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
The tip of the planning iceberg: The detailed content of the
document you produce at the end of the planning process will
clearly depend partly on its basic function.
• Launching a trading venture for the first time will require a
plan which emphasises both the capacity of the organisation
(its resources, the skills of the directors, and evidence that it
can manage the business) and its commercial viability and
sustainability.
• A plan for expanding an existing business or adding new
trading ideas can depend on the organisation’s track record.
But evidence of suitable levels of investment or physical capacity
may need to be highlighted.
• A business plan laying out a longer-term strategy to plot the
way ahead for an existing enterprise such as a development
trust (which local authority funders are likely to require) will
concentrate less on service delivery and more on overall
sustainability (see section 5.2 and 8.2).
What about multiple audiences? Your plan probably needs to
speak to several different audiences simultaneously, each of whom
expects or needs a different style of document. These might be:
• local authority departments which have an interest in the services
you will deliver, or which have a role in funding the work
• charitable trusts and other funders, each of which has a different
set of funding priorities
• potential customers
• potential supporters and the general public
• prospective directors
• members, users and staff of your own who you may need to
win round.
How many plans? Think about how your business plan will be
used. It can be tempting to write a different version of the plan
for each audience, particularly if you think some aspects of what
you are planning will be regarded less favourably by some groups
of readers. But be careful not to go to unnecessary effort. Two or
three simple options can do the job perfectly.
• Writing different versions of the main plan for each funding
application can become impossible to manage and may seem
dishonest unless you are exceptionally well organised. Produce a
single version, but indicate in a variable covering document how
each potential funder could help.
• Many people are unlikely to read a lengthy document. Produce
summary documents for wider circulation. These can be tailored
to individual audiences.
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