Call for companies to use profits to support start-ups

Stuart Macdonald, who started his business with a grant and loan from PSYBT in 1997, has called on more of his peers to give money to the trust and other charities.

Macdonald helped set up the trust’s Alumni Fund, which raised nearly £30,000 last year and thinks medium-sized companies in particular have a bigger role to play.

“The big corporates are doing their part and then you have the wee corner shop sponsoring their local football team,” he said.

“While there are small pockets of medium-sized businesses who do a lot of work, I think there is much more that they could be doing.”

Macdonald, managing director of IT infrastructure firm Seric, said that – with about 600 businesses being set up with help from the trust each year – the total raised from Alumni should be higher.

He said he would be keen to see the trust become self-supporting – just in case European Union or Scottish Government funding stopped being available in the future.

He set up a group for PSYBT companies on business-themed social network LinkedIn and has used it to raise money for the Alumni Fund.

“This has to be about more than just glib corporate social responsibility (CSR) statements,” Macdonald said. “I think a lot of small businesses look at CSR statements and wonder what it all means.

“Giving time back as a volunteer to help other business is fine but, at the end of the day, money for funding is important too.”

Since it was launched by Prince Charles, the Duke of Rothesay, in 1989, PSYBT has invested £37 million helping to set up more than 11,000 businesses, more than two-thirds of which were still operating three years later.

Macdonald said his own firm had donated 3 per cent of its profits to charity last year and that he had given his staff two-and-a-half days off work to help mentor other businesses or carry out charity work.