Business support in Perthshire you're probably not claiming

There's more help available to a small Scottish business than most owners realise. The problem isn't availability, it's that it's scattered across half a dozen organisations, none of which will come and find you.

This is a map of where to look rather than a list of current schemes — schemes change, and a stale list is worse than none.

Start with rates, because it's the biggest

The Small Business Bonus Scheme is the one that catches people out. It's Scotland-specific, and it means a lot of small premises pay nothing at all.

If your property's rateable value is low enough, you may be entitled to full relief. Plenty of businesses either never applied or assumed they wouldn't qualify.

It isn't always applied automatically — it can need a claim to your council.

Worth doing today: find your rateable value on the Scottish Assessors website (it's public and free), then run it through our Scottish business rates calculator to see roughly where you stand. If it says you should be paying nothing and you're paying something, that's a phone call to Perth & Kinross Council.

Business Gateway

Free advice, funded locally, and genuinely underused. Workshops, one-to-one adviser sessions, and help with plans and funding applications.

The advisers know what's currently available in this area, which is exactly the thing that goes out of date in articles like this one. That's the point of talking to them.

Perth & Kinross Council

Beyond rates, councils run their own support at different times — grants for premises, employment, town-centre improvement. It varies year to year.

What to ask: "What business support are you running at the moment, and is there anything I'd qualify for?" It's a better question than trying to guess scheme names.

If you're taking somebody on

Employing a first member of staff usually opens up more help than people expect — apprenticeship funding, employer recruitment incentives, training support.

Ask before you hire rather than after. Some of it can't be applied for retrospectively, which is the most common way people miss out.

Rural, if you're outside Perth

If you're in the countryside rather than the town, there's a separate set of rural support that town-based businesses aren't eligible for. Worth checking specifically — it's easy to assume the general schemes are the only ones.

VAT — the one that isn't a scheme

Not support exactly, but it belongs on the list, because registering for VAT at the wrong moment costs real money.

Below the threshold you can choose whether to register. Sometimes voluntary registration is worth it — particularly if you sell mainly to other businesses and buy a lot of materials. Sometimes it's a straight loss.

That's an accountant conversation, not a website one, but it's worth having deliberately rather than by accident.

How to actually do this

Give it an hour, once:

1. Look up your rateable value and check your rates relief
2. Ring Business Gateway and book an adviser session — it's free
3. Ask the council what's currently running
4. If you're hiring, ask about employer support before you do
5. Ask your accountant about VAT timing

Most people never do step one. It's the one most likely to be worth four figures.

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Pass this to anyone running a small business locally. The rates one alone catches a lot of people.