Mike enjoyed his BID to make city centre thrive during his 12 years as the manager of Inverness Business Improvement District
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
When Mike Smith took on the role of manager at Inverness BID (Business Improvement District) a dozen years ago, he knew it presented a tremendous opportunity.
Having left his role as chief executive at Inverness Caledonian Thistle following the club’s relegation, he spotted an advertisement for the post of BID manager and thought it looked ideal.
“I’ve always been interested in how people live and how communities evolve. On holiday I’m happiest sitting in a café watching the people go by and seeing how they live their lives, so it seemed a good opportunity,” he said.
Business Improvement Districts were still a very new idea, with Inverness one of the first five in Scotland – and, Mike believes, one of the most unique.
“Our role is economic development, which means working with city centre businesses and stakeholders to improve the trading economy, so it’s quite a wide ranging role,” he said.
“It incorporates more than 850 businesses in the retail, hospitality and office sectors, but Inverness, as a commercial centre, services the whole of the Highlands, so it is a different dynamic to anywhere else.”
Mike, who stepped down from the post earlier this year, says he thoroughly enjoyed his time with BID, but those 12 years have not been without their challenges, the greatest of which was the Covid crisis.
Although on the whole Mike believes that both the UK and Scottish governments did well to support business, the initial lack of information and fast changing situation did cause confusion.
“Our role was to engage with businesses of all sizes, particularly independents, and give them guidance on how to get grant aid,” Mike revealed.
“We were working seven days a week and kept our office open because we wanted to be seen in the city centre. We were able to respond to any query within a few hours and that was very much appreciated by the businesses and recognised by Scotland’s Towns Partnership, where we were one of five BIDs out of 40 to win an award for the service we offered.”
Mike is also impressed by the response of the businesses themselves.
He said: “Businesses adapted – that was the positive that came out of the situation – and deliveries became the heart of what they do. One fast food retailer said that 40 per cent of business is done through deliveries now. That is an amazing turn around.”
It was probably the 2015 fire above M&Co on Academy Street which provided BID’s biggest pre-pandemic challenge.
Mike was called at night by the duty police officer and was able to provide information about businesses which could potentially be affected, before attending the scene himself, and then going on to work with the council and emergency services to ensure any disruption was minimised.
“This was the first time that BID was involved with a multi-agency emergency group, alongside all the emergency services plus Highland Council,” he said.
“We were able to have an input and give a business perspective on what was happening. Obviously the first priority is to make the area safe, but you have to move very quickly onto what is happening next morning: Where are the buses going? How do people get to the station? What information is going out to local businesses?
“We reacted very quickly by being on site to help the public. We also called businesses together to give them information and have the agencies come along and explain the issues.”
Such incidents show the demands which can be placed on the BID team.
“It’s not a 9am to 5pm job. You have to live and breathe it and that’s what the team have done,” Mike said.
With a much lower turnover than BIDs in larger cities, there is a limit on what Inverness BID can do, but in general Mike believes BID has been able to meet both its daily operational commitments and adopt a more strategic outlook looking at the city’s future.
It is a future Mike feels very positive about.
“It has been very tough for businesses over the last couple of years, but hopefully we are now into post-pandemic conditions and businesses can expand and open,” he said.
“But we always need to up our offer, with retail and hospitality, but equally importantly, experiences. It’s important that we have things to entertain people when they come here.
“I also think Inverness Castle is going to be crucial, not just for the Highlands, but for Scotland, and that the Victorian Market should be a catalyst for establishing the Old Town as an entity in its own right.
“Lots of good things are happening in the city centre and I’m looking forward to enjoying them and thinking that I was a part of it all as it developed.”
