Growth for Helensburgh garden design business

About the business

Rachel Bailey Garden Design offers low environmental impact landscaping design services for residential, public and commercial projects in both rural and urban settings.

How Business Gateway has helped

After strong initial success, Rachel was ambitious to grow the business and contacted Business Gateway for advice on increasing capacity while maintaining profitability.

Since then, she has accessed a suite of scale-up services, including 1:1 support from a dedicated business adviser to set out a growth plan and signposting to the Local Growth Accelerator Programme, funded by Argyll and Bute Council and the European Regional Development Fund 2014-20 Structural Funds Programme. This provided Rachel with specialist advice on finance and HR, as well as an employer grant to take on a graduate.

Thanks to this guidance, Rachel’s workforce has since expanded to include two members of staff within the last three years.

The business has also benefitted from DigitalBoost, Scotland’s national digital upskilling programme, delivered by Business Gateway. Through 1:1 support from a digital expert, Rachel was able to develop her digital media strategy and analyse results to effectively build the online presence of the business.

Rachel Bailey, Founder, said: “Expanding the team has allowed the studio to increase our capacity and create gardens that are good for the environment, good for biodiversity and good for people across Scotland. After gaining experience in the industry, I understand the challenges that people face in making sustainable choices. That’s why it was important for me to use my skills to create a studio with sustainability at its heart.

“With support from Business Gateway, the idea has become a reality and we can’t thank the team of advisers enough for helping to make our growth journey smoother.”