Scale Her Up: Female business stories and expert tips for business growth and success

Welcome back to Scale Her Up!

Today, we have Kirstin Ejsmont the owner of Kirstin Ejsmont Business Law. After an extensive career in big law she decided to start her own business during COVID-19. She’s a general cooperate business law expert, with a passion for advising others on the legal aspects of starting a business. She specializes in incorporated businesses, mediating the relationships between directors and shareholders, funding and finance. Her goal when starting her business was to help people feel comfortable achieving their dreams and revolutionising the small and medium business sectors. In today’s episode Kirstin speaks about the important legal things you need in place to start a business, how to minimise risk, what she’s learned when starting her own business and finally how she’s becoming an entrepreneur has helped her re find her love for law. Today’s episode was such an amazing one to film and certainly one not to miss! Be sure to follow our instagram @Scaleherup and also my LinkedIn at Brenda Hector for daily motivational updates and exciting future plans.

Welcome back to Scale Her Up!

Today we have Sarah Leigh the owner and CEO of Weirwood Consulting. Although she’d always had thoughts about starting her own business, she officially became a female entrepreneur in January of 2024. She started her business after seeing how big consultancy firms don’t prioritise the customer and introduced short term solutions that didn’t last. At Weirwood, Sarah prioritises the client and sets out to maintain their integrity through the whole process. She works across sectors coming into businesses and increasing their productivity and revenue. In today’s episode she speaks about her business strategy- how she learned to turn leads into sales, how she learned to market herself and how she’s changed her mindset regarding money.  She speaks about how valuable networking is when you venture out on your own, how she manages her business while also being a mum of 3 and what she would tell her 18 year old self. Today’s episode was such an inspiring one to film and certainly one not to miss! Be sure to follow our instagram @Scaleherup and also my LinkedIn at Brenda Hector for daily motivational updates and exciting future plans.

Welcome back to Scale Her Up! Today we have Jenny Junnier, a good friend of the show and a fantastic champion of women in business herself. She is both the audit partner in Johnson and Carmichael Charted Accountants and one of the founders of the Axis Network. Johnson and Carmichael specialise in all areas of accounting- from family planning, to entrepreneurial taxes, to large and small businesses and even personal accounts. During their almost 90 years in business they’ve grown from a small firm that helped local farmers to a Scotland renowned firm that covers all. She specialises in audits and helps ensures that businesses have their finance in order so they can help secure investors and backing. Jenny’s also a founder of Axis Network, a networking community in Aberdeen meant to help level the playing field for men and women across sectors. Although they started in the oil and gas industry, they expanded, and within their first few years had nearly 800 members, all aquired without spending a penny. Today she gives an accountants take on starting a business. The importance of having the right people around you that you can take numbers and finance with. She talks about her own career journey and how motherhood opened up her eyes to see how women could be treated in the workplace. And finally she discusses her passion for gender equality and increasing female presence in C-Suite Roles. Today’s episode was an absolute pleasure to film and I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Be sure to follow our instagram @Scaleherup and also my LinkedIn at Brenda Hector for daily motivational updates and exciting future plans.

Welcome back to Scale Her Up!

Today we have Freya Bigg the owner of Faeble Arts, a freelance graphic design agency. Her services are more than just traditional graphic design, instead she sets out to be a ‘mini agency in your pocket’. She does illustrations, videos, weddings, motion graphics, web design and more. She’s got a passion for what she’s deemed ‘visual communication’ and has made it her mission to help businesses streamline the creative side of things. Her love for photoshop and advertisements is what drew her into the field but her real passion stemmed from incorporating it into her hobbies like K-Pop and Grimm. On today’s episode she speaks about her journey to owning her own business. From her experiences with unpaid internships, to her opinion on AI in the creative sector, to a blog that got her flown out to South Korea by their government, to her experience balancing being a single parent and a boss and finally how vital it is to have a network and the amazing opportunities that come from it.

This episode was truly a joy to film!

Be sure to follow our Instagram @scaleherup and also my LinkedIn at Brenda Hector for daily motivational updates and exciting future plans.

Welcome back to Scale Her Up! Today we have Lynne Kennedy on the podcast, who is the founder of Business Women Connect (BWC). BWC is a franchise across Scotland that sets out to give women the opportunity and support to run their own business. After starting in 2022, Lynne has expanded to Glasgow, Edinburgh and now Aberdeen. After originally starting as a magazine, BWC now has expanded to host networking events and even put on roadshows with thousands of attendees. Lynne talks about her journey to becoming an entrepreneur and how she's grown to now even win an MBE for services to women in business. She also talks about her experience starting franchises, the joy she gets from helping others start businesses and shares how you can become a member of this vibrant community.

