Ayrshire

Local Support

In Ayrshire, Business Gateway can provide detailed business advice and support to help you grow your business. Whether your business is new or has been trading for years, we can provide support to help achieve your goals. To find out how we can help you get in touch for a meeting with an adviser.

Planning To Start

Find out what support and tools are available to you by answering a few simple questions with our Planning To Start tool. Then get contact from your local office to take your business idea forward.

Speak with a Business Adviser

Every business in Ayrshire, whether new or existing, can speak to a business adviser over phone/video call and via email to discuss specific business issues, challenges and opportunities. Qualifying businesses may also be eligible to work with an adviser over a longer period of time.

Growing your business

For businesses demonstrating ambition and potential for growth, Business Gateway Ayrshire offers a blend of adviser time, specialist services and products to help businesses realise their potential. This includes general business skills workshops through to specialist 1:1 surgeries in areas such as digital marketing, ICT and procurement. Access to a dedicated adviser to support businesses achieve their growth ambition may also be available.

Are you a young entrepreneur?

New and growing businesses are important to the local economy and population throughout Ayrshire. We understand that starting a new business can be both challenging and rewarding, and that many of those challenges are more difficult to overcome if you are a young entrepreneur.

Intermediaries

At Business Gateway we know that having good connections is important for your business. Business Gateway Ayrshire has developed excellent partnerships with a number of organisations providing support to new and existing SMEs across the region. We work directly with organisations such as Ayrshire Chamber, FSB, Bright Idea, Banks, accountants, lawyers and business consultants.

Finance & Funding

Business Gateway Ayrshire has access to a wide range of funding and finance programmes to support the growth and development of your business. Our advisers can help to identify appropriate funding and guide you through the eligibility criteria and application process.

Specialist Surgeries

Local businesses can benefit from time with an expert consultant to discuss specific areas of their business such as marketing, tendering & procurement, ICT, HR & legal issues.

Employing Staff

Whether you are employing staff for the first time or need to grow your existing team, we can help you to access wage subsidy and employment support programmes and further training and development for your team to introduce new skills and improve productivity.

The Women's Business Centre

The Women’s Business Centre is a digital platform designed to support women at the pre start-up and start up stages of their business journey. Operated by Women’s Enterprise Scotland, the website is free to access and offers dedicated, needs-based content on starting and growing a business, including stories, encouragement and top tips from leading business owners across Scotland.

Supplier Development Programme (SDP)

SDP is a public sector partnership which delivers a variety of FREE tender training, via classroom style workshops working in conjunction with Local Authorities across Scotland, digitally via webinar and also provides a range of online resources connecting businesses with the Scottish public sector. Registration for SDP events is free for Scottish SMEs, and will connect your business with your local authority’s SDP Rep who can offer your business additional support.