Frequently Asked Questions
We link business leaders with the individuals and organisations who can help them grow.
We do this through events, through one-to-one meetings, via this website, through phone calls after events, and through our newsletter.
We are helping to create a community of entrepreneurs, in which business-leaders naturally turn to one another for help, know-how, ideas, support and encouragement. This is especially important in remote and rural areas, where it helps to overcome the problems of isolation.
Fusion is for anyone running a business or social enterprise – or who would like to do so. Your business can be of any size and in any sector, a start-up or a long-established concern.
Whatever stage of business you are at, there will be people in our network who can offer you informal help and support – and whom you can help and support in return.
Other business organisations are great, and we would strongly recommend that you become actively involved with them too. Many of them will help you to meet potential customers and/or suppliers; they will campaign for better infrastructure, less red-tape etc; and they will often give you access to subsidised legal helplines, business insurance and other benefits.
Fusion does not do any of these things! But other organisations don’t do what we do, either.
For us the focus is always your specific business challenges, and finding people and schemes to link you to with a view to overcoming them. Imagine if you could pool all the knowledge and experience, goodwill and know-how, contacts and creativity of all the business-leaders in your region: imagine what a powerful resource that would be. Well, that is what Fusion is working to achieve – and our effectiveness has even been recognised by the OECD: click here to see what they said about us.
No! All members of the Fusion team have extensive experience in the private sector and have run businesses ourselves – but we do not advise you, train you or offer you consultancy.
Our business experience simply means that we will truly understand your challenges and be better able to link you with the right people to help in your particular circumstances.
We are linkers and facilitators – NEVER consultants.
Fusion started in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and we have built up a strong, loyal and growing network in the region.
In December 2008 we were delighted to accept a contract from Scottish Enterprise to achieve very similar goals in the South of Scotland (Dumfries & Galloway, and Borders).
And, as a recent OECD report pointed out, the Fusion model could be effective in any region whose business-leaders face the additional challenges of remoteness and rurality. If you are in regional development and would like to find out how Fusion could stimulate entrepreneurship in your area, please get in touch.
At present we have funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise in the Highlands and Islands, and from Scottish Enterprise in the South of Scotland, which means that our linking service can be provided free of charge in those areas. For events where food is provided, there will be a small charge to cover the cost of catering. We also charge for our annual conference.
You do not have to pay anything at all to receive our fortnightly e-newsletter (click here to sign up for that) or to attend events where no food is provided, or to take advantage of our linking service.
Fusion is a not-for-profit social enterprise.
Give us a call! Drop us an email! Contact us via this website! Introduce yourself at one of our events!
Tell us about your business, and the kind of input you are looking for, and we will do the rest. Thanks to funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise, there is currently no charge for this service.
No, absolutely not. But it would be great if you decided you wanted to be!
People become members of Fusion because they support our goal of a more ambitious, stronger and more successful entrepreneurial community, and they want to be an active part of bringing that about. They want to associate themselves publicly with the Fusion values of strong support for entrepreneurship, of ambition and of a real commitment to creating a community of business-leaders who will genuinely help and support one another. The more people who sign up to these values, the more quickly the goal of a strong entrepreneurial community will be achieved – and the more successful your business will be!
Want to be part of making this happen? Great! Please click here.
