THE Glasgow Times is featuring the six candidates hoping to be voted Glasgow's Favourite Business for 2024. 

This year's nominees are Boveda Hair & Beauty, Café Gandolfi, Clyde 1, Glasgow Film Theatre, Nursery Story and Waverley Excursions Ltd. 

The award, sponsored by this paper, is part of the Glasgow Business Awards organised by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce.  

FOR many parents, sending their young children to nursery can be a daunting thought, but there’s one software company in Glasgow that is looking to change that.  

Nursery Story, from CEO Sheena Johnstone and COO Samantha Clark, is an app for the early years sector which "bridges the communication gap" between nurseries and parents and was built in communication with nursery teachers and early years experts.  

Sheena, who has a background in elderly care, was first inspired to create Nursery Story around three years ago after her granddaughter was coming home from nursery “starving” or with a sore tummy.  

She explained: "I thought ‘is she eating, how much is she eating’ and a two-year-old or three-year-old can’t really communicate that with you.  

"I think every parent is worried or concerned when they drop their child off at nursery that they’re missing out on things."

(Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest)

Nursery Story allows the nurseries to send all observations about the child and their care to the parent, including pictures, but also has the educational framework for pre-schoolers, allowing staff to manage bringing children on in their development.  

Sheena said: "There’s reports created and it can tell at a glance if a child’s maybe not quite developing they way the government say they should. 

"It’s there for the child to say ‘we need more literacy teaching’ or something if they're falling behind at one part then the nursery know and it’s much more organised." 

Samantha continued: "For every observation it’s broken down to food and drink, toileting, accident incident observation, a general observation if they’re going for a walk but something that’s related to leaning and development goes into the curriculum and you can upload with any of those up to 10 photographs or videos and that saves into a learning journal for the child that can be a gift to the parent at the end of the year."

(Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest)

Nurseries pay the subscription fee for the app which the parents can then download from the app store. Parents are also able to reply through the app.  

Sheena and Samantha, who are both from Glasgow, previously met through Women in Networking with Samantha, who has a background in aviation, joining the business last year.  

As working mums, they both agree they wish something like Nursery Story had been available to them when their own children were young and say parents who have used it "love it".  

Samantha said: "When my kids went into nursery, I was very anxious about it at first because you’ve got mother’s guilt. 

"I think it gives parents peace of mind and obviously the government are trying to put more hours in early years care to get parents back into working and hopefully our app helps with that."

Both Sheena and Samantha say they are "thrilled" to be nominated for Glasgow’s Favourite Business, especially as such a young company.  

However, being nominated for Glasgow’s Favourite Business isn’t the only exciting thing to come out of 2024 for Nursery Story.  

Samantha has won a place on Techscaler and will be heading to San Francisco’s Silicon Valley for three weeks this month while Sheena has won a place on Scottish Enterprise initiative Pathways to Scale, a scheme to help women-led businesses in tech grow.  

The duo have big plans for the business and what to scale up to compete on a global level, but plan to keep as many jobs as possible in Glasgow as they are "very proud of our heritage".  

Sheena added: "We’re proud of where we are and how far we’ve come but the sky’s the limit.  

"There’s a lot of things that are in our road map for the future."

The winner of The Glasgow Times Award for Glasgow's Favourite Business will be revealed at the annual Glasgow Business Awards at the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central on Thursday, October 3, 2024. Voting closes at midnight on August 30, 2024. 

Place your vote for The Glasgow Times Award for Glasgow's Favourite Business HERE or www.glasgowbusinessawards.com/glasgows-favourite-business-poll/.