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 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. 220
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 The lessons of failure as job creators: This experience, which has set back support and development for decades, offers some valuable lessons: • in the meantime creating employment is still a worthy goal for the third sector, provided it does not become the obsession it was 20 years ago. • third sector enterprises should not make claims that they cannot deliver on • outsiders should not jump to their own conclusions about what communities and charities can achieve • enterprises should not go along with objectives and targets which they know to be unrealistic, merely in the hope of keeping support funding flowing • direct employment creation by third sector organisations is likely to remain an important and worthwhile but modest contribution to direct economic regeneration • the type of jobs which social enterprises are good at creating does not necessarily meet the needs of disadvantaged communities for skilled, well-paid employment • trading to create resilient, independent, entrepreneurial and innovative community organisations and charities may be a more certain way in which trading can contribute to the longterm health and wealth of society 221
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A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

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