Invest in Angus

Increasing the profitability of your agritourism business
2025-07-02 10:00 - 15:30 UTC | Ernespie Farm, Castle Douglas, DG7 3JG
Join Scotland’s Agritourism Monitor Farms Programme for a talk on how to achieve increased profitability in an agritourism enterprise from Colin McNally, Finance Expert.
We will hear how using data to inform decision making has helped Monitor Farmer, David McMiken, make positive changes to the Ernespie Agritourism business including introducing a new enterprise. We will have a walk around and see first hand the developments that are ongoing.

Get Found Everywhere: Boost Your Digital Visibility in a Changing World
2025-07-02 10:00 - 16:30 | Arbroath Football Club, Gayfield Park, Arbroath, DD11 1QJ
Search behaviour is evolving – people now speak naturally to voice assistants and AI tools, not just type into Google. This workshop shows you how to show up wherever your customers are searching: Google, Bing, AI platforms, social media, and voice search.
We’ll start with the basics, then guide you through a clear, practical process to boost your visibility. Each slide includes an AI prompt to tailor to your business, saving you hours of guesswork.
AI is transforming SEO. Learn how to use AI to:
• Discover high-value and long-tail keywords
• Analyse search intent and user behaviour
• Predict emerging trends
• Blend AI with traditional SEO techniques
Who Should Attend
• Business owners aiming to boost search visibility
• Content creators seeking smarter SEO strategies
• Anyone ready to explore AI-driven SEO
Come Prepared (Ideally):
• A live website, access to your admin panel, Google Business Profile, Google & Microsoft accounts, and a ChatGPT or Gemini subscription.
Don’t have all that? No problem. You’ll learn what’s essential and how to build from where you are.
Most important:
• A willingness to act, a rough idea of your offer, and curiosity about how visible you are now
• Bring a laptop or notebook – this is a hands-on session designed to get you taking action immediately

How to deliver low-cost, high impact marketing
2025-07-02 13:00 - 15:00
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

Delivering profit to drive growth
2025-07-03 10:00 - 12:00
The course covers financial analysis, strategic decision-making, resource allocation, and the role of innovation and scalability in leveraging profit for long-term success.
We will cover:

Getting to know your financials
Controlling growth
Improving decision making
Opportunities
Cash is king
Controlling change
Pricing strategies for maximum profit
Measuring profit

VisitScotland bitesize webinars: attracting the European visitor
2025-07-03 14:00 - 14:30
Explore the great potential from the European market.
Discover the main inspirations for them booking a holiday to Scotland and how understanding their booking preferences and activities while in Scotland can provide you with a competitive advantage.
Learn how to leverage these insights to refine your marketing strategies.

An introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) for small businesses
2025-07-03 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 practical webinar will explore how AI can help improve 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 cover:

What is Artificial Intelligence
Current AI tools and systems to use right now (including ChatGPT and MidJourney)
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.

Bookkeeping essentials
2025-07-04 10:00 - 12:00
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

Unlocking the power of open data for soil health
2025-07-07 10:30 - 12:00
Join one of the creators of the Soil Health Data Cube, OpenGeoHub Foundation, for this webinar in the AI 4 Soil Health project’s series, exploring how AI, open data and new research is transforming soil health monitoring and management across Europe.
This webinar will showcase how open, high-resolution geospatial data is unlocking new ways to model soil systems, predict climate change impacts, and drive regenerative agricultural practices.

Going for Green: Accrediting Your Agritourism Sustainability Story
2025-07-08 12:00 - 13:00
Join Scotland’s Agritourism Monitor Farms Programme to to welcome Diane Knight, Client Services Director, from Green Tourism, a world-leading sustainability certification for the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries.
Green Tourism helps businesses embed responsible and environmentally friendly practices that not only reduce impact but also enhance visitor appeal.
In this session, Diane will share how agritourism businesses can work towards Green Tourism accreditation, tell an authentic sustainability story, and turn their green credentials into a competitive advantage.

How to start a business: The basics
2025-07-08 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-07-26 10:00 - 12:00
Whatever your reasons may be for considering being your own boss, we are here to support you and help you decide if this is the right path for you.
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

Roots of Resilience – Enhancing Biodiversity through Agroecology
2025-07-09 09:00 - 11:00
This is the second in a series of four virtual roadshows, designed to take the findings of Agroecology-TRANSECT and disseminate broadly what they mean in practice.
Agroecology-TRANSECT is a Horizon Europe project exploring how nature-friendly farming is evolving across 11 countries in Europe and beyond, and how these practices can accelerate positive change for people, animals and the environment.
Roots of Resilience – Enhancing Biodiversity through Agroecology presents findings from partners and innovation hubs across Europe through presentations and visual storytelling, highlighting how biodiversity underpins resilient agroecological systems.

