As featured in Hood Magazine, December 2018
Scotland's Start-up Support Ecosystem, Why It Matters
Building a small business is one of the most exhilarating and exhausting things a person can do. The moments of clarity and creativity are real as are the moments of uncertainty, isolation and not quite knowing what to do.
For JustBe Botanicals, the Scottish business support ecosystem has been a genuine part of the story. A thread that runs through the development of the business from its earliest days to its most ambitious ones.
Business Gateway, Invaluable at Every Stage
As featured in Hood Magazine in December 2018, Gail Bryden credited Business Gateway's learning programme with helping her scale JustBe Botanicals:
"Business Gateway provides an incredible range of support that includes talks, workshops and one-to-ones for all ages and stages of business from start-up to scale. As a sole trader, I've attended various Business Gateway courses over the years and the advice and sign posting to the other assistance that's available within the Scottish ecosystem has certainly been invaluable in helping my business."
"They've also been great at helping me understand social media and website analytics - a must for all e-commerce businesses. I'm hugely grateful for all the help and assistance and all the connections they have helped me to make."
What makes Business Gateway genuinely valuable is the breadth of what it offers. From practical digital skills to strategic business mentoring, from understanding your first year end return to thinking seriously about scaling. The programme meets businesses at the stage they're at and helps them move forward without pretending that one size fits all.
The Women's Business Mentoring Program
Business Gateway has also been central to creating the Women's Business Mentoring Program and the mentor allocated through that programme was, in Gail's words, a great support to both her and JustBe Botanicals.
Good mentoring is one of the most undervalued assets in business. It's not just advice, it's accountability, perspective and the reassurance that someone experienced has navigated similar territory and come through it. The right mentor at the right moment can change the trajectory of a business in ways that no course or workshop alone can replicate.
As a recipient of business mentoring, she understands its value deeply and nominated her own mentor Jacquie Gayle for the Business Women Scotland Mentor of the Year Award, who went on to win, Gail has seen first-hand what great mentoring looks like in practice.
Ambassador for Women's Enterprise Scotland (WES)
The WES Ambassador Programme was established in 2014, in direct response to a clear and consistent message from women-led business across Scotland that role models matter. The Ambassador Programme is a critical pillar of the Strategic Framework for Women in Enterprise in Scotland, co-founded by the Scottish Government and WES and the first of its kind in Europe when launched in 2014.
Research by WES and others consistently evidences the powerful impact that visible role models have: encouraging more women to start up, grow their businesses and build the resilience to sustain them. In surveys conducted by WES since 2014, women-led businesses have repeatedly told WES that access to relatable role models is one of the most valuable forms of support available to them. In their 2025 research, 81% of respondents said having a role model helped with inspiration and motivation, 30% said it helped with approaching challenges and 27% said it helped with resilience.
The Ambassador Programme exists to inspire, connect and champion. The core objectives are to:
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Contribute to Scotland's economic growth by boosting rates of women's entrepreneurship and sustainable business development.
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Provide visible, relatable role models for women considering starting or growing or exiting a business in Scotland. Share authentic business stories from successes and growth to the real-life challenges of navigating starting and growing a business as a woman in Scotland.
- Challenge negative and stereotypical media representations of women-led businesses, replacing them with inspiring, honest and diverse narratives.
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Support the motivation and resilience of the wider women-led business community, particularly in the face of challenges such as the cost-of-business crisis and global supply chain pressures.
- Equip Ambassadors themselves with valuable skills, peer connections and professional development opportunities.
The ambassador role is one that Gail takes seriously, sharing her story, supporting other female founders building businesses on their own terms and being part of a wider conversation about what the Scottish business ecosystem can be when it works as it should.
Scotland has a Strong Business Support Eco-system
In The National interview in 2020, Gail was asked whether Scotland is a good place for this type of business. Her answer was immediate:
"Absolutely. The business network is very accessible. Businesses are willing and want to support other businesses. There's an understanding that if you have something unique and a purpose then people will be willing to support it."
That spirit of community, collaboration and purpose is what makes the Scottish small business ecosystem genuinely distinctive. And it's what makes Business Gateway and Women's Enterprise Scotland worth knowing about if you're building something of your own.
With gratitude for every advisor, mentor and fellow founder who has been part of this journey, Gail
Explore the JustBe story: