The free and comprehensive service offers one-to-one advice and support for every stage of the business journey and to every SME in Scotland. Business Gateway’s network of local offices spans the length and breadth of the country, recognising the many and varied geographical challenges they all face and providing resources and knowledge to respond to that demand.

Business Gateway’s service includes publicly funded local workshops, one-to-one support from business advisers, extensive online resources and expert support on topics including innovation, exporting, finance and new markets. Additionally, Business Gateway works closely with national and regional economic development organisations, including Scottish Enterprise, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Scottish Development International, to provide growing businesses with specialist support and financial assistance.

Business Gateway is delivered by local authorities throughout Scotland.

Business Gateway National Unit

The Business Gateway National Unit is located within COSLA and provides national functions to support Local Authorities in the delivery of services at a local level.

The activities of the National Unit include:

• Local Engagement - providing support, guidance and expertise to assist Local Government in the governance and management of the service
• Marketing – management of national and local marketing campaigns to raise awareness of the service, and management of www.bgateway.com and the Enquiry Service
• Operations – support with the consistent delivery and day-to-day management of the service across Scotland, and support with shared resources including the CRM system
• Partnership Management – management of relationships with a range of national partner organisations and collaborative working on transformational projects such as Single Entry Point and Target Operating Model
• Management of the Government funded DigitalBoost Programme
• PR
• Performance Monitoring & Reporting – collates, monitors and reports national performance results from Local Authorities and other reporting sources
• Quality Assurance – undertaking a Quality Assurance customer survey programme to measure satisfaction on behalf of Local Authorities to drive service improvement
• Client Monitoring Survey – coordination of survey work to track the survival of clients who have had support to start-up in business

Business Gateway Annual Review

To find out more about our work and how we’ve helped people and their businesses over the last year please download the latest copy of the Business Gateway Annual review.

Further Information

For further information please visit www.bgateway.com to find your local Business Gateway office.