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 • Business mistakes: The same applies if you repeatedly make mistakes with orders and charging, but with more serious consequences. It is easy for vociferous customers with a grievance to complain about businesses on line, anonymously if they choose. Your business could be written off by damning reviews of relatively short periods of poor performance, with little hope of recovery. • Techno-paralysis: If you take the DIY approach to setting up your shop, beware of the computer geeks in your organisation who are more interested in playing with the technology than running a business. They can seriously slow you down. The online shop What to sell: Consider carefully what your site will sell, and how it will be viewed by customers. The third sector tendency to do anything and everything may not be applicable here – a site selling delicate jewellery made from slate may not appear too sophisticated if it also promotes slate chippings by the ton for garden paths and rockeries. How to sell: There is no single way to use the internet for trading. Online marketing is becoming big business in its own right, and you will need to get your head round its implications for your business. You should explore the options which are best suited to your organisation, your products and your financial resources. You will probably discover in time that you can productively use more than one approach. Another point to recognise is the opportunity for different levels of activity, and in particular to test the market with market research and pilot trading before making decisions which involve commitments to significant expenditure and preparation. • internet advertising: An existing website or emails to a list of potential customers provide opportunities to test the market before you invest in establishing an online shop. • using the “social media”: Commercial organisations are increasingly taking advantage of opportunities offered by sites such as Facebook and Twitter to reach large numbers of people extremely inexpensively. • e B ay: Many individuals and organisations develop businesses by trading on a small scale on eBay and similar sites. These provide marketplaces familiar to customers and purchasing arrangements which give them confidence. There is no need to be restricted to selling by auction. 190
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 • funding your site with advertising: Internet service providers and other internet traders give you the opportunity to generate a modest income, or at least to offset costs in a small way, by advertising other businesses on your site, This won’t suit everyone, but it can be worth considering if you generate a lot of traffic. • 3to3: Being part of a club can be helpful and reassuring for organisations starting out on new activities. 3to3 (at 3to3.org. uk) is a kind of marketing co-operative for the third sector, which might suit your business. • setting up your own online shop: If you have access to the software and the IT skills you can design, set up and run your own website for your online shop. If you don’t want to pay for an expensive programmes, it is not hard to find open source software on the net, and set up your site for nothing – provided the task is taken on by someone who knows what they are doing and can live with the constraints. • web-hosting: Alternatively you can contract with an independent provider to run your site for you. This may be cheaper and it is said to be extremely simple to set up an online shop this way, which makes its highly attractive to newcomers. The bigger hosts tend to offer the option of a preconfigured “web shop” that you can set up interactively. The downside is that you have less control and the results may be rather bland. Business planning: As explained elsewhere in this guide, effective business planning and preparation for trading is always necessary. There is nothing about online shops which makes careful and accurate pricing and thoughtful marketing less important than they are in any other trading context. An effective online shop: Modern software can deliver high quality sites, but the quality of the end result may depend on the designer and the way the site is run. Careful risk assessment, technical checks and staff training will be necessary. You will need to ensure that the site: • is well presented, and is up to the standards of site run by your competition • provides the kind of features you and your customers might need, perhaps including opportunities for customer interaction • has an internet connection which is fast enough to be usable by customers • is reliable and accessible – you will lose business if the site is constantly going offline • is secure enough to guarantee both effective two-way communication and confidentiality for your customers and your own systems. 191
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A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

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