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
− In practice the term is often seen as synonymous with ‘business
plan’. With good reason: the detailed report of a feasibility
study may contain exactly the same information as, or may
need tweaking only slightly to do the job of, a business plan.
− But the feasibility study may not answer the question, ‘how
are we actually going to set up and run this operation?’ So
it can be critical at the commissioning stage to make sure
that you and your consultant agree precisely on what will be
produced. Otherwise you could be stuck with an expensive
report which says a business will be viable, but tells you
nothing about how to go about setting it up.
• ‘Development Plan’: The term ‘development plan’ is more
likely to refer to the overall or longer term development of an
organisation, perhaps where it is too complex or too early to
provide financial and other details for every individual activity.
It can be useful for a new development trust when it is too early
to evaluate individual trading activities or grant sources, or to
describe the broad evolution of an existing venture.
• ‘Strategy plan’: A ‘strategy plan’ or ‘strategic plan’ tends to refer
to broader brush thinking than the kind of planning needed to
develop an enterprise. On the other hand, business plans (or
development plans) should include references to general issues
such as the fit with relevant government strategies and the
overall direction of the organisation.
• ‘Operational plan’, ‘management plan’ and ‘action plan’:
These may appear as an appendix to a business plan or
they may be separate internal documents, to exactly how
the business or activities will be developed, managed and
administered. The exercise of producing one can be valuable
for putting complex or multiple enterprise ideas into practice.
They sometimes may be useful for supporting applications
for funding and demonstrating that an organisation has the
capacity to handle change. They are likely to show how things
will work for a specified or limited period of time, but not the
reasons for them or the broader and longer term objectives of
the organisation.
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