Small Business Saturday is a moment to recognise the creativity, resilience and ambition that drive Scotland’s SMEs. This year, it arrives at a time when Scotland is entering a golden era of innovation. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, between 2024 and 2025, early‑stage entrepreneurial activity was undertaken by 10.4% of working‑age adults, the highest level recorded in Scotland’s history. This shows that more people than ever are not just dreaming up business ideas, but acting on them.
Meanwhile, new business incorporations rose sharply in early 2025, increasing by roughly 17.9% in the first half of 2025 compared to the second half of 2024. Innovation is no longer seen as niche; it’s becoming a core part of Scotland’s economic growth.
At the heart of many of these stories is Business Gateway, Scotland’s national business support service. Through 1:1 adviser support, webinars & events, accelerator programmes, mentoring, networking and help in identifying routes to funding, Business Gateway is turning innovation into impact.
In 2025 alone, Business Gateway supported 46,481 unique customers, assisted 6,080 start-ups and will help create 8,158 jobs. These figures show how vital accessible, local business support is in turning ideas into enterprises that contribute to Scotland’s economy and communities.
This September, Business Gateway organised its first Scottish Start-Up Month, a nationwide campaign celebrating Scotland’s entrepreneurial spirit. Backed by the Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, and a number of business owners, the campaign shone a light on innovators across all sectors. Small Business Saturday builds on that same message by shining a spotlight on the small enterprises creating value in local areas.
Innovation is the process of developing and applying new ideas, methods, products, or services that create value or improve existing ones. Innovation doesn’t always have to mean science or technology, which is often what comes to mind when we hear innovation. In Scotland, it is happening in a variety of ways: through product design, services that improve accessibility or wellbeing, sustainable solutions, creative business models and community-focused initiatives. These types of innovation are as impactful as high-tech breakthroughs and often require the same level of support to succeed.
In Moray, StrydAR, founded by Scott McLeod, is transforming mobility support for people with Parkinson’s through wearable visual cueing technology. Their innovative glasses project a guiding line that helps improve posture, balance and walking quality. With tailored guidance from Business Gateway, the team refined its business plan, strengthened its digital strategy and secured a £5,000 digital grant to develop an AI assistant for its website, improving accessibility and helping the business reach more users across Scotland and beyond.
In Clackmannanshire, danceSing, founded by former ballet dancer Natalie Garry, is transforming care home wellbeing through music and movement based classes. Their innovative approach has been shown to reduce depression rates in residents by 49% over 12 weeks. With tailored guidance from Business Gateway, Natalie strengthened her business strategy, accessed partnerships with the University of Stirling and scaled her services across Scotland. The support helped turn a creative idea into a measurable health and wellbeing impact, demonstrating how innovation can improve lives in practical, meaningful ways.
In Edinburgh, Blue Bee Mike was founded by Kasia McGavigan to create adaptive, sensory-considerate clothing for children with disabilities, inspired by her son Michael. With tailored support from Business Gateway, Kasia developed her business plan, built her website and refined her designs through feedback from local families. The guidance helped her turn a personal idea into a growing business that’s improving comfort and accessibility for children across Scotland.
These examples show how small beginnings, combined with the right support, can lead to significant impact. This is what Small Business Saturday celebrates: the power of small enterprises to innovate, solve problems and strengthen communities. These examples show how small beginnings, when combined with tailored Business Gateway support, can lead to significant impact.
While celebrations like Scottish Start-Up Month and Small Business Saturday shine a spotlight on entrepreneurship and innovation, they are just glimpses of the free support available to small businesses throughout the year. Business Gateway provides guidance on starting-up, business planning, funding, mentoring and networking, helping Scotland’s business owners test, grow and scale their ideas with confidence.
These occasions also remind us of the importance of backing small businesses, whether by shopping locally, spreading the word or celebrating their creativity, every bit of support helps ideas turn into thriving enterprises.