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
− Community centres and village halls may need to become
much more involved in their local neighbourhood to
accommodate rent-paying users and stimulate the formation
of new user organisations
− Sports and leisure facilities may need to be more enterprising
to accommodate a wider range of activities and more users.
− Another way to run community buildings as businesses is to
accommodate permanent rent-paying tenants which offer
essential community services – bringing the defunct local post
office into the village hall is a classic example.
• Formal training: Community and charity organisations first
came into training as a widespread marketable service (often
under contracts with educational bodies, private training
agencies or local authorities) as long ago as the 1980s.
Training is sometimes a profitable business to be in, but it is
now highly competitive.
• Managed workspace to foster economic development:
Managed workspaces and nursery units, which provide a
protective environment for nurturing new businesses, have
been a significant part of community trading in the UK. But
community organisations in Wales have historically been less
involved in acquiring and running this type of asset, although
there are notable examples such as Gorseinan Development
Trust, which runs Pentre Menter Enterprise Village, leased
from 3M.
• Environmental and alternative technology projects: Some
third sector organisations are struggling to find a foothold
among new ‘green’ businesses, because they need to
operate on a small scale and to compete with private sector
companies (or establish complex joint financing partnerships
with them). There may be a pioneering motivation to reduce
waste, conserve energy or find less environmentally damaging
alternatives. But there is increasing evidence that power
generation schemes can be a way to make profits which are
large enough to fund community projects.
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