Award winning charity wants to support Scottish small businesses

AN ENTREPRENEUR charity is calling on small businesses in Scotland to access its award winning support programme and gain £5,000 for their business.

Hatch Enterprise was recently recognised as one of the top startup hubs in Europe by the Financial Times amid its mission to make entrepreneurship accessible to those who face barriers with launching and growing a business.

It hopes to encourage local business owners to join its online incubator to grow their business knowledge, networks, and confidence.

Everyone graduating from the 10-week course will be able to apply for a £5,000 grant into their business, as well as accessing ongoing mentorship after the programme ends.

People living outside of London typically have lower business confidence than elsewhere in the UK, which Hatch says it aims to change.

Mellissa Morgan, co-head of programmes at Hatch Enterprise, said: “We know that Scotland is full of talented people running side hustles and small businesses in everything.

“Through taking a leap of faith and joining our incubator programme you can turn your side hustle into a thriving business.

“We want to level the playing field in entrepreneurship and provide resources and funding to people like you – so come and join us!”

Hatch has supported over 8,000 people to date to launch and grow their own businesses including Joanna Knight, the founder of Merl, who is based in Glasgow.

Merl is a purpose-driven consultancy supporting civil society organisations to achieve their social justice missions through monitoring, evaluation, learning and research work.

Joanna said: “Before setting up a company, I wanted to make sure all the foundational pieces were in place. I felt it would be really good to get support.

“The programme gave me the opportunity to hear from experts who helped me think through business processes and showed me different tools I might want to use and the space to practice using them. I really appreciated that.”

The next course starts at the end of May, and the deadline to apply is Monday 13 May 2024.