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Twelve Years, 300 Businesses: GrowBiz Mentoring Programme Hits Milestone
Mentoring Doubles Five-Year Survival Rate of Small Businesses
A mentoring programme that helps rural and island entrepreneurs across Scotland to start and grow their businesses is marking its twelfth anniversary and 300th business supported. The milestone was recognised on National Mentoring Day, Tuesday 27 October 2026.
Run by GrowBiz, Scotland’s rural enterprise organisation, the award-winning mentoring programme pairs new and established business owners with experienced volunteer mentors, often in communities where support is otherwise hard to find. GrowBiz is based in Perthshire and delivers support to rural and island businesses across Scotland.
GrowBiz established its mentoring programme in 2014 with the support of the Scottish Mentoring Network. It is the only business support organisation in Scotland to hold the highly regarded Scottish Mentoring Network Project Quality Award, which recognises the highest standards of delivery and a best practice approach.
Shareon Gordon, Mentoring Lead at GrowBiz said;
“We see first-hand the difference that mentoring can make to small rural businesses. It’s about building confidence, creating connections and helping people recognise their own potential. Our volunteer mentors generously share their time, knowledge and experience, providing a supportive space where business owners can explore challenges, develop new ideas and move forward with greater clarity and confidence. The real impact of mentoring is seeing people grow, not just in their businesses, but in themselves. That’s what makes the GrowBiz Mentoring Programme so special and so effective.”
Research by the Federation of Small Businesses shows that 70% of small businesses that receive mentoring survive for five years or more, more than double the rate of non-mentored business owners. However, only 25% of SMEs currently make use of business mentoring, meaning the vast majority of small business owners are navigating major commercial hurdles alone.
Emma Versteeg, founder of Cairngorms-based Step into Wholeness, benefitted from the GrowBiz mentoring programme during the early stages of starting her business. She commented;
“When I heard about GrowBiz mentoring, I knew it was just what I needed to help me move my business forward. It provides a supportive space to discuss ideas and air concerns and helps you develop your own solutions. It really helped my confidence in being able to talk about my business and I came away from every mentoring meeting with manageable goals that led to progress. I feel like it has made a huge difference to both my business and to me personally, as you are developing skills and qualities which are transferable. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”
Clair Smith, CEO of Scottish Mentoring Network said;
“Mentoring is all about human connection. It provides a safe space to explore the best possible outcome and is hugely empowering. Within a business context, there is compelling and consistent evidence to show the ‘mentoring dividend’ for businesses, it can boost revenues, productivity, and longevity, yet the vast majority of SMEs are missing out on this crucial growth lever. It is a huge credit to GrowBiz, as the only business support organisation to hold our Scottish Mentoring Network Project Quality Award, that they consistently deliver a programme which reaches the highest standards of governance and best practice.”
GrowBiz is always keen to add to its mentor panel. The team looks for individuals with experience of running a business, managing a team, training or community work to consider whether they could get involved in the programme as a volunteer mentor for one hour a month or whatever they can manage.
Anyone interested in being involved in the GrowBiz mentoring programme, either as a mentor or mentee, should visit www.growbiz.co.uk/mentoring for more information.
GrowBiz Mentoring Lead, Shareon Gordon, concluded:
“We know the impact that mentoring, both for the business owner and for our volunteer mentors, who get a huge amount of satisfaction from helping others and giving back to the rural business community in this way. We work hard to match mentors and mentees to make sure it’s a rewarding and fruitful experience for them both.”
