One is the Loneliest Number The Entrepreneurs

This programme contains some strong language

In an age of austerity and recession, with jobs at risk

and people worried about how to make ends meet,

Scotland needs more new businesses, and fresh ideas.

These are the budding entrepreneurs,

hoping to stem the tide of doom and depression.

They've been given a unique opportunity to be hot-housed

and nurtured by some of the world's top business gurus.

Everything you do is intentional.

You make the damned best pitch you can!

This is a business accelerator,

the scale of which has never been seen before in Britain.

You've come into Entrepreneurial Spark. Why are you here?

I'm here to become more of a businessman.

Scary.

I've been working on it for two years to get

the foundations as solid as I can and I'm not going to fuck it up now.

All my cards are on the table. I'm all in.

So, yeah. This has to work. And it WILL work.

The companies involved in the project couldn't be more diverse -

from a high concept virtual gaming studio with

huge global potential...

What we're doing is we're obviously focusing on Russia.

Also, the Middle East as well.

..to a small family-run mobile zoo.

We've got Jim and Chris and Rachel and Rebecca from Jiminy's Jungle!

Oh, my God! What is that?! Wow!

But with a third of all start-ups failing within their first

three years, can this initiative really make a difference?

-What's your profit in year one?

-What's my profit in year one?

See, you should have that off the top of your head.

I'm focusing on you, Mark. What the fuck are you going to do?

These entrepreneurs come from all walks of life,

each with their own definition of success.

The master plan is to build something big, have a lot

of success, buy a yacht, sail round the world,

then start all over again.

Basically, what I want to do is... I want to get my hair cut.

-OK. Good.

-I mean, I don't have a penny!

This isn't a game show. This is real life. This is business in the raw.

Boom! THEY LAUGH

And look, we've even got our own pens. How posh is that?

How do you solve my problem?

Cos when you chap my door, you've got about 30 seconds or a minute.

And the next minute or two I'm just wondering how I'm going

to get you out.

They believe I'm going to turn over, I think, is it £5 million,

which my whole family thinks is hilarious?

You may have the best technology in the whole world.

I don't really give a crap.

What I care about is why will a customer buy your product?

Why?!

The definition of entrepreneur? Wow.

There's so many definitions of entrepreneur.

For me, I have the simple definition.

If I think I am one, I am one.

Entrepreneurial Spark is the brainchild

of former police sergeant Jim Duffy.

I've known Jim for three or four years now

and I think what's driving him is he has a vision.

He's got a clear vision of what he wants to do for Scotland.

We're creating a new culture - a new way of doing things.

Nowhere in Britain is giving entrepreneurs

an opportunity like we are in Glasgow and Ayrshire in Scotland.

It's disruptive, it's creative, it's all-consuming just now.

Ideas are easy.

People say entrepreneurs, they've got ideas, they take risks,

they lose money.

Yeah, they do, but the real entrepreneurs go for an idea

and they bang it through to the end.

What I'm getting out of it is between the age of 45

and 48, hopefully, if I don't drop dead with a massive heart attack,

is it's just going to be a wow experience.

What a journey.

Jim's vision is for a new start-up community,

a place where entrepreneurs come together to inspire each other.

Close your eyes. I want you to think about how great, powerful

and magnificent you are. I want you to feel it.

-ALL:

-I'm great! I'm powerful! I'm magnificent!

Fantastic!

With the help of some of Scotland's most successful business people,

Jim's offering more than 100 hand-picked start-ups the chance

to grow in a business incubator, or what Jim calls a hatchery.

Have you had your temperature check?

The first such hatchery to open was in Glasgow, in premises

provided by millionaire businessman Sir Willie Haughey.

The entrepreneurs, or chicklets, as Jim calls them, are given

free desks, free phones, free Wi-Fi, free meeting space, along with the

chance of being mentored by some of the top business minds in Scotland.

This support is available for up to a year.

But if at any point they're not seen to be progressing forward

with their businesses, they can lose their place in the hatchery.

Jim hopes that by creating such a melting pot of driven

and focused people, sparks will fly.

Many entrepreneurs get stuck in the create piece

and never get on to the action.

Get more action. Get to trying to sell your idea to a customer

even if your product doesn't exist.

Make sure you don't get stuck in your mind,

but you actually do something.

One of the Glasgow chicklets who's already hitting the headlines

is 33-year-old Donnie Maclean.

-TV REPORTER:

-A team in Scotland has come up with the recipe

for the healthiest pizza pie,

containing 30% of your body's daily nutrients,

including vitamins and minerals, protein, calories and carbohydrates.

Eat Balanced owner Donnie Maclean and Professor Mike Lean

from the University of Glasgow have worked together to create

a healthier frozen pizza than any currently on the market.

Following a BBC Scotland news report,

publicity about Donnie's nutritionally balanced pizzas

has gone viral, appearing in the Huffington Post and New York

Daily News as well as The Times of India and Le Monde in France.

