How to improve your Google search rankings - Part 2: Off page optimisation & technical considerations
2022-08-30 14:00 - 16:00 UTC
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

Learning Zone: How to grow your team
2022-08-30 17:00 - 18:00
Do not underestimate your resources or the people that work for you. When recruiting someone, make sure you have a strategy in place on how you will approach the interview and invest the time in gaining the right candidate for your position. It’s also up to you to develop your staff and therefore, the more you improve their learning and development, the greater asset to your business they will become.
Topics covered:

Know your brand and culture – showcase your people
The candidate experiences
People-centric – learning and development

Ready, Steady, Grow: How to Expand Your Business
2022-08-30 18:00 - 20:00
Are you a business that has been trading for less than five years?
Do you realise your full potential? This is an opportunity for you to gain an outsider’s perspective, which can be essential in realising the potential for your business to expand.
Working with our advisers, you will analyse the current state of your business, and identify key areas for growth. You will also be shown various tools that can be utilised to analyse your business’ performance.
You will leave this webinar feeling motivated, with the knowledge of how to grow your business. You’ll now be able to set new goals, that previously weren’t possible.
If you are an early-stage business looking to grow, book your place now!
This webinar is for businesses located in Perth, Dundee & Angus.

Marketing 1-2-1 Surgery Sessions
2022-08-31 09:00 - 17:00
Whether you’d like to discuss market research, marketing strategy or would even just like an impartial review of your website or social media page, this is an opportunity to book a one to one appointment either from the Business Gateway Dundee office or over Zoom with marketing specialist, Stuart Milne.
There will also be information on additional services from Business Gateway and details of other webinars which may be appropriate for you.
These appointments are for businesses based in Dundee, Angus and Perth.

Planning & scheduling your online content
2022-08-31 10:00 - 12:00
Businesses who plan their content in advance, aligning their channels with actual business objectives, customer themes and national events, and then schedule it to ensure it reaches the target market at the right time, on the right platform – hugely increase the chances of achieving impact.
In this webinar, you will learn how to:

Plan content based on your business and your customer needs
Evaluate current social media dashboards and management tools
Create a social media content calendar and schedule updates automatically
Reach more people through automating your blog and email newsletter content
Implement simple automation techniques to increase efficiency

Having great content is just the start. This webinar will help you better organise and setup your content strategy through simple planning and effective scheduling, to achieve great business results.

The basics of trading on Ebay, Etsy and Amazon Marketplaces
2022-08-31 14:00 - 16:00
As a consumer, you’ve almost certainly purchased online from one of the global marketplaces such as Ebay, Etsy or Amazon, so why wouldn’t your customers do the same and buy from you?
We will cover:

Why to sell via a Marketplace, your own website, or both
Choosing the right Marketplace – looking specificly at Ebay, Etsy and Amazon

Understanding Profit Margins and how Marketplace fees affect them

An overview of some of the rules and regulations enforced by these platforms
Trading internationally – what’s possible?

You’ll leave with a better understanding of how online marketplaces can help you reach your target audience, which marketplace is best for you, and how to get started selling quickly and easily.

Photography for online business
2022-08-31 18:00 - 20:00
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.

An Introduction to Self-Employment and Starting your own Business
2022-09-01 18:00 - 20:00
The workshop will provide you with the opportunity to network with other business owners and will also highlight useful sources of information, advice and guidance.
This webinar is for businesses based in Dundee, Angus or Perth.

Upgrade your business marketing with a CRM system
2022-09-02 14:00 - 16:00
From organising how you reach new customers to tracking the new deals you close, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a great tool to help your business grow. In this webinar, we’ll show you how to connect a CRM to your website, track potential new customers, manage your business activities, nurture your leads and track successful, new business.
By the end of this webinar, you will understand:

What a CRM is, why they’re important and the difference between some of the best CRMs offered to businesses.
How to use HubSpot, a free CRM, for managing contacts, organising sales processes and creating reports.
How to improve your sales and marketing processes by using CRM task management, meeting scheduling and email marketing.
Your legal responsibilities when capturing customer information.

