Ben Oakes, founder of Isle of Skye Seaweed Company, received support from Business Gateway Highlands
Danny Gallagher, Business Gateway Manager for the Highlands and Moray

Danny Gallagher, Business Gateway Manager for the Highlands and Moray area, discusses how Business Gateway support helps local businesses navigate the challenges and benefits of the recent tourism boom.

It has always been renowned for its spectacular, jaw-dropping scenery and ancient landscapes. Now the Highlands are being further celebrated for the surge in new businesses that are maximising the opportunities more recent tourism initiatives bring.

The team at Business Gateway Highland has helped over 2,700 businesses in the Highlands to start-up while supporting the growth of over 550 businesses. Overall, this has contributed to the delivery of almost 3,000 jobs since 2009.

The significant uplift in activity across the region has been a hugely welcome boost for the local economy. Like all change of this scale though, it has brought challenges.  Businesses need to be nimble, visionary and practical to respond to increased demand.

Established 10 years ago, Business Gateway Highland has helped many new and growing businesses adapt to ride the wave of popularity for tourism in the Highlands, from helping businesses capitalise on the power of digital to showing young businesses and existing SMEs how they can develop their strategies to boost their business and make them more attractive to tourists.

With business advisers across Skye, Caithness, Inverness and Lochaber, Business Gateway has strong partnerships across a wider national and local support network which open doors to a variety of economic development and business support organisations.

Business Gateway’s advisors are skilled in listening, understanding and then asking the right questions in order to connect a business to the right resources that will help to realise its full potential. Business Gateway is the missing piece that could make all the difference.

To find out how Business Gateway can help your business, visit www.bgateway.com.