They trended on Twitter,

with many people pointing out the irony that Glasgow,

home of the deep-fried pizza

reputedly one of the worst diets in Europe, should be

the birthplace of the world's first nutritionally balanced pizza.

Like many entrepreneurs, Donnie's putting everything on the line.

I've scared myself. I've re-mortgaged the flat. That's gone.

I've put all my savings into it.

So, if this doesn't work out, I'm homeless.

I've been working on it for two years to get

the foundations as solid as I can. And I'm not going to fuck it up now.

I'm the kind of person that,

if I'm going to do it, I'll do it as best I possibly can.

So, what we've done is what I call health by stealth.

Everyone knows they should be eating a balanced diet, but we're just

making it easier by doing it with a product they are likely to eat.

It still tastes like a pizza. It still tastes great.

So that's why we're so excited about it, and the industry seems

to be so excited about it and the media's gone all crazy recently.

-MOBILE RINGS

-Hello, Donnie Maclean speaking.

We're not actually stocking the pizzas yet.

We've really just launched the concept to the industry

and there's been all sorts of people like yourself phoning,

trying to find out where they are, but unfortunately we've not

been able to get them into the shops quick enough.

Donnie has done a series of taste trials to refine his recipes.

-What sort of order would you like?

-Spicy chicken ones first.

Today, he and newly employed Katie are at Murrayfield trying out

the pizzas on some of Scotland's up-and-coming rugby players.

There's a range of pizzas that we're doing

and I just want your honest feedback.

If it's shit, let me know.

And if you enjoy it, then also let me know.

With your average pizza containing more than a wine glass

worth of fat, Donnie and the aptly-named Professor Lean

have worked hard to take the bad stuff out and put the good stuff in.

With innovative ideas like replacing salt content with

seaweed in the pizza bases, Donnie's bringing something new to what's

widely considered to be a stagnant and saturated frozen food market.

Feedback forms if you would, please. Pass them round.

It's this unique selling point that Donnie hopes will impress the big

four supermarkets - the holy grail for any new frozen food product.

-General thoughts?

-Good, yeah.

-Any complaints?

-SILENCE

-That's a good sign!

-ALL:

-Thank you very much.

-APPLAUSE

In Ayrshire, the second ESpark hatchery opens in this uninspiring

former factory complex just outside the small village of Dundonald.

Wall Street this isn't, but there is a notable

history of entrepreneurial success around this place.

APPLAUSE

Thanks, Jim. This building has a very special place in my heart.

I sat in that corner.

That was my office when we were building Sports Division from

nothing to 353 million turnover, 7,500 people.

That's where I sat. I still now sit up the stairs.

Slightly nicer office.

A guy came into my office, called Jim Duffy.

Like a lot of people coming into my office, he said, "Tom,

"I just need 10 minutes and I don't need any money."

Both of them lies.

LAUGHTER

This is so important that we get you guys starting your business,

growing your business, employing people.

Scotland really needs you guys to succeed.

Scotland really needs this to succeed as well.

One of the West Coast chicklets hoping to emulate

some of Sir Tom's success is 31-year-old golf pro, Mark Shervill.

You've come into Entrepreneurial Spark. Why are you here?

I'm here to become more of a businessman.

Mark has worked with some of the top names in golf

but has never run his own business before.

I lack clarity, right?

That's where I'm going to place my energy.

-I need that.

-Are you easily distracted?

-Yes.

Mark wants to revolutionise the way sport is taught to children.

He's developing a long-term athletic programme combining the discipline

of martial arts and the notion that to become really proficient

in any sport you must put in at least 10,000 hours of training.

I'm a golf pro.

I love to coach and I'm making a business out of it.

And I'm going to try and change the way things are happening.

His ambitious plans include opening a state-of-the-art

golfing academy and he thinks he's found the perfect location

right outside the ESpark offices.

I was at Dundonald Olympic Business Park.

And literally, 100 yards, a pitching wedge away

from where I'm working in an office, is this wonderful hangar.

And I drove past it on my first visit.

I was after a purpose-built indoor facility to host my golf

product from. And I think it ticks the box.

I'm going to develop this hangar into something that families

can come, schoolchildren can come and get a real education in sport.

We've got a little bit of outdoor space, which will be landscaped

into a fantastic short game area.

Putting, chipping, bunker play.

Into the hangar.

Welcome home. HE LAUGHS

Mark gets straight to work marking out the layout of the centre.

So up we go.

This will be divided up into six bays.

This will be the practice range,

hitting shots that way.

We load it up with great technology.

This will be a real top class coaching facility in here.

Mark doesn't have any capital

and needs to attract an investor to get things going.

In the meantime, he's making a living by giving golf lessons.

Today he's working with some of the boys already

well into their 10,000 hours of training.

Lovely shot, Jordan.

Shot, David. Go!

Shot. Love it.

Get it. Get it! Ooh!

They're all competing. They're all working it out.

The sand's a great leveller when it comes to striking the ball.

So they're all having to work out the strike.

