Business leaders have called for a £75 million resilience fund to help firms adapt post-Brexit.
The Federation of Small Businesses has urged Finance Secretary Derek Mackay to establish the Brexit fund ahead of the draft Scottish Budget next month.
The FSB is also calling for further reforms of the business rates system and action to boost town centres and high streets.
Andrew McRae, FSB’s Scotland policy chair, said its research shows that only a minority of Scottish businesses have started to prepare for Brexit.
Read more: Hoofing ball out of park surely not the way to clear Brexit danger
He said: "While few would blame firms when they still don’t know exactly what they’re preparing for, we can’t see good businesses overwhelmed by a rapidly changing trading environment.
"We’ve been impressed by Scotland’s economic agencies’ response so far, but after March 29 the work is really going to need to ramp up.
"At this budget the Finance Secretary needs to put aside funds to help businesses - across all sectors and geographies - adapt."
The FSB’s submission also details a request for the development of a new town centre diversification fund, which would be used to upgrade high street properties and infrastructure.
Read more: Theresa May: Back my Brexit deal, Brussels won't offer a better one
Mr McRae said: "The high street is known as the home of independent retail.
"But if we’re to turn around some of our town centres, we need to make them attractive to the next-generation of businesses.
"We want the Scottish Government to build on the success of its town centre regeneration fund with a new high street diversification programme."
The business membership group also lays out proposals for additional changes to the Scottish rates system, including a new taper on the Scottish Government’s small business rates relief scheme, to smooth out financial burdens to businesses outwith the scheme’s scope.
Read more: Philip Hammond warns of threat to economy if MPs reject Brexit deal
Mr McRae said that the priority for Scottish businesses for Brexit is "securing a deal, avoiding a chaotic no-deal, no-transition Brexit".
"But the fact we need a deal doesn’t mean that Scottish firms welcome every dot and comma in the current proposals."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here