Producing engaging online content
2024-01-09 14:00 - 16:00 UTC
Producing quality content is an excellent way of helping your customers develop a meaningful relationship with your brand, services and products. In this webinar we will show you how to source and develop a variety of content for your website and social channels. Ideal for businesses that already have a business website or use social media and now want to take it a step further, and develop the skills to show your audience that you are a trusted operator in your field.
This session will help you:

Understand what kind of content your customers are looking for
Source, write and deliver that content
Amplify your brand and message and boost engagement online

The low-cost guide to marketing your business
2024-01-10 10:30 - 12:30
When budgets are tight, it can be difficult to find the funds for marketing. This webinar will offer marketing tips and advice that you can then use across your business – without bursting the bank!
We will look at:

How marketing extends way beyond what most businesses consider it to be and how it provides opportunities for businesses to make transformational change with little or minimal extra spend
Identifying marketing priorities and using these to reshape your business.
The marketing mix as a tool for reviewing how your business plans and delivers its marketing activity
How your marketing activity is delivered successfully and effectively in your business
A series of top tips including the importance of understanding your customers, the core components of a brand, the value of strong and consistent branding, the value of a clear focus and the power of creativity
The many options available with traditional Advertising and Promotion as a way a company communicates what it does and what it can offer customers, but also looking how this has changed in a world where marketing has moved online
The foundations of effective marketing in a digital age, looking at how your business can grasp new ways of marketing such as social media, web, and digital PR

How to build a digital marketing plan
2024-01-10 14:00 - 16:00
This webinar will guide you through the steps needed to create an effective digital marketing strategy, ensuring you focus on the right tactics to meet your business objectives and goals.
We will cover:

The importance of planning your digital marketing activities
Building your plan around a simple framework
Conducting a situational analysis (and understanding Customers and Competitors)
Developing your brand and tone of voice
Planning your Content strategy
Prioritising digital channels
Evaluating your Digital Marketing efforts

How to write and develop your business plan
2024-01-10 14:00 - 16:00
New and established businesses will require a business plan for getting a loan, grant or just to consider the direction they wish to go in. This webinar will teach you what you need to include and how. We will walk you through what should be included within a business plan, how a business plan is used to improve your prospects for a loan or a grant, and how you can develop a business plan to meet your needs.
We will:

Provide a structure for a business plan
Review each section of what should be included within the business plan
Explain when and how to use a business plan
Explore the connections (and importance) between the words and the numbers
Look at how to identify and manage cashflow within the business planning process

An Introduction to Innovation
2024-01-11 10:00 - 11:00
This one hour webinar is run by Scottish Enterprise Innovation Specialists.
The session will introduce you to the key innovation concepts around culture, strategy and processes, tools that can help you on your innovation journey and the Scottish Enterprise support available to help your business innovate and grow.
There will also be a Q&A session that will allow you to ask questions and discuss content with specialists and peers.

How to improve your Google search rankings - Part 1: On page optimisation
2024-01-11 10:00 - 12:00
Join us to look at how Google and other search engines decide the order in which they list their search results. We will show you how to maximise your chances of appearing towards the top of the search rankings, ensuring you understand what key words and phrases your potential customers are using when searching online, and how to optimise your website as a result.
We will cover:

How search engines work, and the ‘on-page’ factors used to rank your site
Understanding customer search behaviour
Keyword research tools and how to benefit from them
Optimising your website content for search engines

Blogging for business
2024-01-11 14:00 - 16:00
This webinar will provide you with the knowledge and understanding you need to create a blog that promotes your business.
We will cover:

What a ‘blog’ is, how to set one up and what it takes to make them work
Other small and medium sized businesses who already blog successfully and what you can learn from them
Options for monetising a blog
How to promote your blog
How your blog can help move your website higher up search engine rankings
Understanding analytics and measuring the impact of your blog

