Shetland Business Start Up Grant

Encouraging entrepreneurship to create jobs and opportunities

Shetland Islands Council’s Economic Development Service and Highlands and Islands Enterprise established the Business Start Up Grant in 2022. The grant is administered by the Business Gateway team and was set up as a two year pilot in order to incentivise new business starts; improve business engagement with Business Gateway support; diversify the local business base; and improve long term business survival rates.

Applicants are able to receive 100% of eligible costs up to the maximum grant amount, with supplements available if the applicant is a young person, or the business is related to net zero developments. Business start-up rates in Shetland have tended to be relatively low, in part due to a high local rate of employment and a lack of spare labour market (although  survival rates are higher – the 5-year survival rate of businesses ‘born’ in Shetland in 2016 was 52.9%, compared to 40.7% for Scotland).

The interest in the scheme and the rate of applications has been increasing, and the scheme has been kept under review as it has progressed to ensure issues arising and lessons learned are incorporated. The pilot period comes to an end in September 2023 at which point a review process will be undertaken to assess demand and resources to continue the scheme.  Linking to our ‘Place’ priority, the grant scheme contributes towards ensuring that all areas of Shetland will be benefitting from a more resilient low carbon economy underpinned by a culture of innovation, inclusion and skills development.