Hansard

I welcome the opportunity to take part in the debate on Scotland can do. I will focus on the work of Jim Duffy’s Entrepreneurial-Spark, already mentioned by Mr Swinney and Mr Fraser, which operates in Ayrshire and across Scotland. It is also a partner in the Scotland can do framework.

Entrepreneurial-Spark started in Scotland and has recently begun to expand its model, with eight hatcheries—as they are known—opening across the UK. The one in Birmingham was launched in February, while those in Bristol, Leeds and Brighton will open in August.

The remainder of the locations will be announced over the next 18 months. That is great news for Entrepreneurial-Spark, given that it started only three years ago. So far it has supported more than 352 companies, which have gone on collectively to turn over just over £41 million in profit and create 1,028 jobs.

In Ayrshire alone, Entrepreneurial-Spark has supported more than 40 businesses. I will focus on three very different examples: Birthsparks, Crucial Drinks and PlanitMoney. Those examples will show not only the kind of work that Entrepreneurial-Spark does but the way in which that support can really make a difference to people’s lives and their companies’ aspirations.

Birthsparks was created by Cass McNamara. The company designs comfortable, upright birth support: an innovation that promotes safer and healthier births for mothers and babies. Entrepreneurial-Spark offered the company proactive support and gave Cass McNamara confidence, contacts and opportunities that she would not have obtained on her own. Since getting assistance from Entrepreneurial-Spark, Birthsparks has won the EDGE award and the global ambition award. It has created three full-time jobs and has a turnover of £260,000. Birthsparks now plans to open a distribution centre in Ayrshire. That example shows that, when the right idea has the right support, people can and do succeed.

Scott Watson set up Crucial Drinks, which trades under the brands of the Lost Distillery Company for whisky, and Six Saints and West Indies Rum & Cane Merchants for rum. It applied to Entrepreneurial-Spark because it wanted a risk-free environment in which it could be coached in starting a business from scratch, while gaining new contacts. Entrepreneurial-Spark helped not only in getting the idea off the ground but in giving Scott Watson the confidence that he needed to leap into the unknown and pursue his idea by committing to a plan and to a go do approach. Entrepreneurial-Spark helped to remove the clutter of the business world and allowed Crucial Drinks to take every step in achievable, bite-sized chunks. That support has led to Crucial Drinks selling more than 20 trademarked brands and achieving more than £1 million in turnover. It is fair to say that, without that essential support, the business idea might well have remained just an idea.

PlanitMoney is a fairly recent start-up. Kyle MacDonald launched its website and mobile app officially in February. It is a financial technology company that simplifies financial planning and money management. The support provided by Entrepreneurial-Spark was invaluable, as it not only allowed PlanitMoney to gain a key understanding of how to launch a product and improve customer relations but provided it with key insight into the banking sector, as Entrepreneurial-Spark has a partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

PlanitMoney has already won an award as a company with high-growth potential at Entrepreneurial-Spark’s 2014 business awards. I wish it every success in its endeavours and hope that it finds the same success as the two other companies that I mentioned.

Those were just a few examples to show what vital support can mean to people and their entrepreneurial ambitions. It is crucial that start-up businesses are supported and that organisations are on hand to cut through the minefield of the business world.

It is concerning that Scotland lags behind the rest of the UK in business start-ups, with only 49 new business registrations per 10,000 of the adult population in 2013. We need to up our game, and organisations such as Entrepreneurial-Spark play a big role in that.

Scotland can do when we all work together and properly support start-up businesses. Entrepreneurial-Spark is only one example of that. Many of the businesses that it has supported might not have made it on their own.

It is important that we encourage and develop ideas to become reality. People succeed when they are provided with the confidence to do so. It is crucial that we support organisations that assist in that. I particularly welcome the Deputy First Minister’s encouraging words and funding to support more women entrepreneurs to realise their ambitions in business.

As we have heard, Scotland is behind the UK average for business start-ups. I want Scotland not to reach the UK average but to surpass it. I know that, with the proper support and investment, Scotland can do it.