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
• Are you making it too complicated? Maybe the need is simply
to make existing social or charitable activities more sustainable,
and the nature of the business you will run is not too important
provided it generates income. That’s ‘social enterprise’ too.
Putting your social objectives in writing
Tips on defining community benefit objectives: When you
are clear what needs you will be meeting, you can set about
defining your ‘social objectives’ in a form that your steering group,
potential supporters, parent organisation and community can
understand and sign up to. Unless you can put it in writing there’s
not much chance that you’ll be able to communicate what you are
doing to others. Here are some suggestions.
What to do: Aim to produce a list of each type of community
benefit which applies to your venture.
Why? You can’t start a charity or a Community Interest Company
without specifying what you want it to achieve. It is common
sense to treat social enterprise activity in the same way.
When? The best time to define your social objectives is early in the
life of your steering group. You can use the discussion as a team
building exercise which everyone can contribute to.
How?
• Be systematic: Allocate time to the discussion. Take notes and
circulate a summary afterwards. Discuss your conclusions briefly
at the next meeting to confirm what you have agreed.
• Be specific: Aim to write an easily understood list of the social
and economic benefits you want to achieve.
• Be realistic: Use the exercise to reach agreement on what you
can realistically achieve. Make sure that individual objectives are
not contradictory.
• Don’t confuse objectives with ‘mission statements’: Mission
statements are generalisations designed to persuade people
that you have detailed objectives (even if you haven’t!)
• Be comprehensive: Don’t limit yourself to saying what you
will do with your profits. Many trading organisations have
broad and flexible social objectives. List them all (economic,
social, environmental, cultural), and the ways you will achieve
them (eg through the services or goods you will sell, your
employment practices, your environmental policies etc).
• Prioritise: Put your objectives in order of preference if you can,
to guide you later on targeting your efforts and resources.
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