A BBC The Apprentice Scottish star and theatre founder is holding a business “boot camp” event.

Reece Donnelly, chief executive of the Theatre School of Scotland, has launched a live business event tailored to children’s activity providers in Scotland. Mr Donnelly and business coach Louise Brough will be hosting the event at the new Virgin hotel on November 3  for 40 business owners.

Called Level Up Live, it is a one-day business event “featuring a variety of workshops in profitability, scalability and will provide school owners with the framework to succeed in 2024”.

Mr Donnelly, who appeared on Lord Sugar's 2023 BBC business show, recently announced his £1 million-pound turnover success at Theatre School of Scotland and has also launched a full-time college Theatre College of Scotland.

Theatre School of Scotland has locations in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Greenock and said it works with 1,000 students each week across the sites and through various primary and secondary schools in Scotland.

Mr Donnelly said: “Now six years into business, I regularly get asked to help schools on the business side and my honest opinion is too many people treat it like a hobby. I’m excited to share my top tips and grow the group mindset to believe they can and will Level Up in 2024.

“I’m so excited to be working with Louise on this, she is helping change many schools and growing them day by day. It’s the perfect match and I cannot wait to take over the brand-new Virgin hotel for this one. We also want to create a business community where we can all support each other.”

Dance school owner Louise Brough of Dance INC Studios said: “Being a dance or theatre school owner can be a lonely place – I know because I have been there. When I opened my school in August 2010, I managed everything on my own for those first few years. It was stressful and tiring, to say the least.”


Hunter Foundation seeks firms aiming for £100m in revenues

The Hunter Foundation is aiming to collect hard data on the impact of its entrepreneurial support endeavours as it prepares to launch the second round of its Scale Up Scotland 2.0 programme for companies aspiring to become £100 million turnover operations.

Run in partnership with the Scottish National Investment Bank, Scale Up 2.0 welcomed its first cohort of 12 last year. Hosted by Sir Tom Hunter at THF's headquarters at Blair Estate in Ayrshire, it operates alongside the foundation's Pre-Scaler and the original Scale Up programmes to create a pipeline of growing businesses.