"Am I going to hit it high to get it in the umbrella for 50 points?"

which is a tougher shot than just a little chip and run shot.

They're all buzzin'. They're all lovin' it.

Get in. Get in!

Yeah!

Mark hopes that some of the older members of Team 10,000,

including his own son Jacob, might be good enough to

compete in the Open Championship at nearby Royal Troon in 2016.

His enthusiasm and innovative coaching techniques have

already attracted attention from golfing centres around the world,

with offers of employment coming in from America and the Far East.

But Mark is determined to make it work in Scotland.

After a rigorous application process,

each of the new chicklets has to prove that they're

progressing forward with their business.

Regular meetings or Ideation Sessions

are held to monitor their progress.

Working alongside Jim, is ESpark co-founder Brian McGuire.

Brian, a successful businessman, is donating his personal time

and money to the ESpark project.

Today he's helping 43-year-old Marianne Patterson

to shape her business model.

Well! I'm into this one!

Are you? Or do you say that to all the lassies?

With a long career in the Social Services,

Marianne has identified a lack of adequate provision for young

children with additional support needs.

She's created a not-for-profit social enterprise called

Ayrshire Children's Services,

designed to deliver bespoke respite care to children and their families.

It'd be really, really good to take it back a step.

What's the problem out there?

And let's see if we can articulate it in the simplest possible way.

-All right?

-OK. No problem.

-Good challenge. Let's go.

So, from this pain point here...

You're understanding of the gap.

This is the itch that requires to be scratched.

Why you exist. Go.

There's 1,152 children, at the last count,

-who have additional support needs.

-What's the problem at the moment?

-So what?

-These kids are turning from children into adults that cannae

function in society.

We're coming across more parents who have,

like, no capacity to understand that their children need

more of a world than CBeebies, chicken nuggets and school.

-So, it's a worthy cause.

-Yeah.

You are a social enterprise with a worthy cause.

Because, if we don't do something about this as a society,

there's a whole host of issues. Lost generation. Hope.

That's good. OK. But wait.

Why does Ayrshire Children's Services exist?

There isnae any services for seven to 11

-with additional support needs, at all, in North Ayrshire.

-Wow.

As a not-for-profit organisation,

Marianne still needs the business to generate income in order to survive.

But like many of her fellow chicklets,

she's not used to running her own company.

I understand what you're asking from me, right?

But there's a big wall and I need to find a pair of ladders

to get over it. D'ya know that way?

She's hoping to tap into a new form of government support which

will give parents the ability to choose

and pay for the kind of service they need.

Marianne will offer some of these services,

using the money earned to grow her business.

For over an hour, Brian drills Marianne about her business model.

Last week, when I sat out there, I thought, "Well,

"Ayrshire Children's Services isnae a product that you

"sit on a shelf that folk can see and buy."

But really, it is. It IS just a product.

It's a service that somebody buys,

to solve a problem. And I never, never seen it like that ever

until just now.

Starting your own business always comes at a cost

and Marianne is struggling to keep on top of things financially.

With a young family, a full-time job working in a hostel for homeless people

and now a new business,

getting her work/life balance right is a bit of a challenge.

It's just tragic.

Just now, it's 5.55pm, so Peter's just in, the dinner's just on.

So, in the next 15 minutes, I'll need to get fed, get changed

and be out the door by 6.30pm to go to the hostel.

So the days just start to blur into each other.

-You're going to work.

-Uh-huh.

-I want you to do something.

-What do you want me to do for you?

-Help me do something.

-What do you want me to help you do?

-Help to put me together again.

-Help to put you together again?

-How? Have you fell tae bits?

-Yeah.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Can you give me a hand, please?

-Can you do me a wee favour?

Go and give Dad a hand and then put your telly on

so I can sit down and have something to eat.

Marianne is working night shifts at the hostel

so she can devote time in the day to her family and new business.

She needs the income to help pay her mortgage

and cover the start-up costs of the business.

Right, I'm away. I need to go.

I can think of a million and one other things that I'd like to

be doing rather than driving to my work at the hostel.

The thing I miss the most, just that wee period,

when Josh goes to his bed.

When you get to read him a story and you get to say good night.

And he plays every trick in the book,

just to stay up that five minutes later.

I really miss that.

And when the morning comes and I'm knackered and he's up,

bright and early, does he get the full me?

Does he get my full attention?

I dunno.

The diverse range of budding entrepreneurs within ESpark

encompasses many who've invented and developed new products.

There's Tsumanga Studios, raising money in the Middle East

for a high concept social gaming product for girls.

We're really standing on the shoulders of giants, trying

to engage an audience of millions of users at once within one game.

Pizza Cones - a pizza, in the shape of a cone!

-It's nice.

-Really happy!

And Hotbott, a fully brandable and portable heated seat.

It's almost a no-brainer.

You give them something that enhances their experience

and keeps them warm, so why would they not want to buy it?

Do you want to go and get the pink one?!

Another chicklet hoping to hit the right note with

the launch of his new product is 44-year-old Steve Broadfoot.

