Expanding into Scotland
Seeking the ideal location to establish your social enterprise? Look no further than Scotland.
Scotland has a robust social enterprise ecosystem with strong policy focus, funding, and support networks to assist you.
Alongside our partners, we have extensive sector experience covering every skill set needed to establish a social enterprise in Scotland.
We provide guidance and support in many ways. All our services are funded by the Scottish Government, allowing you to access expert advice at no cost. This includes:
No matter what stage youâre at, we will meet with you to discuss your goals, current stage of readiness, and support needs. We will then identify your business development requirements, agree on an action plan, and work with you to make progress in each area.
Trading internationally has many legal considerations, which include:
- Due diligence
- Routes to market
- Legal structures
- Contracting
- IP protection
- Duties/taxes
- Banking
- Standards/regulations
- Anti-bribery/corruption policies
Working with our legal partner MacRoberts, one of Scotlandâs top independent commercial law firms, we can provide you with expert guidance in these areas.
There are different types of visa and immigration requirements to consider as a business or individual who wants to relocate to or invest in Scotland. TalentScotland is a project run by Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
For companies planning to relocate to or set up in Scotland, TalentScotland can offer support and guidance on the visa options available to businesses, including employing or transferring international talent. At ISEO, we will facilitate the dialogue with our TalentScotland colleagues to help you get access to all of the relevant and up-to-date information depending on what your plans are.
If you are expanding into Scotland, you will need to develop new partnerships, networks and relationships. With over 40 yearsâ experience in supporting social enterprise development, our Team Scotland partners can provide you with the support needed to develop the links to Scottish supply chain partners and suppliers (both social enterprise and non-social enterprise). Introductions to intermediaries & business networks. Links into wider thematic or geographic partner networks. Connect your company to our innovation partners to access cutting-edge innovation support. As well as other practical support such as conducting a search for suitable property and premises.
To get your social enterprise up and running you will need to research, identify, and recruit the people with the skills and experience you need. We can help you with this, as well as accessing flexible training support and courses available to support staff development needs.
If you are creating or growing a new social enterprise based in Scotland then we can support you to explore the grant funding and finance available from our Team Scotland partners that will help you to do that. These include start-up and growth funding from Firstport; business grants and funding calls from partners such as Scottish Enterprise; and loan finance ranging up to ÂŁ1.3 million from our partner Social Investment Scotland.
Case Study: Saorsa – Building a global anti-slavery data platform
Saorsa 2030 is a Scottish social enterprise founded in 2019 to develop an intelligent aggregated data platform enabling anti-slavery organizations to collaboratively fight modern slavery and unethical supply chains worldwide.
