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
• ‘We haven’t got time’. You think you can run a business, then?
Plans and studies by outside consultants
Retaining control: Most of the guidance above assumes that the
steering group or board is in control of the planning process. This
is good practice, even if your organisation receives funding to
employ a specialist to evaluate social or community needs, carry
out market research, produce a business plan or help to establish a
new social enterprise organisation from scratch.
Quality: You need to be aware that the quality of work produced
by outside consultants ranges from invaluable to utterly useless.
This is perhaps the best, though not the only reason for paying
close attention your consultant’s work while it is in progress.
Ownership: Whatever the scope of the consultancy, it is
important that the work is understood and ‘owned’ by the
group. Ownership means simply that the proposals or plans have
the same commitment from members of the group that they
would have had if the group had carried out all the research and
planning on their own. (The same point applies, incidentally, to a
member of an organisation who writes a plan and presents it to
her or his colleagues to be adopted without discussion.)
Guidance for using outside consultants
• Tendering: Follow any requirements from your funder on
tendering, and get advice (from other enterprises or support
agencies) if you are not sure how to go about it. Even if you are
not obliged to, it is almost always sensible to use a tendering
process, unless you want to employ a consultant you have
worked with before.
• The brief: You must prepare a detailed written brief for the
work (or at the very least get a trusted consultant to prepare one
which meets your specifications). This should cover the work to
be carried out, the time it will take, the completion date and the
cost. Examine this and discuss it with the consultant before the
work starts to avoid misunderstanding.
• Check out the consultant: Never employ a consultant without:
− checking their web site or CV to see whether they have
experience relevant to your project
− interviewing or meeting them in person to discuss the project
− getting references or recommendations if you were not
previously aware of their work – this is the best way to find
out about their competence and any weaknesses you need to
allow for.
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