Steve is a former tour manager who has travelled the world with

some of Scotland's biggest rock bands.

Throughout his career, he's lived almost entirely in a loud noise

environment, becoming acutely aware of the problem

of hearing damage and the lack of adequate and practical protection.

After 20 years,

Steve has quit his life on the road to develop a product that he

hopes will change the way we go to gigs and enjoy loud music.

In order to get his product to prototype, Steve's working around

the clock discovering and developing new talents he never knew he had.

It's a very DIY kind of existence.

Kinda making all this up as I go along.

And then tell everybody there was a plan after all.

Tour management was like that.

You give this air and grace of control and management,

but you're just making stuff up as you go along.

Hearing damage is becoming a major issue for the music industry.

Record labels, and even artists themselves,

are being sued for millions by audience members

claiming they suffered hearing damage at their concerts.

What I'm doing is...I'm attaching earplugs to lanyards,

which go round your neck.

The reason being...

These, even if they're not joined by a bit of wire get lost.

People don't know what to do with them.

By attaching them to a lanyard, which is

brandable and people quite like wearing, cos it's cool...

..then essentially, it's wearable earplugs.

I don't have income coming in at the moment, so it's a little bit tricky.

You know, I've got a 15-year-old son.

By having this, and protecting it, then hopefully

I can get some money and I can,

you know, provide for my son,

which I feel a bit guilty about cos his mother's probably done

more than I have.

Steve's son Jaques provides the perfect sounding board

to test his ideas.

You do see a lot of people wearing lanyards.

Especially if somebody is going to see

their favourite band or something.

It's another bit of merchandise, really.

It's something people have to say, "I was there,"

and if it's got the earplugs and they've used them at that gig,

that's another thing that adds sentimental value to it.

I mean, I've got people at my school who were at T in the Park

in 2010 and 2009 and they're still wearing the camper wristbands.

The reason this idea is so good, it's one of those things that you're

just thinking - "How come somebody never thought of this before?"

It's one thing to get positive feedback from family

and friends but quite another to test your product in the market.

Steve has worked with some of the top Scottish bands including

Franz Ferdinand, Biffy Clyro and The View.

He's hoping to use his music industry contacts to help test

and promote his new product.

Is this a casualty?

-The hazards of life on the road with The View?

-THEY LAUGH

I don't know if you guys ever suffer from ringing in your ears

-from going to gigs, down the front.

-What?!

-Exactly.

-THEY LAUGH

What's happening is, basically, Chris Martin and Coldplay, Plan B

and all that are trying to promote ear protection.

They've all got hearing damage, tinnitus.

-I mean, how's your ears?

-My ears are going, like, and in ten years,

they'll be gone.

I went on Stevebroadfoot.com and he saved my ears! THEY LAUGH

-It's a work in progress, Mo!

-I know!

CHEERING AND LOUD ROCK MUSIC

Next stop is T in the Park - the ultimate loud noise environment.

It's the perfect place for Steve to test his as yet unnamed product.

Where's the zoom?

-This is Pauline.

-Hello!

-This is Jaques's mum.

Hi!

This is my dad, John, who's moustache I have copyright on.

-Ma boy...

-Who hasn't got a moustache!

..who will no doubt develop a moustache at some point.

So, as a more aged customer, is it something you would wear?

Oh, yeah.

If the lady in my life was giving me a hard time and earache,

I'd stick these in!

There you go, plenty of other marketing opportunities as well.

# Somebody always singin'

# Woah oh oh

# Somebody always singin'... #

Right, we're on the main stage and I'm here with, eh, Dumbo.

Or John, aka Dumbo.

He's the main man, making sure it all comes together.

He's had a look at this wee product.

So, what do you reckon about it, Dumbo?

I think it's a great idea.

I'm surprised somebody's not come up with it before.

We're liking that.

If you get it branded, it's even better for the bands

and whatever company's interested in it.

It's a great selling point.

Great endorsement fae the stage manager

on the main stage at T in the Park!

So, we'll leave him on his own cos he's got a lot of people to

look after.

And he's supposed to be busy! Ha-ha! Cheers, Dumbo.

It was long, it was wet. And it was muddy.

But it went well because I managed to speak to nearly 70

key people in the industry. All the people back stage.

Basically, I've now got the data that basically says

there is a demand for it. So now, I've just got to supply it.

At the right cost.

Entrepreneurial Spark was set up to help people like Steve

turn their ideas into a reality.

Let me tell you a wee bit about what Entrepreneurial Spark is.

Entrepreneurial Spark is Europe's first equity free

accelerator for start-up businesses. That's what we do.

We bring start-up entrepreneurs in and we put them through a programme.

We're a social enterprise - we don't make any money.

The beauty of being a social enterprise

is we can treat every single entrepreneur impartially.

Don't care what the business is. We just look at the individuals.

If they want to work hard, we'll work jolly hard with them.

We got the idea for Entrepreneurial Spark in America.

We were over there

and we saw one of the best community accelerators in the world.

