery – I was also determined to be financially...
My start-up story: Gail Bryden
“For anyone thinking about starting a business, my advice would be to start. Be clear on your why: why do you want to do this, what makes your product or service different, and have clarity on...
My start-up story: Allison Harrison
Allison Harrison left her job with a craft brewer when she had the opportunity to take over an Edinburgh yoga business. Shortly afterwards Hot Yoga Edinburgh opened its own studio, which is now...
My mentoring story: Jeanette Forbes
“I started my business, PCL Group, in 2000, when mentoring was not really seen as the ‘done’ thing. I remember visiting one of the business support agencies for help and they allocated me a...
In a crisis? First survive, then thrive
Unprecedented. It’s a word we’ve heard a lot. And with good reason. Before 2020 very few of us, if any, would have collectively suffered such a crisis – two crises in fact, health and economic –...
Awards: because you’re worth it
When you’re head down running your business, getting an award is the last thing on your mind but when it comes your way, it is hugely gratifying. So says Christy Hyslop of Lose It and Love It,...
Making the most of your network
As you start up your business, the people you meet can be a great source of expertise, feedback and potential sales. These people are known as your network – and it really does help throughout...
“I don’t want to ‘pivot’!”
The term ‘pivot’ has become a bit of a buzzword in business circles recently and refers to a fairly significant and transformational change to your business. A pivot is often intended to help...
How to handle virtual meetings
By now we are all getting used to doing more of our work remotely, and it looks like we’ll be doing virtual meetings for quite some time to come. As these types of meetings become an integral and...
How do you know you’re ready?
Starting your own business is a big step to take and there is no formal test to help you decide when you are ready to take the plunge. It’s an individual decision and the reality is that you will...
Tips for working from home
Some of the best and most well known businesses started from a kitchen table. Or a sofa, or a spare bedroom. Just look at PG Paper’s Poonam Gupta, an EY Entrepreneur of the Year, or Ella Mills of...
Collaborations and partnerships
Collaborations and partnerships can be a great way to increase your business opportunities, whether you are starting up or growing your business. Linking up with another business or organisation...
How do I start a business
That’s the million-pound question! But you’ve come to the right place to start. A good starting point is to work through our Start-up Checklist. Here you’ll find advice and links on various key...