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Business Support Services

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Business advice is readily available in Shetland.

Whether you’re bringing a business to Shetland or thinking of starting from scratch, staff in the local development agencies here in the islands may be able to help. In the first place, they’ll be delighted to provide advice about doing business in the islands and about specific topics like business planning, marketing or e-business. However, they may also be able to direct you to sources of grant or loan assistance. Subject to the policies in place and to the need to comply with the EU’s State Aids rules, some funding may be available to help get your project off the ground. For small projects, it’s usually possible to obtain a quick decision; larger ones may need to be considered at a higher level and that can obviously take a little longer. Some of the main contacts you’ll need to make are in the Council’s Economic Development Unit and HIE's Shetland office. HIE (Highlands and Islands Enterprise) has produced a longer list of useful contacts.

You may also need to obtain planning permission and a building warrant for what you want to do, in which case you should contact the Planning Service, whose staff will also be able to help you identify, from the Local Plan, possible locations for business development.  The Council has a number of small sites for business and industrial use throughout Shetland and, in Lerwick, the Lerwick Port Authority may be able to assist.

You may also require various kinds of consent relating to Environmental Health or need to take advice from Trading Standards.

If you want to arrange a bank loan, there are Shetland branches of Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank, Lloyds TSB Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland, all of them located in Lerwick. We also have a full range of the professional services you’re likely to need, including accountants, architects, surveyors, economic consultants, computer suppliers, graphic and website designers, software developers, photographers, training services suppliers, and marketing and PR firms.