Freya (left) and Fiona with the first edition of the magazine.
An Angus business community social enterprise which started from a Forfar mum’s need to more easily find all the resources available to assist her business is launching a quarterly magazine on Thursday (January 8) to help its growing community build their firms and social connections.
The idea for Angus Business Hub CIC came to Forfar graphic designer and mum-of-two Freya Bigg when she went to a local networking event in Autumn 2024 and left feeling Angus businesses needed one place to find all the support resources available to them – to save time searching for them across multiple organisations, reduce the barriers to using them as well as somewhere to meet local people like them for peer support, collaboration and friendship to combat the social isolation of being self-employed.
But instead of another information and events organisation like the existing ones, Freya recognised they needed a community like UnitedKpop – the fan site and community she created in 2011 and ran for seven years, which grew to more than 12,000 followers and became the leading news source for K-pop in the UK and Europe. So Freya came up with the idea for Angus Business Hub CIC, the new volunteer-run free business community space social enterprise for support, advice and connection for Angus business owners.
Facebook Group
Several months later, she met Fiona Fotheringham, a local Utility Warehouse franchisee and they set up a Facebook Group in June last year which now has more than 470 members, with associated Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages created the following month.
As the Facebook group’s membership grew, with information and support shared through it, the need and desire to hold in-person events grew too. So Freya and Fiona held networking and consultation events across Angus – to find out what kind of events local business owners wanted the new group to hold.
Armed with that information, they registered Angus Business Hub as a social enterprise community interest company (CIC) – a company which trades but with community benefit goals rather than personal profit – last September and applied to the Angus Community-Led Vision Fund (administered by Angus Rural Partnership (ARP)) for funding to hold in-person events and create a website and magazine.
Scottish Government grant
ARP awarded Angus Business Hub CIC £4,100 from the Scottish Government’s Rural Community-Led Local Development Fund 2025-2026 (part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme) in October, which has paid for more in-person networking, support and social events to be held in Forfar, Monifieth and Montrose as well as have Freya build the hub’s website and design its new quarterly magazine, Biz&Blether, which is being launched on January 8.
Aiming to engage more Angus businesses with the hub and generate customers for them, the new 52-page quarterly magazine will have local business news, features about community projects, business profiles, event listings, a business directory and adverts.
Its print run of 500 copies will be distributed in key community locations with footfall of around 300,000 people, including libraries, community centres and GP surgery waiting rooms. A digital version will also be available to download from bit.ly/BizNBletherLaunch
Launch event
Angus business owners are invited to attend the launch event at the Reid Hall, Forfar, on Thursday January 8 from noon to 2pm to celebrate the magazine’s launch with the fantastic Angus businesses and people featured in it, meet others including those with stands at the event and enjoy free food and sweet treats. The event is ticket-only, but free tickets are available on Eventbrite. Anyone wanting to book a stand, should email hello@angusbusinesshub.co.uk.
Freya, who is formally Chair of Angus Business Hub CIC, says its next goal is create its first co-working space as a pilot for a network of them in the major Angus towns. Towards which aim it’s applying for funding to the National Lottery and NHS Tayside Charitable Foundation.
“I can’t thank everyone enough, especially Fiona, for their support so far and I look forward to meeting lots of you at the launch event on Monday,” she said. “If you’re an Angus business person, please come along and join the Facebook Group.”
For more information about Angus Business Hub CIC and join its community for information and support, go to its website at https://angusbusinesshub.co.uk/ and join the Facebook Group.