A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

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It’s an idea, but is it business? A guide to third sector trading 1: Getting started 2: First steps 3: Business planning 4: Legal and governance 5: Funding and resourcing 6: Financial controls 7: Managing growth 8: Management and governance 9: Social enterprise 10: Sources of support • Value Wales Information: Value Wales operates under the banners of Buy4Wales (advice for public bodies) and Sell2Wales, which offers a free email service to Welsh businesses with announcements of public sector contracts in Wales plus many from other parts of the UK. − Any potential contractors can sign up for the service at www.sell2wales.co.uk. − For more information on Value Wales go to www.wales.gov.uk/improvingpublicservices and click on ‘Better Value for Money’. Other guidance: Other sections of this guide designed to help you to plan and achieve the growth of your social enterprise include: • Selecting business ideas: section 2.7 • Business planning: sections 3.1 and 3.2 • Ways to fund the business: section 5.1 • Resourcing sustainable enterprises: section 5.2 • Raising money with shares and loans: section 5.4 • Finance for development: section 7.2 • Making Assets Work: section 7.3 • Managing for sustainability: section 8.2 172
It’s an idea, but is it business? A guide to third sector trading 1: Getting started 2: First steps 3: Business planning 4: Legal and governance 5: Funding and resourcing 6: Financial controls 7: Managing growth 8: Management and governance 9: Social enterprise 10: Sources of support 7.2 Growth: finance for development Many people claim without thinking and without evidence that the problem for financing social enterprise is that the right sort of funds are not available. The real problem, though, is that many enterprises either don’t know what sort of funding they want, and when they choose they are prone to make mistakes. The contribution which is most needed to meet the challenge of financing social enterprise growth is help for isolated practitioners everywhere to understand the options and learn how to recognise what they need as their activities evolve. The challenge for financing growth Myth and reality: It is often said that third sector trading is held back by difficulties with finance. This was probably true in the past, and some large and highly complex projects involving partnerships between community and private sector organisations (eg for expensive renewable energy projects) may always struggle to attract backers. But there are many other factors closer to home and rather more controversial which are limiting the growth of businesses. If you don’t face up to them frankly they will continue to stop enterprises from achieving their potential. Why is growth so difficult for social enterprise? Here are some of the often closely related factors which are restricting the natural business growth of third sector businesses. Some ideas may be considered heretical. But even if there is no immediate agreement on the source of problems, it is healthy to have the debate. • the massive grant dependency of the third sector, caused among other things by − the long history of grant funding − weak funding policies by some grant making bodies which unnecessarily limit risk, flexibility, innovation, and ambition • lack of confidence among charities and community organisations (often cultivated by the permanent insecurity of funding regimes) – caused by − the unattractiveness of loans compared with the comfort zone of grant funding − unfamiliarity of business investment models and terminology 173
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