Elevator, Scotland’s leading private sector organisation dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship and employability, has been awarded £2.8 million from the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund (UKCRF) making it the only Scottish organisation to receive multiple awards from over 1,000 applications. Elevator’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (E3) model will work across Aberdeenshire, Dundee, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire to provide a network of enterprise support services to drive skills development, increase business start-up rates and in turn, deliver job creation opportunities. E3 builds upon the existing support services already available via Elevator’s regional hubs which deliver Business Gateway services and business [...]

An Aberdeen technology company has been given a boost after securing a Scotland-wide contract with leading business development organisation, Elevator.  io IT Services will provide support for start-ups and growing companies through Elevator’s network of business centres across the north-east, Tayside and Lanarkshire. The three-year deal will see io provide the full suite of IT services – including network management, backups and disaster recovery, and cyber security solutions – to staff and entrepreneurs across the organisation’s 24 Scottish sites. Recently, io assisted Elevator in achieving Cyber Essentials certification.  With headquarters at the Aberdeen Energy Park, Bridge of Don, Elevator has [...]

2020 will go down in history as the year that delivered a huge shock to rural SMEs across Scotland. What has followed in 2021 has been a rollercoaster of restrictions easing and tightening, together with an erratic range of outputs for businesses. Elevator's Rural Director, Rachel Ross, discusses the impact this had and what the future of rural Scotland could look like.  "With many rural economies reliant on a smaller mix of industries than cities, higher than average self-employed workers and larger numbers of agriculture, food and hospitality businesses, the shock waves continue.  "The recent publication of Scottish Government’s ‘Businesses [...]

At the centre of Scotland’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, Elevator has grown through the successful creation of favourable environments for business start-ups. Grey Matters, our company creation programme, is delivered in an information-rich environment; one which brings together industry experts, thought-leaders and specialists with the knowledge that can be shared to open the minds of our participants.    Energy Director, John Harris, speaks about the evolution of our programme and Elevator's aims to support Scotland’s economic recovery across a variety of sectors.  "Since its inception we have been nurturing the creation of new and exciting energy focussed businesses striving to make the [...]

Why should I be part of a cohort on the Elevator programme – why can’t I just read and listen to the focusses on my own? Karen Clark, our Programme and Events Operations Manager, discusses the benefits of taking part in business accelerator and growth programmes – for you and your business. ‘It’s good to talk…’ "Some of you - very few of you, may remember the iconic BT adverts with Bob Hoskins, a man who was synonymous of that phrase. It was over 20 years ago now (!), but the famous tagline couldn’t be more apt.  "We are all [...]

Potential entrepreneurs from the aerospace sector are being called upon to help create companies that will drive economic recovery. The company creation programme, delivered by Scotland’s largest business support organisation Elevator, is looking for former workers from the industry with ideas and solutions they can help grow into high growth businesses. Grey Matters, supported by Scottish Enterprise and Renfrewshire Council, has been designed to help individuals from across the country’s aerospace industries who are currently not in work or who are looking for a new project. The intensive 16-week programme is set to be in place by August and will be fully [...]