One of the students on the new MSc in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology programme has launched a social enterprise that seeks to promote rural Scottish businesses.
Great Gifts from Small Scotland is a non-commercial Facebook campaign https://www.facebook.com/GreatGiftsSmallScotland/ supporting small businesses in small communities across Scotland. The campaign includes an online Christmas gift guide which takes buyers straight to the websites of a range of business from all across Scotland from the Isle of Mull Weavers, Ardalanish to luxury handbags made in the Borders by Dunmore Scotland.
Barbara Mills launched the campaign on Small Business Saturday. She said, "Great Gifts from Small Scotland is a first step towards creating localcaledonia.co.uk - a marketplace platform for small town and rural retailers. However I decided to create a non-commercial social media campaign through Great Gifts from Small Scotland because we are working to build a social enterprise. We can't do that without building a community and social capital with both customers and suppliers.
"Many of our smaller and more remote places also now rely more on tourism and include boutique and independent retail stores.
"Small businesses can find it harder to keep up with the big brands and take advantage of the opportunities on the internet. Great Gifts from Small Scotland is only the first step in our mission, to use the opportunity of ecommerce to reinvigorate the economies of the small towns and rural areas of Scotland."