A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 • Get things clear: − Make sure the consultant understands what you are trying to do. Conventional businesses, community regeneration enterprises and other charities involved in trading are not all the same. − Be clear what you are asking for – see the section on terminology in chapter 3.1. − Indicate the level of consultation with your board or steering group which is expected. The minimum arrangement should be detailed discussions with the full group when the consultancy starts, half way through and at the point when a draft plan is produced. • Collaborate: There is really no substitute for the consultant working closely with your group through a series of meetings throughout the process. If you make this central to the consultancy: − the consultant will be better informed • Your first management experience: Inexperienced new groups may feel uneasy about telling an experienced consultant what to do, and some groups are just happy to dump the work on the consultant to minimise their own workload. Yet this can be a wonderful opportunity for new groups to take serious management responsibility for the first time (a kind of modest dummy run for the real thing when the business is established). Treat the consultant as your employee, work out the expected outcomes together, and monitor the results. Pilot trading and small-scale startups The purpose of ‘pilot trading’: You can use a ‘pilot business’ to test a service or market on a small scale before committing resources, and before you even invest time in preparing a business plan with speculative financial forecasts. It does have risks. But it is particularly suited to charities and other third sector organisations where the main thrust of day-to-day activity may be elsewhere, and where experience of trading is limited. − you will be able to check the quality and direction of the work − the group will ‘own’ the final plan. 70
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 What it means: • Pilot activities: The pilot business might take the form of: − counter sales of boxes of fruit and vegetable at the reception of your community centre to see whether people will be interested in a food co-op, home grown food deliveries − taking a selection of prototype craft items to local markets and fairs to gauge customer reactions − providing catering for some events run by your partner organisations to establish the implications of your café staff diversifying into an outside catering service − monitoring customer or user reactions and inviting suggestions, with surveys if appropriate, or feedback forms and through interaction with staff or volunteers − checking whether the trading interferes with existing activities (by taking distracting or duplicating markets, for instance) − look at quality control and establish how the product or service needs to be improved and monitored if you run it on a full commercial basis. − staging a small conference in your own building to establish the suitability of the premises, equipment and your own organisation to provide similar facilities for other bodies • Useful market research: Pilot trading can be perfect market research – whether or not you have already made a decision about expanding it into a full-scale business. So you should prepare for it properly by collecting and documenting as much feedback as possible – for example: − measuring material costs, staff time and other associated costs for the items or services you are providing 71
Page 1 and 2:
It’s an idea, but is it business?
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22: It’s an idea, but is it business?
Page 71: It’s an idea, but is it business?
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
Page 239 and 240:
Page 241 and 242:
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
Page 247 and 248:
Page 249 and 250:
Page 251 and 252:
Page 253 and 254:
Page 255 and 256:
Page 257 and 258:
Page 259 and 260:
Page 261:
show all

A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?