C Help clients to start social enterprises

Summary

This is about deciding the purpose, values, principles, objectives and legal structure for the potential social enterprise.  It involves deciding how the social enterprise will be structured and run and developing a social enterprise business plan.

What you need to show

You must make sure that your practice meets the following requirements.

a Advise clients on how to find suitable premises.

Help clients:

b develop as a business-focused team that is committed to starting a social enterprise.

c prepare a statement of the purpose, values and principles of their social enterprise.

d decide on their rights, responsibilities, risks and rewards as founders of the social enterprise.

e decide on, and identify and settle any potential conflicts between, their commercial and social objectives for the short and medium term.

f decide what they will do with any profits the enterprise makes.

g choose which organisational and legal structures will best suit their social enterprise and whether they should apply for charitable status.

h decide if their social enterprise will have members and, if so, what the membership criteria will be.

i decide what ownership and control rights to give to stakeholders and how the social enterprise will be managed and run

j identify what should be in their social enterprise business plan, decide how they will structure it and collect the information they need to produce it.

k identify any sources of specialist help they may need, including legal advice, and where to get it.

l identify and obtain the most appropriate sources of investment capital for their social enterprise.

m present their plans to funders, investors and other potential stakeholders.

n develop an operational plan, job descriptions and a recruitment strategy.

 

 

What you need to know and understand

You need to know, understand and be able to apply each of the following.

Purpose and objectives

1 What values and principles are held by a range of different types of social enterprise.

2 How to encourage teams to improve their skills and knowledge and the way they work with each other.

3 How to help teams to resolve conflicts between their members.

4 What ownership and control rights are given to people starting social enterprises and how they are rewarded for their work in starting the enterprise.

5 How different types of social enterprise treat profits and how this affects investment and funding.

6 The main reasons why social and commercial objectives may conflict with each other.

7 The different types of stakeholder that social enterprises can have.

 

Legal status

8 The reasons for developing complex legal and organisational structures involving subsidiaries, holding companies or trading divisions.

9  The relationship between the legal set-up of the enterprise and how the enterprise can be financed.

10   Where clients can get specialist legal advice on social enterprise structures.

11   The reasons for setting up a social enterprise as an incorporated organisation

12   The organisational and legal conditions for membership of national organisations.

13   The advantages and disadvantages of having charitable status.

 

Management structure

14   The advantages and disadvantages of different management structures and decision-making processes.

 

Business plan

15   The main parts of a social enterprise business plan.  These include:

·        a description of the social enterprise and its objectives;

·        a description of the main products and services and how they will be sold;

·        a description of any marketing that will be needed;

·        an estimate of the start-up costs and working capital needed;

·        forecasts of the income, expenditure, cash flow and profitability; and

·        the equipment, tools, materials, premises and staff or volunteers that will be needed.

16   Who the clients are writing their business plan for, and how this will affect its content.

17   How to put together and present information in a business plan, including using summaries and appendices.

 

Finance and resources

18   How to find out about the sources and types of finance available for the social enterprise when starting up.

19   Where to get information about suitable premises.

20   What business planning tools and training courses are available to people starting up social enterprises.

21   Where people starting up a social enterprise can get specialist support and advice when they need it.

 

Personal behaviours

You need to be able to:

22 achieve results through the guided actions of others IiP7.5

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