It's called MassChallenge. That's Boston.

And the reason that happened in Boston was

when Mark Zuckerberg had Facebook, he needed 200,000.

That's all he needed to get it to the next level and he couldn't

raise it in Boston, so he went to Palo Alto, and the rest is history.

So these guys got together and said there's got to be a better way

and a better defensive tactic to keep all the brains here,

all the talent and all the money. So they came up with MassChallenge.

Boston and the greater Massachusetts area has one of the most

successful entrepreneurial economies in America.

Here, some of the world's most innovative

companies are attracting millions of dollars of investment.

Massachusetts is similar in population size to Scotland,

and Jim and Brian want to emulate its success back home.

On this return trip, they've brought along a team from RBS,

their principal sponsors.

They've come back to meet MassChallenge co-founder John Harthorne.

MassChallenge is now the world's largest business accelerator

and start-up competition.

It's been a whirlwind.

It's crazy and we're seeing an influx of inbound increase.

Like, you guys represent the sort of leading edge,

the cutting edge of global entrepreneurs looking to

create an impact similar to MassChallenge.

You came and visited us very early in our process.

We barely knew what we were doing.

We were making it up at that time still!

We didn't see that, to be fair.

And his top tip was write it down as you go along.

We announced the prize money before we had it.

We publicly committed to giving away a million dollars before we had a dollar.

The first question from the media was,

"Where did you get the funding?"

We were like, "We don't have the funding."

"Where are you going to go get it?" "I don't know.

"I was hoping you were going to tell me."

Two years ago, every single day, I thought we were going to die. At least at one point in the day,

I was like, "We'll probably be dead in two hours, it's all about to crash,"

and then an hour later I'd think we were on top of the world.

It's such volatility, it's incredible.

How has this impacted on your domestic life, your family life?

It's really difficult.

That's the part of this that I've definitely not solved yet.

I've mortgaged every relationship in my life as far as I possibly can.

And the second I get another little bit of equity, I mortgage that.

Just like John,

Jim and Brian have made their own sacrifices in the creation

of ESpark, and just like John they are consumed by its potential.

So, what's it like in corporate America, Jim Duffy?

-We miss you, Dundonald!

-Yes, we do!

Right, VIP dinner has started.

Why don't we catch a couple of the winners and we'll try

and assess if there's a chasm between what they have

and what we could have in Scotland?

The culmination of the MassChallenge programme is

a major awards ceremony held in Boston's largest conference centre.

Up for grabs is more than a million dollars in prize money.

MassChallenge. We help entrepreneurs win.

It's an opportunity for Brian to meet

some of the MassChallenge entrepreneurs.

What's the name of your business?

What we're trying to do is create the future of business apparel.

We've taken a material that NASA uses in spacesuits - put that

material in our dress shirts.

So when it's 100 degrees out, you'll feel much cooler

than if you're wearing a regular shirt.

What's the greatest impact that your business can have?

The greatest impact?

We can change the way business feels on the web.

We can make it feel more human.

In only its third year, the incredible achievements of

MassChallenge are highlighted by guest of honour,

Governor Deval Patrick.

361 start-ups recorded have already raised more

than 360 million in outside funding.

Generated over 95 million in revenue and created over 3,000 jobs.

That's very, very good news. APPLAUSE

Each of this year's 26 finalists must pitch their ideas to the

packed auditorium.

Cash prizes of up to 100,000 are awarded to the winning teams.

It's a huge event matched only in size by the confidence

and ambition of the finalists.

Every day, we ask police, soldiers, firefighters

and other first responders to enter hazardous,

unseen spaces in performance of their duty.

We're developing a low-cost, throwable sensor platform.

You toss it into a room

and get a panorama of that space on your android or other mobile device.

Our first customer is with the Federal Government.

We deliver in six weeks.

To catch cancer right from the start. That's our goal.

80% of the world's wheelchair-bound live in countries where

rough roads are the norm. Our chair is the mountain bike of wheelchairs.

We're hiring like mad! We'll hire you in Boston,

we'll hire you in Montreal.

Flush with cash. That's the business model. Right there.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

We're only a couple of years behind MassChallenge

and we really are following in their footsteps.

It's happened here

and there's absolutely no reason at all it can't happen in Scotland.

And, d'you know what? See, from Scotland, you could go down to England and do it as well.

-Cheers.

-Cheers, everybody. Welcome to Boston.

Another massive influence on Jim's ESpark vision was

a scholarship he spent at the world renowned Babson College near Boston.

Babson has been ranked number one

in entrepreneurship education for the past two decades.

I think it's been brilliant to come back and demonstrate what

we've actually achieved and I think these guys are astounded

that, A - we did it.

And secondly, the scale of which we did it.

Bringing it forward, the next two-and-a-half/three years,

I just know that something special's going to come out

because of all these businesses and all these people

and where they're going to go and the things they're going to do

and the networks they're going to create.

How they're going to give back. I'm excited.

