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
Volunteers: There is some uncertainty about the role of volunteers
in trading organisations.
• The negatives: It is true that they may have a poor grasp of
quality control, and mistakes by inexperienced unpaid workers
can do damage to the commercial reputation of the enterprise
– but, arguably, no more so than with inexperienced and
untrained paid staff. There can be risks of exploitation in a
pressured service delivery environment, and the different roles
of paid and unpaid workers needs to be handled sensitively.
• The positives:
− Many existing volunteers are keen to make a contribution in
roles which create direct social or community benefits. They
can be well up to learning the requirements of the job, and
may even resent efforts to limit their involvement.
− They may have better skills and more experience than some
paid staff.
− For organisations which are already committed to capacity
building work and skill training, the training potential of work
in a real trading environment can transform people’s lives.
− A well-organised volunteer team can add significantly to the
income generating capacity of an enterprise. (But the extra
cost of providing supervision and support needs to be taken
into consideration.)
− Less obvious is the fact that the presence of volunteers can
underline the social benefit basis of the enterprise, and
provide the glue which keeps the world of community service
and business together.
A few words about job creation as a social
enterprise goal
A history of failure: The historic failure of trading in the third
sector to create significant numbers of self-funding jobs after
decades of effort is no longer a serious issue. Central and local
government have come round to the recognition that, for the
most part, trading is a way to strengthen charities and voluntary
organisations, not to create employment. Unfortunately it was
previously judged primarily on its capacity (or lack of it) to bring
employment back into areas of major economic decline, and
scepticism about its value is still widespread. This is despite the
fact that the task has also largely defeated the massive resources of
the public and private sectors since the Depression of the 1930s.
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