Sue Jay, Managing Director, MTCIC: “We provide psychological therapies across East Anglia to people that are on low income and need extra help which isn’t provided through the NHS. I’m Sue Jay, and I’m the Managing Director at MTCIC. We’re a social enterprise founded in 2011. The reason we went for investment is we’d outgrown the service offices we were in. We’d kept on adding and adding offices and we got to a stage where it was so expensive it was going to be cheaper to find somewhere of our own.
I’d heard of Big Issue [Invest]. I knew what they did as an organisation and knew they were sympathetic to mental health. We borrowed £50,000 over 5 years. It was at 8% which was a very competitive rate at the time, and also it was unsecured so it meant the Directors didn’t have to take on that financial risk. I think the biggest challenges at the early stages was all of the preparation that you need to do before you even think about your social investment. You need to make sure that you can repay the loans, and that it doesn’t put the company at risk.
Our services extend from people of all ages, from 7 year olds to 90 years plus. And this investment has enabled us to bring this service into their own homes if they needed it through face to face telephone or Skype. The actual outgoings are cheaper here than they were in serviced offices. So it’s been saving to move, and that saving we used to repay the loan.
Natalia, why did you decide to invest in us?”
Natalia Fernandez, Regional Investment Manager, Big Issue Invest: “Looking at your trading history really helped me to make a decision knowing that you’d be able to take on repayable finance. The risk that you took really worked out for you because you’ve been able to scale up the business, you’ve been able to scale up your employees and you’ve been able to have a much greater social impact.”
Sue: “I was expecting a faceless organisation to deal with. Instead I had you, which was marvelous. It’s more than just the lending. It’s supportive and the relationship gives such added value. If you get your ducks in a row and you can afford it, it’s been the best thing for this company. It’s really made a difference.”