How has EU Agriculture Policy affected biodiversity so far?
What does the research tell us about the impact of agroecological farming practices on biodiversity?
The Multi Criteria Analysis tool (MCA) – particularly looking at how it can analyse Biodiversity Indicators
Updates from Innovation Hubs

Introduction to Canva
2025-07-09 10:00 - 12:00
Canva is an all-in-one online design tool that makes it simple to create graphics, edit photos/videos and write content.
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to navigate Canva with confidence, starting with a broad overview of what you can create and do with Canva including a live demonstration of the Canva Editor.
We’ll then explore how to:

Design professional printed marketing materials and edit photos with ease.
Create engaging social media content, including videos and images for posts and ads.
Write creative blog content and make stunning presentations.

We’ll finish this beginner’s guide to Canva by looking at some clever strategies for improving how you market your business with your new suite of creative marketing materials.
As a result of attending this webinar, you will gain practical knowledge of the basics of Canva and learn how to save time when marketing your business online. We’ll be focusing on the free features of Canva for this webinar but some paid ‘Canva Pro’ features will be demonstrated also.

How to improve your Google search rankings - Part 1: On page optimisation
2025-07-10 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

An introduction to business websites
2025-07-10 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.

Space data for industry – Denmark Innovation Call Launch
2025-07-14 14:00 - 15:00
What’s it about?
This challenge offers 100% grant funding up to £30,000 for Scottish-based companies developing innovative solutions using satellite data. The goal? To explore and prove the feasibility of space-data-driven services that can benefit Danish customers — especially in the Financial Services sector.
Who should attend?

Scottish tech companies with expertise in space data, software, or product development.
Danish organisations interested in partnering on innovative data-driven solutions.
Anyone keen to explore cross-border innovation and commercialisation opportunities.

Key Dates

Webinar Date: 14th of July 2025
Application Window: 20th June – 22nd August 2025
Project Duration: Up to 3 months, ending by 31st January 2026

Why join?

Learn how to access up to £30,000 in funding
Understand eligibility and application criteria
Connect with potential partners from Denmark and Scotland
Get insights into how space data can drive innovation in Financial Services and beyond

Creating an effective email marketing strategy
2025-07-15 10:00 - 12:00
Customers buy from businesses that they know, like and trust. Email marketing is powerful and affordable tool in your digital marketing toolkit to build these relationships. Most businesses send monthly newsletters to stay in touch with their audience, but your results will improve with a structured plan and the best practices that will be explored in this webinar. Whether you’re new to email marketing or you’re looking to optimise your email strategy, this webinar enable you to:

Adopt email marketing into your wider marketing strategy and gain insight into your target audience
Understand the key stages of an effective marketing strategy
Segment your audiences and to target and position your offering to them effectively
Create a value-driven and customer-focussed content for email marketing whilst measuring and testing it’s effectiveness
Identify the most suitable platforms and tools for email marketing campaigns, including different paid-for account levels
Optimise the different components of a successful email campaign
Use reporting and key metrics to make sure your campaigns are successful
Be compliant with legal requirements relating to email communications and use best practices for escaping the spam folder

How to improve your Google search rankings - Part 2: Off page optimisation & technical considerations
2025-07-17 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

Launching a Wedding Venue: Lessons Learned & Planning Ahead
2025-07-17 10:00 - 16:00 | Kinclune Estate, Kirkton of Kingoldrum, Forfar, DD8 5HX
Kinclune Estate has recently opened its new wedding venue – hear from Aylwin Pillai as she shares insights from the journey so far, lessons learned along the way, and plans for the future.

InspireHER: How to rewire your brain for success
2025-07-17 12:00 - 13:00
Your thoughts shape your actions and your outcomes. But many of us are running on old mental patterns that fuel self-doubt, fear, and hesitation. The good news is you can change this using new information from modern neuroscience and psychological research.
This science-backed session will show you:

How your brain works (and how it holds you back)
How to change your patterns with deliberate action
Practical ways to practice rewiring
How to create a personal strategy for success.

You’ll leave with simple tools to train your brain to work for you, not against you, as you grow and develop your business.