I'm excited. Ooh, I could crush a grape!

THEY LAUGH

Back in Glasgow,

there's some exciting news about Donnie's Eat Balanced pizzas.

PHONE RINGS

Good afternoon, Donnie Maclean speaking.

Between you and me, I've managed to get in 50 of ASDA's 53 stores.

And I've signed up with Sainsbury's as well.

So, two of the big four.

And I'm heading down to meet the national buyer for Tesco next week.

Getting into two of the big four supermarkets

is a major coup for Donnie.

We got signed up with ASDA within three days which,

from what I understand, is record breaking.

Probably the biggest accomplishment of my life so far.

There will definitely be hairs up the back of my neck - and not just

because we're in the frozen section.

It's going to be very exciting.

Over on the West Coast, there's another chicklet having a big week.

Marianne's Ayrshire Children's Services has passed all

the necessary requirements to provide care services

for children and families.

And she's already making waves in the local press.

We got about just under a half page.

And it reads absolutely superb.

And since then, I've had two phone calls.

Two enquiry referrals this morning, just from the paper, so we have.

So it's been really quite good.

Marianne is in Largs, about to meet her first potential client.

Well, life's kind of hectic.

I've got Rachel who's 10 - well, she's nearly 10.

And she's a great girl.

But she feels left out a little bit,

because her two brothers have got learning difficulties.

It comes under learning difficulties.

John's god ADHD and dyspraxia, which has various effects on him.

And her youngest brother, Matthew, is five and he is autistic.

And he's more like an 18-month-old baby to a five-year-old boy.

For you, Ayrshire Children's Services,

we would be able to look at your specific needs

and what we do then is we train and develop workers to meet those needs.

And for me, if Ayrshire Children's Services can come

and help you, we'd be able to enhance your whole family.

I spoke to you before about John's swimming.

You know, you were saying that John would actually love to start

swimming but at the moment you just don't have the capacity to be

able to take the time out to do that.

Our worker would come in and maybe try to integrate

John into the local swimming baths.

And that would give you and Rachel and Matthew some other time as well.

Marianne has already recruited

and trained six volunteers to work with children like Joanna's.

I'm just really hoping that they'll help us gel more as a family.

I'm very hopeful for John, that he will lead a normal life eventually.

But it's going to be all the little steps

I take just now that are going to help him as an adult.

That's why I think this will be great for him.

But if Marianne is to operate on any meaningful level and generate

enough income to make the service self-sustainable, she needs

to build up an army of volunteers.

In the evenings, alongside her paid work at

the hostel, she's running a training programme for potential volunteers.

Good evening, good evening. How are yous doing?

Marianne's training programme is designed for people of all ages

who want to find work in the care sector.

With growing links to the Jobcentre and local colleges,

her fledgling service is providing another benefit to the community.

OK, well, thanks for coming.

Tonight. This week, it's just a bit about communication.

Things like listening and non-listening.

Y'know, are we really listening to what somebody's saying,

or are we just...there?

I joined the course about four weeks ago.

I'd been looking to work in this line of work for over a year.

Hadn't seen any opportunities and just my luck,

my advisor at the local job centre told me about Marianne and Ayrshire

Children's Services and I thought it was a fantastic opportunity.

I hope to make a career out of this, but my main goal is to be

a REALLY good support worker, not just a support worker.

You pick up your young person on a Tuesday night.

And for they three hours, your life is that child.

If you're yawning and fidgeting, or just nodding as if,

"I'm not interested," they will pick that up.

They will then adjust their behaviour to fit in with you.

I think it's a great idea. Especially down here.

Obviously, there's a lot of families

and children that are kinda underprivileged and they don't

get the same opportunities as others, so it's good for them.

It's a challenge for me as well.

Through the training, there's things I'm learning

and picking up on and I think it can only add to my future.

The world is full of negative, isn't it?

The news is negative. People don't help each other.

There's nae community spirit.

And then you get folk that come to Ayrshire Children's Services

training courses and their first step to pathways to employment.

You know, they can see the bigger picture.

S'pose that makes it worthwhile, doesn't it?

Down the road in West Kilbride, Mark Shervill is hosting another

training session for Team 10,000.

It's autumn now and the weather has taken a turn.

Every session we start with that, yeah? 2016.

The Open Championship, Royal Troon.

Be great if we're all there, wouldn't it? Right, OK.

Mark has received several offers of coaching work overseas

and as the cold wind blows in off the Firth of Clyde,

those offers are looking more and more attractive.

To make matters worse, there's some bad news

about the World War II hangar that he'd hoped to

renovate into a state-of-the-art indoor golfing academy.

The huge renovation costs have proved too much.

Mark's desperate to find an indoor training facility

before the rapidly approaching winter renders the beach unplayable.

If I'm not able to provide them with a facility, then we're not

going to be getting the money in and then they're going to be

missing out on valuable time and I just can't afford that to happen.

In ESpark, Mark needs to prove that he is moving forwards

with his business.

His temperature check with Jim couldn't have come at a worse time.