Twitter for business
2022-09-05 10:00 - 12:00
This webinar will help you develop and hone your social media strategy in order to amplify your message using Twitter. You will gain a deeper understanding of where Twitter fits into your overall plan, and how it differs from other platforms.
You will also learn about:

What makes a good Twitter profile (and the options available to you).
Twitter best practice content and what makes the perfect tweet.
Dashboards such as Hootsuite to help you manage and integrate your social media accounts and schedule content.
Advanced techniques for social listening and pro-actively finding content and customers.
The basics of Twitter paid advertising.

How to protect and manage your intellectual property
2022-09-05 14:00 - 16:00
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

Exploring Foraged Flavours – Building Your Story Around Foraged Ingredients
2022-09-05 19:00 - 20:00
This event is all about the storytelling around plants. So if you’re a business thinking about using foraged ingredients to make or present your products, or an experience creator then this event is for you.
Whether you are creating a new recipe for product or plate, or building an experience business, you need to think about the story.
We’ll hear about the storytelling around plants and plant lore from Greg Kenicer from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh and then from two entrepreneurs who have built their businesses around wild food ingredients and foraged flavours: Kirstie Campbell from Sea Buckthorn Scotland and Kyla Orr from Kelp Crofting.
Online Zoom Event.

Communicating Sustainability 2022
2022-09-06 09:00 - 2022-09-07 18:00 | University of Glasgow, James Watt Building, Glasgow, G12 8QQ
This event will be bringing together community groups, educationalists, policy-makers, researchers, professionals and all those with an interest in issues of sustainability to discuss these and other questions and to develop ways of working together going forward.
It does not promote or favour any single idea of sustainability – whether it is social, economic, cultural or environmental – but provides a space for different groups to understand and respect alternative positions, to break down barriers and to promote collaboration across sectors.
Communicating Sustainability will take place across three international hubs: the University of Glasgow, Scotland; Goucher College in Baltimore, United States; and the Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Brazil.
It will offer participants the opportunity not only to discuss issues of sustainability with others from within their own sphere of activity, but also to take part in conversations with community groups, educationalists, policy-makers, researchers and professionals from other sectors. Challenge others and be challenged yourself, and develop an action plan that ensures the event is the beginning of a bigger discussion and greater collaboration.
The conference is open to anyone with an interest in issues of sustainability, whether they want to make a short presentation on their own experiences, practices and problems or simply to listen to presentations and take part in discussions from the floor and in the social spaces.
It will offer a mixture of on-site and virtual events at each hub and virtual events between hubs.

Facebook for business
2022-09-06 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.

How to write and develop your business plan
2022-09-06 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 business websites & what you need to consider
2022-09-07 10:00 - 12:00
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.

Introduction to the Heat Hub Grand Challenge
2022-09-07 11:00 - 12:00
Our speakers discuss the ‘Heat Hub Grand Challenge’.
This is an exciting opportunity aimed at encouraging consortia to develop proposals for a ‘Heat Hub’ which will help position Scotland as a leading location in Europe for low carbon heat manufacturing.

Learning Zone –Successfully starting a business
2022-09-07 14:00 - 15:00
So many start-up businesses fail due to lack of planning. This webinar will be a short and sharp overview of what you need to think about to ensure your business is sustainable and avoid the pitfalls when starting up.
We will cover:

Why start-ups fail (cash, time, market research)
Spend time researching your idea
Will you be a sole trader or a limited company?
What are your main revenue streams?
What are your main start up and running costs?
What assets, resources and people do you need?

TikTok and Instagram Reels for business
2022-09-07 18:00 - 20:00
You might view TikTok as a stream of dance trends and lip-synching videos, but it can also be a fantastic place to engage with your customers and increase the reach of your business online. Explore how to create bitesize vertical video content and how to use this new format for more effective business communication.
We will cover:

How to optimise your TikTok and Instagram accounts for the best results with video.
How to discover the latest trends on each platform and leverage this to create popular videos for your business.
Ideas for creating content to entertain, inspire or educate your audience (with lots of examples from a variety of relevant TikTok and Reels accounts).
How to increase engagement and reach by paying attention to your videos’ structure, duration, titles and understanding hashtags and algorithms.
The best kit, apps and workflow to create bitesize vertical videos for both platforms.

