Anyone troubled by Scotland\u2019s business start-up rates would have had a huge boost last week had they been at the EDGE judging panel.<\/p>\n
The EDGE \u2013 Encouraging Dynamic Growth Entrepreneurs \u2013 Fund has been led by John Swinney who deserves a watch for not only listening to the challenges start-ups face, but then doing his bit to plug the gaps.<\/p>\n
The Scottish Government initially committed \u00a31 million to the fund but then, having been inundated with applications from aspiring high growth businesses doubled it to \u00a32 million.<\/p>\n
Investing up to \u00a350,000 in entrepreneurial businesses, I alongside\u00a0Sir Willie Haughey and many others this week sat on the panel to select the first lucky recipients from a shortlist of 20.<\/p>\n
Except luck had nothing to do with it. These were driven, hardworking aspirational people dedicated to building their business ideas here in Scotland. Some were undoubtedly domestic plays, but others were globally focused, up and at it to conquer the world. It was inspirational – Willie shed a tear (ok I\u2019m exaggerating).<\/p>\n
Undoubtedly no matter what happens some will fail of that there is no doubt, but as in America we should not fear failure it\u2019s the one thing that debilitates success beyond all others. As Thomas Edison put it \u2018I\u2019ve not failed, I\u2019ve just found 10 000 ways that don\u2019t work\u2019.<\/p>\n
But we can do a lot, as this fund has in one respect, to prevent failure by providing these businesses, the next generation of entrepreneurial Scotland, the right kind of support.<\/p>\n
If there was one consistent area of these businesses where support was obviously needed it was sales and marketing. You can have the finest product in the land but if you can\u2019t sell it and get it in front of your consumer you are frankly wasting your blood, sweat and tears.<\/p>\n
The panel quizzed the forty pitchers hard and with one or two exceptions sales and marketing was an issue, an issue we have to address as we plug this finance gap, we then need to plug the next one: sales and marketing expertise.<\/p>\n
This is an area that truly troubles me and has done for some time. Of the hundreds of entrepreneurs through my door over the years it\u2019s been a consistent theme.<\/p>\n
Of course there are answers here and quick wins \u2013 Entrepreneurial Spark is of course one answer, but we need to expand that to reach out to all key centres of entrepreneurial dynamism in Scotland. Of course we also need to ensure our education system prepares our young people for the world of work appropriately.<\/p>\n
Enterprise education is crucial to this \u2013 I remember so well the pupil from an Ayrshire school telling me he hated maths and English as he polished his pizza marketing plan and pricing strategy for the local supermarket; no horse on it you understand!<\/p>\n
So sales and marketing is our next gap to plug John, but for the moment let\u2019s celebrate the high impact businesses that had the cojones to get up there and show how they planned to conquer the world. Well done to you all.<\/p>\n
Recipients of Scottish EDGE funding will be announced in Edinburgh this evening (Monday 18 Feb). We will be tweeting live from the event, follow @ScotGovEconomy for updates from 6.30pm.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anyone troubled by Scotland\u2019s business start-up rates would have had a huge boost last week had they been at the EDGE judging panel. The EDGE \u2013 Encouraging Dynamic Growth Entrepreneurs \u2013 Fund has been led by John Swinney who deserves a watch for not only listening to the challenges start-ups face, but then doing his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-event"],"yoast_head":"\n