A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

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
• risk aversion
− unwillingness of public bodies to allow or encourage
community organisations to take up challenges which might
involve risks – most obvious in persistently negative attitudes
towards asset transfer initiatives
− unwillingness of community organisations to ‘gamble with’ (ie
to invest) the public money they are responsible for
− the necessary restrictions on the use of charity funds
• the isolation of innovative projects and their leaders, who may
mistakenly feel they
− don’t have time for networking or attending conferences
− are ‘too different’ to fit into other people’s funding criteria
− don’t need others telling them how to develop.
• the unrealistic expectations of quick or unachievable results
for businesses which are sometimes cultivated by public officials
and politicians
• lack of skills among enterprise which have taken the plunge
into loan finance but have failed to understand the importance
of sound market research, business planning, risk management
and financial management
• obstacles presented by legal structures – the widespread use
of charities as social enterprise vehicles and the failure of the
Community Interest Company legislation to provide anything
radically better for emerging enterprises
• lack of coherent leadership across what is sometimes referred
to as the ‘social enterprise sector’, where
− a variety of support agencies have promoted different and not
always consistent approaches to sustainability, grants funding,
development, asset transfer, investment etc
− proactive advice and encouragement for entrepreneurial
thinking is sometimes less accessible than sources of
information for those who already know what they need to do
• confusing finance options – where it is not the lack of finance
but the difficulty for inexperienced people to understand and
locate the arrangements they need, which can be caused by:
− limited support for enterprises in making complex finance
decisions
− the variety of financial scheme with different levels of funding
and different conditions
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