Build your brand and promotional graphics
2024-01-11 16:00 - 18:00
This webinar will define what a brand is (and is not) and explain how it is more than just creating a logo. We will explore how a business can use their brand to show its identity, purpose, personality, message, and values in order to stand out from competitors, build a loyal customer base and make more sales.
This session will:

Provide you with a clear understanding of the difference between brands and branding
Help you understand what a brand is
Show you why branding is important
Look at your brand strategy, brand identity and action
Help you learn how to develop your brand’s positioning, character, and purpose to differentiate your business from its competitors
Demonstrate how to set up a brand kit and style guide to ensure consistency across websites, social media, business cards, posters etc.
Teach you how to create simple promotional graphics using a variety of tools including Canva
Highlight a variety of free tools including Google Drive, Hubspot and Mailchimp that can save time and simplify marketing tasks

Keep your business safe online
2024-01-12 10:00 - 12:00
Join us to find out how criminals are targeting small businesses online, the risks you face, and what you can do to minimise your exposure to online crime.
This webinar includes a number of live demos, covering the following areas:

What are the main online threats to your business?
The 5 pillars of prevention (Backup, Malware prevention, Securing your hardware, Passwords & Phishing attacks)
Simple and practical measures you can implement to protect yourself and your business
Best practice recovery steps for your business if the worst should happen

As a result of attending this webinar, you will gain a deeper understanding of the digital threats facing your business and what you need to do to secure your website, social media and company data from cyber criminals.

The essentials of bookkeeping and what expenses you can claim
2024-01-12 14:00 - 16:00
This webinar is for those who are entering business for the first time or require an understanding of what is involved in financially managing a business, including basic bookkeeping, and creating a profit and loss account. You will also get an understanding of what expenses the business can claim and then how to fund your business. At the end of the session, you will receive a workbook on excel to help you manage and monitor costs and sales.
At the end of this session, you will be able to:

Implement basic bookkeeping skills across your business
Create a profit and loss account
Understand what expenses can and cannot be claimed
Use financial management to increase revenues and profits
Understand capital and revenue costs and how they are treated

How to start a business: The basics
2024-01-13 10:00 - 12:00
Whatever your reasons may be for considering being your own boss, Business Gateway is here to support you and help you decide if this is the right path for you. Helping you consider your plans from exploring your potential customers to looking at the key activities and costs involved.
We will cover:

Personal finance planning – how much do you need to earn?
Researching your market – who your customers are, understanding your competition and what the trends are within your chosen field
Business structure – what are the core business structures? How to decide which is right for you and how to register as a business
Creating your start-up action plan – an outline
Marketing
Pricing
Naming the business
Basic bookkeeping
Forecasting
Financing, banking, insurance, and VAT
Tax

An introduction to business websites & what you need to consider
2024-01-15 14:00 - 16:00
This webinar will take you through all the steps required to design, build and host a business website. You will learn about:

The need to determine website objectives
The importance of knowing who your audience is and measuring results
Setting clear calls to action and creating engaging content
Creating your brand’s visual identity online, your site’s blueprint and how you can structure your site map
What’s involved in registering your domain, maintaining your site content, and options for hosting it

This webinar will also offer guidance on when and how to outsource your website development. Covering topics such as choosing a suitable content management system, what to organise first and costing for the work.

How to protect and manage your intellectual property
2024-01-16 10:00 - 12:00
You have invested time, energy, and money into your project, however, have you protected the innovation?
Following this webinar, you will understand how to manage your intellectual property (IP) or how to start the process of registering it.
Topics covered include:

What are intellectual assets (IA)?
What is intellectual property (IP)?
How to use IP (in the real world)
Where to get more insight and information

Participants will leave with:

An understanding that all businesses create IA/IP
A framework of knowledge about IP
A little more knowledge about the diverse types of IP
An insight into how to identify, protect and exploit IP/IA
Context of why IP/IA matters
Links to useful learning resources

How Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help your business marketing
2024-01-16 14:00 - 16:00
You’ve heard of Artificial Intelligence, but do you know how it can help you as you run your business? This brand new practical webinar will explore how AI can help revolutionise your business marketing to be more efficient and cost-effective, through the automatic creation of content for all your digital platforms; as well as helping you better understand your customers and business opportunities.
This webinar will include:

What is Artificial Intelligence
Current AI tools and systems to use right now (including ChatGPT and Dall-E 2)
Automating Digital Content for Blogs and Social Media
Using AI for business strategy and customer profiling
The pros and cons of AI for small businesses

This webinar will help you understand how you can integrate AI into your existing marketing, looking at the potential consequences (good and bad) of Artificial Intelligence, and its impact on small businesses and their customers.

The Basics of Starting a Business
2024-01-16 16:00 - 18:00
This webinar will give you the information needed to build a start up action plan. The plan will enable you to consider which actions are relevant to your plan, start building a set of SMART Goals, give thought to business skills development and provide a clear path for steps to launch your business.
You will also learn about the key considerations when starting a business and what steps you will need to take from legal, financial and strategic standpoints.
By the end of the webinar, you will have the information required to start building an action plan and be confident about understanding the next steps.

Offshore Wind Manufacturing Supply Chain Opportunities
2024-01-17 10:00 - 11:00
This webinar in association with BVG Associates will highlight a number of offshore wind manufacturing supply chain opportunities.

Ready, Steady, Grow: How to Expand Your Business
2024-01-17 10:00 - 12:00
Ready to accelerate your business growth but unsure where to begin?
Look no further than our Ready Steady Grow workshop focused on accelerating business growth. Led by experienced business advisers, this session is designed to help you identify your growth potential and create a roadmap for success.
Through collaborative discussions with like-minded businesses, you’ll gain new insights, tools and knowledge to help support your growth plans. You’ll also walk away with a network of fellow business owners to connect with for ongoing support.
Don’t miss this opportunity to take your business to new heights!

Online Sales: Improve, develop & make more money
2024-01-17 10:00 - 12:00
What’s the best way to sell your products online? The key to improving your online business is measuring its effectiveness – you can then take steps to optimise its performance. Should you be using your own eCommerce store or Amazon, neither or both? This webinar will help you decide.
We will cover:

Factors to consider when selling online.
What eCommerce options exist, and the benefits of each
Differences in available eCommerce platforms
Benefits of automation
Key items to optimise performance

Power up your presentations with storytelling
2024-01-17 12:00 - 13:00
Stuck in the same old groove when you present information about your business? Want to do something different but not sure how?
Join this introduction to storytelling and learn how to craft compelling and memorable stories for presentations, podcasts and talks that will generate more leads for your business and leave your audiences inspired to work with you.

Google Analytics – Understand how your website performs
2024-01-17 14:00 - 16:00
Google Analytics (Universal and GA4) is a powerful tool that helps you understand how your website is performing. It helps answer lots of questions, including:

Which marketing channels drive traffic to your site?
What pages are users looking at the most?
What impact does mobile have on your potential customers?

During this webinar, we’ll help you understand how Google Analytics is set up and give you an overview of key reports. We’ll also look at other web analytics tools to help you online.

Online Communications Masterclass - Scotland's Agritourism Monitor Farms
2024-01-18 09:00 - 10:00
Join online to learn how to communicate the story of your business and family to both a consumer and industry audience. Claire Taylor our programme communications expert will offer practical advice and support across different communications channels.
OIivia Midgley and Jeremy Buxton will also be contributing. Olivia is a journalist and editor specialising in food, farming, rural affairs, news, features and analysis. She is the Editor at Farmers Guardian. Jeremy formerly worked for Sky as a presenter and returned to farming in 2010 and has spent the last decade adding livestock, opening a campsite, planting agroforestry / fruit trees and in the last year opened a farm shop. Jeremy is skilled in broadcasting, video, and documentaries.
Any farm or crofting business, rural tourism or rural food and drink business can take part.

