October 2003
Youth trust’s worth its weight in gold
The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT) was launched in January, 1989, by its president, Prince Charles, as one of 18 regional organisations.
Since then it has assisted more than 6,000 businesses and 7,000 individuals, awarding over £18million in loans and £2.5million in grants.
It is aimed at helping young entrepreneurs – but academic excellence or proven career stripes are not considerations. Nearly 80% were unemployed before receiving PSYBT support and 16% left school without any formal academic qualifications.
The PSYBT is the largest lender of unsecured finance to young people in Scotland but its egalitarian approach can perhaps be explained by the fact that it is a charitable company limited by guarantee with a private sector led board.
PSYBT support is open to anyone within the 18-25 age group, whether they wish to be a sole trader, business partnership or limited company – currently the average age of a PSYBT recipient is 23.
The organisation can even help expand an existing business is you’ve already had the courage to go it alone. All applications are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and if you have a particular disability or disadvantage it may be able to extend eligibility to 25-30 years old.
Its assistance is not just financial – it also offers all the help and advice required to build an idea into a realistic business and once it’s up and running, provides structured aftercare support, ensuring that you don’t have to tackle the challenging first two years in business alone.
Among recent young entrepreneurs given a helping hand by the PSYBT include Culloden woman Victoria Connolly who opened a new child nursery, Shining Stars, next to the village library. The PSYBT assisted Victoria with a £3,500 loan to help launch the business going towards the renovation of the building and stock of toys and materials.
Tayside beauty therapist Arlene Lindsay set-up Perfect Harmony, her new health and Beauty business last year, receiving vital support and funding from the PSYBT.
She began offering a new range of parties as an alternative to the usual birthday celebrations for females and her pampering parties are now proving extremely popular amongst local ladies.
Arlene, who travels to venues across Central Scotland, also caters for hen parties, offers luxury packages for bridal parties, which includes trial make-up, eyebrow waxes, an aromatherapy massage and full body bronze. Other popular packages include pre-holiday treatments, which focus on waxing, exfoliating and bronzing.
Women account for four in every 10 young people helped by the PSYBT with perhaps Judith Thorpe and her partner, Karen Molloy shining examples of exactly what is possible to achieve from tiny acorns.
The pair set up a local office for a national recruitment agency before they decided to go for it themselves. It was this experience, establishing a local Aberdeen office for a national recruitment agency, which first put the idea of their own business into their thoughts.
They decided to take six months out to plan their new enterprise and to avoid the possibility of any legal wrangles over client listings. The business took off, far outstripping growth predictions. The company now has two successful offices, one in Aberdeen and one in Edinburgh. Their second office opened in May, 1999 and their third female business partner, Vicky Culley, bought into the business, contributing to the expansion.
Thorpe Molloy is now a multi-million-pound company with expansion plans south of the border.
< back to news archive