Young person’s guide to starting a business
2025-07-17 13:00 - 15:00
This webinar will provide you with information, direction and support on a range of topics, including:

Planning (before you start, & once you are up and running)

The personal benefits of working for yourself

How to make sure your idea is viable and sustainable

How to research your market and market your business

How to identify who your customers are

Staffing

Funding

How to register and set up – sole trader or a limited company

VisitScotland bitesize webinars: attracting the North American visitor
2025-07-17 14:00 - 14:30
Unlock the potential of the North American market by understanding the unique characteristics and preferences of these visitors.
This webinar will explore how to reach them through various channels, and the role of distribution partners.
Gain insights into booking behaviours and learn how to tailor your product to meet their expectations.

How to write funding applications
2025-07-18 10:00 - 12:00
When submitting applications for funding, you need to ensure that the applications are written in such a way that improves your chances of being successful.
There are numerous funders out there and each will have their unique way they wish you to apply, however, in this webinar we’ll explore some key steps you can take to improve your chances of a successful application, including:

Clarifying your need

Demonstrating your needs

Understanding your funder

How to speak their language

Getting the basics right

Overcoming the common mistakes

Answering the questions asked

Engaging with Travel Trade: Developing your Product Sheet
2025-07-22 12:00 - 13:00
Do you want to connect with Travel Trade opportunities and need some support ensuring the information you provide is as effective as possible?
In this webinar of the Agritourism Monitor Farm programme, you will be guided by the experts to create a practical sales tool to help you connect with the travel trade. Cassie McEwan from Visit Scotland will guide you step-by-step through building a simple, two-page product sheet that clearly showcases your agritourism experience.
You will learn what travel trade buyers are really looking for, how to structure your content, and what to include to make your business stand out. By the end, you’ll have a flexible template you can adapt and use—perfect for getting trade-show ready and making a great first impression.

Video production for digital marketing
2025-07-22 14:00 - 16:00
Video captures people’s attention online and is important for getting your message across, while engaging with your target audience.
Learn how to:

Choose what type of video to create to suit your business objectives
Plan, shoot, edit, and upload video without special kit or expertise
Get to know the various digital platforms that can be utilised to view and share video content
See what editing apps are available and how to add music and subtitles

How to generate and increase sales
2025-07-23 10:00 - 12:00
Sales are the lifeblood of every business. This webinar focuses on a pragmatic approach to sales strategy and delivery and is designed to fit with the needs of small businesses in both B2C and B2B environments.
We will cover:

Why a clear understanding of what an ideal customer looks like, and a good understanding of their problems, needs and wants is key to sales success
How to develop your sales platform using digital tools, platforms, and techniques
The different motivations potential customers may have and how to identify which ‘buttons’ your business needs to press
The key phases in prospecting, qualifying, and converting sales prospects
The value of a ‘sales funnel’ and how it can be used to help plan and achieve sales
Why keeping the customers you already have is the best sales strategy of all
The importance of appropriate customer service in retaining customers

Social media essentials: Facebook
2025-07-24 10:00 - 12:00
Get to grips with Facebook – the world’s most popular social networking platform.
In this webinar you will:

Learn how to get the most out of Facebook and how it could fit into your business’s digital marketing strategy
Better understand the algorithm behind Facebook, and how to create great content that achieves a bigger reach and impact
Learn from the stats and data you can get from the system and discover who your most interested customers/clients are
Understand the power of Facebook advertising, and other selling options available to you
Discover other business opportunities presented by Facebook, including how to promote and sell products and services
Be introduced to ‘Business Suite’ – a free Facebook dashboard to manage all your business activity

Social media essentials: Instagram
2025-07-24 14:00 - 16:00
Thinking about using Instagram to communicate with existing and potential customers? Want to showcase your products or services using it? During this webinar we will cover:

Getting the setup right and benefitting from the available business tools
Best practice profiles, and some strategies to help your business stand out from the crowd
The types of audience you can reach via this platform and the factors and analytics such as cost and timing of posting images and how that can maximise impact
The various types of content you can post to Instagram, from regular posts to Stories and Reels

How to build your brand
2025-07-25 10:00 - 12:00
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

Making the case for soil health monitoring
2025-07-25 10:30 - 12:00
Part of the “Envisioning the future of soil health monitoring” series for AI4SoilHealth, hosted by Soil Association.
Why does soil health monitoring matter? What are some of the latest tools scientists are developing to make it easier? And what ambitions do policy makers have for monitoring frameworks of the future? Sign up to this free webinar to join leading experts to discuss these topics and learn more about the future of soil science.
The webinar will bring together the perspectives of farmers, policy makers and scientists on soil monitoring practices, and ground key concepts in the current EU farming and land use landscape. The panel will discuss the value of soil monitoring from three vital perspectives: on-the-ground practice, scientific research, and policy development.