These skills here, you've got passion, determination, flexibility.

You know golf and you're out there doing it.

They're all fine, but to get to where To Do Sport has to be,

what the fuck are you going to do? What's your profit in year one?

-What's my profit in year one?

-See, woof. You should have that off the top of your head.

You should be thinking about it all the time.

I don't know what your business model is.

I don't know how you're going to make any money.

Well, we know it works. We've got kids out there doing it.

We've got a pilot with over 200 kids on it.

But I need to get that. Can you see the lack of focus?

The hardest thing that I've got at the moment, Jim,

is that the area has just suffocated us,

because everyone in the area is just doing their utmost to keep us out.

-When you talk about the area, is this the golf...

-Fraternity, yeah.

The fraternity. Do they see you as an upstart?

I've come up here and I've took the lion's share of the market

and, y'know? That Cockney down the road, doin' all that,

what's he all about? Creating a slur, upsetting the apple cart.

And then you get propositions like Thailand.

-What's the deal over there?

-There's a place, Chiang Mai Highlands

and a big golf complex and they want us to go over there

with our programme and start developing junior youth golf.

-Wouldn't that be a shame for Scotland?

-Yeah.

-What's to tie

you to Ayrshire that you want to do it here and your wife's

-saying it doesn't matter where we do it?

-The kids.

Where I'm talking about to do 10,000,

-I've got kids entering into their 3,000th hour.

-OK.

That's a lot of investment.

All of a sudden - bang - that stops, what do they do?

You see, where I'm getting pulled left, right and centre?

You've got to make the decision, with your family,

what you want to do.

You'll get as much support here if you want it.

We're happy to press buttons and push hard for you.

But until we see that focus, then...

The boys, they're really achieving some great stuff and I'm

so proud of them all and I've got such a connection with them all.

They're my boys, you know.

I want to see that programme and that project through

and I want to give them what they deserve.

Yeah, it's one in millions that turns out to be a Major winner,

but I believe we've got a couple there that's going to have

a good go at achieving that.

But if they don't, then they're going to have a successful life

because of the commitment, the dedication and perseverance

and the spirit that they're showing.

And I've got to show that spirit as well.

And then you've got the other side of the coin,

where people are recognising what we're doing and offering us

some interesting opportunities elsewhere.

Like Thailand and Stateside. And they sound attractive.

Trying to make sense of that is hard work.

-HE SIGHS

-Big decisions.

Back in Glasgow, Jim has further concerns for another of his chicklets.

There's an added incentive to why Steve needs to

accelerate his business.

-How are you?

-I'm good.

-How's your treatment going?

-Erm, all right.

That's the radiotherapy and chemotherapy finished.

-Finished?

-Aye.

Steve has recently been diagnosed with brain cancer.

So far, it's not been any major hindrance.

I mean, getting radiotherapy, they say to you, "You'll be tired.

"Get chemotherapy, you'll be tired."

You know, but they don't know when it's going to hit you.

I'm kinda thankful that I had this idea.

It's personally given me a focus.

Steve had to have emergency brain surgery after

collapsing at his former workplace.

The operation to remove a tumour was a success but he'll need to

undergo extensive treatment to make sure it has been completely removed.

Obviously, this is how things looked before your operation, Stephen.

What we see is the tumour here.

It still bowls me over these days, you can

go in there and take something like that out.

The size and scale of the tumour show how close Steve came to

losing his life.

I couldn't tell Jaques for, like, three weeks,

because Jaques, he was doing his exams.

What I found bizarre at the time was, er,

when I was telling him, he was smiling.

I was talking to Pauline about it and she says, "Yeah,

"but you didn't see his face when you were looking the other way."

His lip was starting to go, so, yeah.

It's like you can be male and strong and all that, but, you know, things

get pretty emotional, especially when it comes round to kids.

And the way I look at it now is I'd like to make it as much

of a legacy for Jaques as possible.

HE SOBS

Without being too much of a wimp!

We're all emotional. Just not everybody admits it.

Marianne has come to Edinburgh to pitch for a funding

grant from Firstport,

an organisation that provides support to social enterprises.

It's her second attempt at getting this money and she's hoping

that being in ESpark will have improved her chances.

If successful, Marianne will be able to leave her job at the hostel

and concentrate fully on her new business.

It'll be life-changing for me, as well as the service.

You're wearing so many different hats,

because you're focusing on coming off night shifts.

You're trying to forget that.

Then I've got Josh to take to nursery, so he's my priority

and then I've got about two hours to work before I pick him back up.

And then I do an activity with him.

Taking that hostel out of that day's equation is just going to be immense.

Hello, it's Marianne, Ayrshire Children's Services. OK. Thanks.

She'll have to wait a few days to receive the decision in the post.

Also en route to the capital is Donnie.

He's come to oversee the production of the all-important

first order from ASDA.

If we don't do the production today, and don't get the products into

the depot on Monday, then all this hard work and all this momentum that

I've built up could just fall flat and I'd look like a right daftie.

