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
• starves other more worthwhile initiatives of resources
• further demoralises the very people and the disadvantaged
communities which the trading is intended to help.
What if no one asks you for a business plan? Write one anyway.
Yes, really! Some bodies which make grants to support third sector
trading activities nowadays deal with the poor quality of many
business plans by telling applicants not to submit one. Their grant
assessment is based entirely on the contents of an application
form. This may be fine if the form has required the same level of
analysis as writing a good business plan. But if the application
process is designed to produce ‘public accountability’ rather than
good planning, as is often the case, this is arguably against the best
interests of applicants. There is really no substitute for writing an honest
and detailed plan which explores the realities of the proposed trading
activity – whether on not this is required by funders.
Are bad planners ever good? Bright, highly committed people can
sometimes create little miracles in their communities by running
successful seat-of-their-pants enterprises despite largely dispensing
with the planning process. It’s probably their impatience and
arrogance which makes them good entrepreneurs in the first place.
Arguably they were going to be successful anyway, and they were
never going to be slowed down by reading a guide book on how to
do it. Most people can’t afford to be this impatient.
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