I run a business from a Scottish island and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone

It’s like jumping onto a runaway train, praying you’ll still have friends and family talking to you by the time the last posting date rolls around.

Running a business from an island is not for the faint-hearted. Every year brings a fresh set of challenges, from ­shifting ­customer habits to technical hurdles. Your carefully crafted marketing from the ­previous year is guaranteed to land flat, Facebook will have introduced yet another barrier for small business advertising, and Google Ads will have grown even more ­labyrinthine and complex. Reach, engagement, ROI, CPC, impressions … it all melds into a single, inescapable, nightmare.

The Scottish Island Gifts marketplace – formerly known as isle20 – was born out of frustration, necessity, and my terrible sense of humour.

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It started as a message to a few friends in early March 2020 (Covid times v1), where I joked that I might put together a directory website of island businesses and call it isle20. That way, people could come and do their shopping in the islands even if they couldn’t make it over on ­holiday this year. I was mainly tickled by the “aisle” pun. I do like a good pun.

Joking aside, I and many others, were becoming increasingly aware that ­tourism in the Scottish islands was going to be badly hit in the wake of Covid-19.

It was particularly acute for me at that time as I sat with a few thousand pounds worth of tea in my spare room. I had just taken my first proper steps into creating a wee tea label – Tiree Tea – with the intention of selling tea over the summer months.

In a moment of inspiration (or ­panic), I remembered the internet’s early days when directory sites and web rings brought niche communities together. Why not create a directory of island ­businesses so people could still shop in the islands, even if they couldn’t visit?

Fast forward to today, and ­Scottish ­Island Gifts sells more than 3000 ­products on behalf of 200 businesses. The ­directory lists more than 600 island businesses. Since we started, it has put over £300,000 directly into the pockets of islanders.

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Those businesses are just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of small businesses in the Scottish islands, ­producing a truly incredible range and quality of products. From kitchen ­table businesses to distilleries and from crofts to crafts, there is an army of ­island ­entrepreneurs. And from Unst to ­Arran, every single one of them faces an uphill struggle.

Take delivery, for example. We put a light-hearted disclaimer at the bottom of every order confirmation which probably says it all. It reads as follows: “As we ship from a variety of islands, weather and transport can occasionally be a challenge and add a few days to the timeline. We are very grateful for both your patience, and your support!”

All of our marketplace businesses ship via Royal Mail and I couldn’t run my own business without the absolutely ­incredible Tiree posties. Assuming the plane leaves in the morning I can get a parcel to an ­address in the south of ­England on a 24 hour tracked service. It’s brilliant. If we’re fog or storm-bound, it falls apart, but that’s entirely understandable and unavoidable.

And while outbound delays are ­frustrating but manageable, inbound ­logistics often border on absurdity.

Case in point: last week, I had 50 IKEA plate racks shipped to my long-­suffering parents’ address in Falkirk because IKEA doesn’t recognise my postcode. ­Unusually, I gave them half an hour’s notice. As a rule I forget, and my poor mother is left scratching her head at the latest random deposit on the doorstep.

Anyway, my dad promptly ­repackaged them and posted the lot first-class to ­Tiree. They arrived less than 24 hours ­later – a perfect example of the postal ­system working smoothly. (If you are wondering, I use them to display tea packets, and I send them to retailers.)

That added a good few pounds to my plate rack bill, and relied on my Dad’s willingness to help. In an ideal world, IKEA would have posted them to me. But that level of common sense is long gone.

A lot of what I ship in, like pallets of tea bags, requires courier services, but other items (like mailing bags or rolls of stickers) could easily go by post. Yet many mainland suppliers refuse to offer Royal Mail as an option. This is not just an ­inconvenience; it’s a financial burden. Shipping costs for couriers to the islands can be up to three times higher than ­Royal Mail rates. It can also take three times as long.

Some businesses, looking at you IKEA, even flat-out refuse to ship to island ­postcodes.

And it’s not just the islands. Any postcode north of Perth is increasingly lumped into the “Highlands and Islands” category, facing similar delivery challenges. Aberdeen, hardly a remote location, often finds itself unfairly penalised too.

Despite endless government ­rhetoric about supporting small businesses and ­rural economies, delivery inequity ­remains a glaring and unaddressed issue.

If I had my way, businesses would be ­required to offer Royal Mail as an ­option for shipping. Let couriers remain ­available for larger orders, but don’t deny islanders the chance to use the universal postal service they’re entitled to.

Meanwhile, our local couriers work ­miracles despite the long and complex ­supply chains they’re part of. I’ve lost count of how many times they’ve hauled 90,000 tea bags in the rain into my awkwardly designed tea shed.

But the current system is holding us all back. When you’re factoring an ­extra 20% into every purchase to cover ­shipping costs, it’s no wonder so many ­island ­businesses struggle to scale.

Despite these challenges, I remain ­optimistic. The success of Scottish Island Gifts proves there’s a market for ­authentic, high-quality island products, and there is a growing willingness among customers to support small businesses once again. Maybe Jeff Bezos’s recent ­failure to nail his colours to the mast in the recent US ­election will prove to be a catalyst ­driving customers towards abandoning Amazon and shopping more ­locally and ­independently – much like Elon Musk’s antics have driven millions off his ­platform this last week.

We might be operating on a smaller scale, but every order placed through our site represents more than just a ­transaction; it’s a vote of confidence in the creativity and resilience of island­entrepreneurs.

And those orders? They make the ­sellers do happy dances! We call it ­off-shoring done right.

As we hurtle toward Christmas and the chaos of the shopping season, spare a thought for the small ­businesses ­navigating this storm. They don’t have the resources of Amazon or the luxury of economies of scale. What they do have is passion, ingenuity, and ­determination – and they deserve a level playing field.

If we want to see a truly vibrant and enterprising Highlands and Islands, more needs to be done.

Delivery inequity isn’t just a nuisance; it’s a barrier to growth.

To open up new opportunities for small businesses, ­ensuring the economic ­benefits of their hard work can be fully ­realised, it needs to be stamped out.