Cloud for business
2022-09-08 10:00 - 12:00
Your digital back office is the technology and tools that you use to manage and grow your business. In this webinar, we’ll look at back-office strategies and explore the range of cloud services on the market that can support you with keeping great customer relations, managing resources, keeping organised and communicating efficiently.
By the end of this webinar, you will be able to:

Understand the areas of your digital back-office and the impact each area can have on the efficiency and growth of your business.
Use up-to-date knowledge on current cloud services and tools to help you with upgrading your digital back office to be more secure, scalable and efficient.
Use real-world examples to help you understand different cloud-based platforms, their functions, and their costs.
Make informed decisions about improving your digital back-office in the future based on scalability, security, efficiency and affordability.

European Clean Energy Transition Partnership Programme
2022-09-08 10:30 - 11:30
This new transformative research, development and innovation programme will support transnational collaborative projects in the renewable energy sector (offshore renewables, heat pumps and heat networks), fuels (green hydrogen), the systems and storage solutions which optimise their use, as well as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCUS).

Producing engaging online content
2022-09-08 14:00 - 16:00
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

Complete Guide to Finance for Start-Ups
2022-09-08 18:00 - 20:00
The workshop will look at:

managing a profit and loss account
producing a cashflow statement
working capital
the different sources of finance
the different legal structures of a business

There will also be information on additional services from Business Gateway and details of other workshops which may be appropriate for you.
This webinar is aimed at businesses based in Dundee, Angus and Perth.

Making digital content accessible
2022-09-08 18:00 - 20:00
Everyone consumes and understands information differently, with some facing additional challenges that aren’t always considered. In this webinar, we’ll explore the challenges that people can have when accessing digital content and we’ll look at the ways you can improve your digital content to be inclusive and considerate for all.
By the end of this webinar, you will be able to:

Understand and consider the barriers and challenges faced by others when accessing digital content.
Assess your digital content on how easy it is for others to access, consume and understand.
Review your website content with an understanding of what adjustments you should make to ensure that your content is catering to all.
Use social media functions and tools to help make your content more accessible.
Understand and use an ‘Accessibility Ready Checklist’ for any of your content to ensure you are designing and developing content for all of your audience.

Build a customer focused business
2022-09-09 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

One-To-One New Product/Service Development Business Surgeries
2022-09-12 09:30 - 12:30
SAC Consulting is hosting a Business & Product Development Surgery for businesses working in the food and drink sector where you will be able to receive bespoke advice form our expert food & drink enterprise consultants in any of the following areas:

Market assessment
Recipe development
Good trends and health/free from markets
Marketing including digital
Branding
Pricing and pitching
Business planning

The virtual surgery is open to entrepreneurs, SME, micro and embryonic businesses, food manufacturers, processors, retailers, foodservice and other rural enterprises, and offers individual 20 minute one-to-one sessions with our team of specialist consultants.
Online Zoom event.

Making the most of Google Tools
2022-09-12 10:00 - 11:00
Google provides a huge amount of free tools to help you market your business.
This webinar highlights tools that will help you save time and avoid splashing cash on a marketing agency. These tools cover areas such as keyword analysis, measuring success, website speed, search and trends.
The webinar will offer many live demos of these tools — meaning you can see how to take advantage of them in your own business.

Pinterest for business
2022-09-12 14:00 - 16:00
A commonly used tool for those researching products and services for personal life (clothing ideas, holidays inspiration, cooking alternatives!), but how can it benefit your business? Move from being a beginner to knowing enough to gain commercial benefit from the use of Pinterest.
During this webinar we’ll help you better understand:

Who is using Pinterest and what are they looking for?
How to setup your business profile
Key features to use within Pinterest
Measuring success and engagement

One-To-One New Product / Service Development Business Surgeries
2022-09-13 09:30 - 12:30

How to improve your Google search rankings - Part 1: On page optimisation
2022-09-13 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