There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears

that's resting on this production today.

So, I'm a little bit on edge.

Donnie has outsourced manufacture to Cosmo,

a long-standing pizza-making company.

They're producing more than 6,000 pizzas

to sell in 50 of ASDA's Scottish stores.

It's the first time the pizzas have been mass-produced on this scale.

Bit scary!

Things are going well,

but halfway though production, Donnie has spotted a problem.

Basically, they're not how I expected.

It does look darker. Very wholemeal.

The only way to properly test if there is a problem with

the bases is to taste one and to compare it to a previous batch.

Got to make sure it still tastes OK.

I'm terrified.

Donnie thinks that the two different flour types used in the bases

might have been mixed in the wrong proportions.

I'm now investigating how they made the dough,

to see if there's been a mistake there.

And if there has, then we might have to do it all again...

..which is fucking terrifying.

HE GROANS

This is one of the ones that was made previously.

It tastes quite different to me. And it looks different.

We'll have to stop production, then.

Stopping production would be expensive

and could put delivery to the ASDA depot behind schedule.

If the delivery date is not met, then the whole ASDA

deal could be in jeopardy.

But not wanting to compromise on quality,

Donnie makes the difficult decision to stop production

and try to figure out the problem in the morning.

HE SIGHS I didn't need that.

# One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do... #

People who start businesses go through similar

things around the world.

The first - loneliness.

It's so lonely to start your own business, to be by yourself.

And put all your emotional energy. It's really 24/7.

You go to bed with it, you get up with it.

All the time.

I put so much into this.

Number two - you exactly believe that you're the only one

with the problems. Because you're all by yourself,

you never get to KNOW that in fact everybody has the same problems.

Defining the business, thinking about the business model.

How do you reach customers? What's the rate of profitability?

Pricing. All these incredibly difficult issues.

I struggled, I looked at profit and loss accounts

and it was just gobbledygook to me.

You feel isolated. You feel why am I doing this?

You keep questioning your own idea.

And unfortunately, that begins for most people in a negative way.

"Oh, I have to be dumb. How could I have thought this?"

And it's a terrible feeling. It's really hard.

# Cos one is the loneliest number that you'll ever do... #

Basically, it's ongoing treatment for brain cancer.

After getting the brain tumour removed, I had radiotherapy,

chemotherapy.

And this is a new treatment of vaccine therapy -

one of 30 people, apparently, in the world that are getting it.

I don't really...I'm not interested in what's going on.

Do what you need to do and let me just get on with my life.

I knew it was going to be hard.

I mean, you get nights when folk are ill and they're not training

and it's pretty quiet and after a wee while, just get tired.

Just to keep that enthusiasm up.

I feel disheartened sometimes.

Being an entrepreneur in the start-up phase,

it's up and down emotionally.

Then one day...one day, it all comes together.

And you've forgotten all those things you've just been through.

Because the clear vision is in your head.

That's the exciting part of all this.

It's a blustery morning in Ardrossan

and Marianne is hoping there's some good news blowing in.

The letter from the funding organisation has arrived

and it's make or break time for Ayrshire Children's Services.

Considering I checked the bank this morning

and we were short for paying our mortgage. If this is true...

If I get this, then I'll be able to pay my mortgage.

And I can stop working. I cannae open it now!

SHE SIGHS

Congratulations! Look! Congratulations!

"Following an assessment by our awards panel, I'm very pleased

"to inform you that your project is guaranteed by twenty grand."

I did it, it's great!

Oh, wow!

Oh, gosh!

This is huge. This is...

Ayrshire Children's Services is real. This is huge.

This is me now being able to pay myself some money.

And the stress....

And no having to run about.

It's so brilliant.

I need to phone my mum.

I need to phone Mum.

No more night shifts.

No more coming in at seven and then going back out.

It's just opened a huge big door.

That's good. You deserve it.

Next time on The Entrepreneurs...

How do you know if your great idea is going to fly?

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

The hatcheries grow as a new batch of ESpark chicklets

begin their entrepreneurial adventures.

We're good at high fives these days.

The key is to focus here. See.

Donnie's Eat Balanced dream becomes a reality.

But reality bites back.

It's not fun.

I'm going to have to make this work, or I'll have to sell my flat.

Steve goes to market with his newly-named ear protection product.

The reason why I like it is cos it's Scottish.

Mark tees off on the search for investment

and another venue to host his golfing academy.

Join us - and be a game changer.

In New York, the stakes are raised as the ESpark chicklets go global.

We're going to go for around 750 dollars. 750,000 dollars

worth of investment.

Retailers are facing a problem.

It's a 200 billion dollar pain in the ass.

And with the opening of a third new hatchery,

Jim reflects on an incredible but exhausting first year.

You've got entrepreneurs getting investment, you've got

entrepreneurs making sales, turning revenues, employing people.

Only good things will come of it.

We are bang on the money in this country.

And there is no reason why this cannot be

the capital for start-ups for Europe.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd