Free webinars from the Supplier Development Programme
If you're a small business interested in bidding for public sector work, the Supplier Development Programme exists to help you. And it is free!
Sign up to SDP, and a world of training opens up to you. As well as physical events, there are online options: videos, written resources and webinars that allow you to attend an event from your desk.
You can find the basic webinars here, introducing you to working with the public sector. There is also a new series of webinars ("Talking Tenders") introducing you to specific local authorities, such as Fife, West Dunbartonshire and Stirling. You'll find these listed on the SDP Events calendar.
If you're already bidding but missing out on those contracts, there are webinars on "improving your bid score", covering what buyers are looking for in submitted tenders.
And it's all free! If you're not already a member of SDP, it's worth joining and signing up for their newsletters to keep informed about future events.
How best to support women-owned businesses?
Women's Enterprise Scotland (WES) has been commissioned by the Scottish Government to carry out research into enterprise support for women-led businesses in Scotland, with a focus on best practice in tackling the gender gap which currently exists in enterprise. While women represent 51% of the Scottish population, just 20% of all businesses are majority owned by women.
The research is a joint initiative involving Scottish Enterprise, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Business Gateway and the Scottish Government.
As part of the research WES would like to hold focus groups involving women-owned businesses. This will cover:
- Personal experience of business support in Scotland.
- Gender themes in business support.
- Awareness of gender-specific research, programmes and best practice.
It is not a requirement for participating businesses to have had experience or knowledge of gender-specific business support delivery. This is a knowledge gathering exercise to map the current support available and gauge understanding of gender-specific business development issues.
WES is looking for people to join them at a focus group. If you would like to attend, please contact WES, telling them where you are based and they'll be in touch with details of any local sessions.SWIB membership survey 2015
Thank you to all those members who took the time to respond to our survey earlier this year. If you'd like to read the report, you'll need to sign in first here.
The results of this are now available to members in the summary report.
SWIB website Terms & Conditions have changed
Our website Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) have changed in relation to services and items purchased through this site, in order that we comply with the most recent EU Directive on distance selling. We have also made some related changes to the website.
The changes can be summarised as:
- your rights to a refund should you no longer wish to proceed with a transaction are increased from 7 to 14 days
- your refund (if valid) will be paid within 14 days (or when an item is returned) instead of 30 days
- we have provided a form for you to request a refund, although we will still accept telephone cancellations of event bookings
- we have added links to the T&Cs when you make a booking, apply to join or buy an item from the swib shop
- we have added a link to the refund form at the foot of every page of the site to make it easy to access (the link is Returns and Refunds)
swib's site is already compliant with other aspects of these new regulations.
You will find the revised T&Cs here which explain what can and can't be refunded, and you will find the refund form here.
Changes to member offers
One of the benefits of swib membership is the ability to make special offers to other members. You have always been able to make "permanent" offers, lasting for the duration of your membership, but in the past, there was a charge of £50 for special limited-time promotions lasting up to 90 days. This charge has now been removed, so all member listings are now free.
Running a special event and want to offer swib members a discounted rate? Trying a new product and want to offer it at an introductory price to swib members for a period? The limited-time offer is perfect for these and more.
You can see the existing range of offers here, and create your own.
RSS