Welcome back to Scale Her Up! Today we have Chantal Cornelius of Apple Tree Marketing joining us. After 25 years of owning her own business Chantal is a marketing maestro. Her business specializes in supporting coaching, consultants and trainers across the globe, with the goal of taking away the scariness of marketing. She helps clarify the messages of both microbusinesses and large companies while giving them tips on how to promote themselves and their brands. In this episode she shares how to achieve the perfect balance between owning your own business and prioritizing your personal life ,her most recent book Stand out Strategies and her role in the Professional Speakers Association that she's joined after a long period of public speaking fear. Chantal was an absolute joy to have on and it makes this episode one you won't want to miss!

On today's episode of Scale Her Up, we have Debra Baxter, the founder of Music 4 U. Music 4 U is a charity meant to allow young people to experience the performing arts without barriers. After noticing a number of schools in Aberdeenshire were starting to reduce or cut their performing arts programs in school, she set out to fill in the gaps academia leaves in a child's creative education. She then started Music 4 you, creating an integrated stage school that has helped thousands of young people over the 20 years it’s been opened. She has grown the program to allow them to visit people in places like hospices and expose them to live theatre, and truly provide a space for young people to communicate through music. On today’s episode, Debra speaks about the challenges she's faced starting a not for profit organization, how she grown her organization to be featured on shows like BBC’s The One Show, and talks about Music 4 You’s new fundraiser effort- 500 4 500, and how local business across Aberdeen can help.

Welcome back to Scale Her Up! Today we have HR extraordinaire, Lucy Nicholl from Nicholl HR. Nicholl HR gives HR support to small businesses throughout Scotland. Lucy gives an affordable, face to face service that helps owners manage employees and advise them on any legal issues that may arise. In this episode Lucy shares her advice on building a team and creating an atmosphere that encourages employee retention. After almost 2 years in the business Lucy’s passion for HR stems from her own experience of Discrimination in the workplace and as a result her goals is to help employers and employees be comfortable in their rights as employers and protect the both. Today, Lucy speaks about the dangers of burnout, how to combat sexual harassment ion the workplace, and the financial challenges that come with starting a business This episode is an absolutely amazing one that viewers won’t want to miss.

On today's episode we have Diana Gormley, the Entrepreneur in residence at Robert Gordon’s University and the owner of Danu Solutions Ltd. Danu Solutions is a business that sets out to optimize the use of lean in the companies that employ them. From starting as an engineer, to becoming a secondary school teacher, to now owning her own business, today Diana shares her unique experience and journey to becoming an entrepreneur. She speaks about her position at Robert Gordon University- how she bridges the gap between academia and society, combats students misconceptions around being an entrepreneur, and institutes the transferable skills you gain by owning your own business. In this episode Diana talks also about the importance of staying innovative, learning from her past mistakes, and keeping creativity alive. Truly an episode you don't want to miss!

On today's podcast we have Christina Sutherland, the managing director of GSR. It’s a nursing and at home care provider that offers training, and support services by registered nurses. In this episode, Christina tells her journey of how she became an entrepreneur. From starting her business 11 years ago to now employing just over 250 workers, Christina shares what she's learned throughout it. She's expanded GSR from just one department to three; now spread across 3 separate floors in her office. Christina talks about the importance of loving what you do, the major challenges the nursing sector faced during COVID, the burnout that followed, and the importance of finding and recruiting the right staff. This episode was an absolute joy to film and one you don't want to miss.

n this episode, we talk about:

• How Christina moved from nurse to Managing Director and why she chose to start GSR
• Growing a care business from one department to three and scaling to 250+ team members player.captivate.fm
• The realities of running a nursing and home care service during COVID – and what’s changed since
• Burnout in the caring professions and what leaders can do to support their teams
• Why recruiting for values and attitude matters more than ever in care
• How “listening to your gut” can guide tough decisions in business and leadership
• The importance of loving what you do – and how that shows up for Christina and her team

You’ll enjoy this episode if you are:

• A female founder or leader in health, social care, or training
• Running a service-based or team-heavy business and wrestling with recruitment and retention
• Interested in values-driven leadership and protecting your own energy while you grow
• Looking for a real, honest story of scaling a business in a demanding sector

About Christina Sutherland

Christina Sutherland is the Managing Director of GSR, a nursing and at-home care provider offering training and support services delivered by registered nurses. Over more than a decade, she has built GSR into a multi-department organisation employing over 250 people across three floors of office space, while staying rooted in her original motivation: providing high-quality, compassionate care for people who need it most.