Hydrogen Q&A and discussion
2024-01-18 10:00 - 11:30
You’re invited to take part in a practical online Q&A and discussion on the topic of hydrogen. This session follows on from the successful, informative event on clean energy and hydrogen-fuelled distilleries that was held at the Arbikie Distillery Experience.
This informal discussion aims to address any questions you have following the event. It’s also an opportunity to get help with signposting ideas, to connect with others in the field or request more information on any aspect of the hydrogen journey. You’re encouraged to bring up any questions, concerns or comments during the discussion.
Scottish Enterprise will give a short overview of the policy background, planning, key barriers, potential projects, storage and our work as a conversation starter. Our sector expert will then be on hand to take your questions.
This event is part of the Tay Cities Clean Growth Initiative, which is part funded through the Tay Cities Region Deal.
The Tay Cities Region Deal is a partnership between the local, Scottish and UK governments and the private, academic and voluntary sectors. It seeks to create a smarter and fairer Angus, Dundee, Fife and Perth and Kinross under the headings Inclusive Tay, Innovative Tay, International Tay, Connected Tay and An Empowered Tay.
The Scottish Government and UK government will each invest up to £150 million in the Tay Cities Region Deal over 10 years, subject to final approval of the robust business cases. This investment has the potential to lever in £400 million of investment over 15 years.
If every project and programme set out in the submission is funded and delivered, up to 6000 job opportunities could be created across the tourism, food and drink, creative industries, eco innovation, digital, decommissioning, engineering, biomedical and health and care sectors.
As of 30 September 2022, more than £219 million of funding was approved for investment by the Joint Committee and over £74 million of government investment has been released.
A total of 677 jobs have been created so far through this investment.
The investment has also resulted in more than £123 million of £400 million in anticipated leverage being secured by projects, with more than £81 million received.
Full information on the deal’s progress in securing investment and jobs can be found in the Annual Performance Report on the Tay Cities Region Deal website. https://www.taycities.co.uk/publications

How to improve your Google search rankings - Part 2: Off page optimisation & technical considerations
2024-01-18 10:00 - 12:00
Join us as we take a further, more detailed look at how the Google search engines indexes and ranks websites based on a number of external (off-page) and technical factors. Implementing this learning will increase your chances of customers discovering your business through Google – the world’s leading research tool.
We will cover:

How to block or control what websites are allowed to ‘index’
The importance of a fast loading mobile website
How security and usability influence Google
What “off-page” optimisation means, and tactics to generate back-links
The importance of Local SEO, and why a “Google Business Profile” is vital

Selling your business masterclass
2024-01-18 10:00 - 12:00
Have you considered a succession plan for your business? It’s never too early to start thinking about your options. Employee ownership is fast becoming the preferred exit route for business owners.
Aimed at business owners considering an exit from their company, this online session will give attendees the opportunity to hear market-leading IT support and solutions company Microtech Group and building supply merchants Caley Timber & Building Supplies explain what they considered in choosing employee ownership and how things have worked.
Carole Leslie from Ownership Associates will talk through all ownership succession options before focussing on employee ownership and how to ensure the employee buyout is a smooth process.
Timings:
10.05 Welcome – Glen Dott, Scottish Enterprise
10.10 Ownership Succession Options – Carole Leslie, Ownership Associates
10.35 Employee Ownership Case Study – Microtech Group
11.00 Employee Ownership Case Study – Caley Timber & Building Supplies
11.25 Support available – Glen Dott, Scottish Enterprise
11.30 Q&A
11.45 Close
Attend this workshop to learn how employee ownership offers a tax efficient exit route that protects your company’s legacy while providing a competitive price for the business. Could it be the right succession solution for you?

Build a customer focused business
2024-01-18 14:00 - 16:00
Did you know that a returning customer will typically spend more than two thirds more with your business than a brand new one?
Did you know that retaining just 5% of your customer base can give an increase of over 20% in profits for your business?
Having an effective strategy in place for your business to deliver great customer service is critical for your business.
We will cover:

Why good customer service is critical for business growth
What are the essentials of delivering great customer service and how should this be delivered?
How to effectively manage different types of customers and their expectations
How, why, and when you should measure the service a business delivers
How to use the service provided to promote a business and enable growth

Kickstart your Marketing
2024-01-18 16:00 - 18:00
The workshop will cover the basic principles of marketing, including target audience identification, competitor analysis, value proposition, and the development of marketing strategies.
The workshop will also explore the importance of measuring the success of marketing strategies and how adhering to good business practice can positively influence Customer Generated Content
Overall, this workshop is ideal for businesses – new and existing – who want to gain a solid understanding of the basics. By the end of the workshop, you should have the knowledge and skills necessary to develop and execute an effective marketing strategy for your business.

Photography for online business
2024-01-22 10:00 - 12:00
During this webinar you will:

Discover the basic ‘dos and don’ts’ of taking your own pictures, editing them and uploading them onto digital platforms.
See some real-life examples of posts that demonstrate good, bad and indifferent use for businesses.

Becoming Fearless - The Entrepreneurial Mindset
2024-01-23 09:30 - 12:00
Successful business owners know that their brains drive their business goals and results. But being a business owner can be lonely and that isolation can be demotivating, particularly when there is no one to encourage you when things are tough or to celebrate with you when things go well. Being the driving force behind your own company has the highest highs, and at times, the lowest lows.
Our Fearless workshop delves into this rollercoaster in lots of detail and aims to give you the tools you need, to enjoy the ride!
Agenda:
*Exploring the Entrepreneurial Mindset
*Talking about mental fitness for entrepreneurs
*Exploring the impact of isolation in business
*Building and nurturing your network of support
*Peer support, goals setting for success, communicating your needs, and managing your priorities

Train to become a CPD-certified Green Champion
2024-01-23 10:00 - 12:30
Rising energy costs, the climate emergency and increasing consumer pressure continue to challenge the way that businesses across Scotland manage their environmental performance.
The Green Champions online training course is already helping organisations across Scotland prepare for this challenge by providing knowledge, tried-and-tested techniques, best practice examples, and free tools and templates.
This free webinar, designed for small and medium sized enterprises, will pack the entire Green Champions foundation course into one session. Join and get the skills and knowledge that over 4,500 other professionals have already learnt through the Green Champions training course.
You’ll find out about the changing resource landscape and the growing need to be resource efficient, before learning how to gather valuable data from around your organisation to help you plan improvement projects.
You’ll also learn a range of techniques that can be used to interpret and visualise the information you have collected on your resource use, and how to use that knowledge to set realistic environmental goals for your organisation.

Inclusion and Accessibility in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality
2024-01-23 10:00 - 13:00
Experienced in successfully delivering Inclusion and Accessibility Workshops to the Scottish Travel, Tourism and Hospitality sector throughout 2022, we are pleased to be able to offer Part 1 of our workshops to all who work in this vital industry to the Scottish economy, once again.
Join us to discuss and explore inclusion and accessibility for disabled people and all in wider society, as an employer and service provider of goods and services.
+ We are Visible Inclusive Accessibility (VIA)
A social enterprise, whose aim is to help alter perspectives and in turn, breakdown the barriers disabled people face and improve experiences for all.
+ Workshops
We are pleased to be able to offer the opportunity to attend Part 1 of these workshops on: Tuesday 23rd January, between 10.00 am and 1.00 pm.
+ Aims
The aims of the workshop are to support your development through discussion and sharing practical solutions to improve experiences for all.
In the workshop we will discuss different ways in which society can view disability and the barriers (seen and unseen) which can be encountered.
Through practical discussion, we hope to increase confidence and encourage a wider perspective when considering disability, barriers and adjustments.
+ The workshop will cover

Definitions and Models of Disability
Equality Act 2010
Disability Employment Gap and landscape in Scotland
Reasonable Adjustments and Removing Barriers.

These workshops have been developed through lived experiences and we would like to encourage you to bring your own lived experience to this event.
