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
2.2 The very beginning
If you’re going to be involved in a successful third sector trading organisation you will need to be focused, determined,
resilient and inventive. This guide can’t tell you everything you need to know. That’s because the experts in your business
have got to be you and your colleagues. But let’s start with what you need to be thinking about and what to look out for.
Before you start
Points to bear in mind …
• Social enterprise or community trading is an approach
to business, not a clearly defined structure for a type of
organisation
• Trading organisations are almost unlimited in what they can do.
The imagination and creativity is entirely up to you. This guide
can only help you talk through what is involved.
• It will take time – perhaps as much as a year.
• The path you take depends a lot on where you are starting
from and where you want to go – so you should be wary about
closely modelling your planning process on that of another
voluntary organisation.
• Obstacles and disappointments are inevitable – be prepared to
work round them.
• If you are starting completely from scratch the process will
obviously be more demanding than if you are developing an
established organisation. Don’t expect instant results.
• There is no single step by step path which every new enterprise
follows. Think of the process as less like following a route map
and more like zooming in on an idea from a satellite using
Google maps.
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