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Running a Social Enterprise

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Academic year: 2021

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Running a Social Enterprise

Introduction

The running of a social enterprise is in many ways the same as any other business. It has the same issues and problems, priorities and objectives. As with any other business, a social enterprise requires people to run it, staff, resources, materials, skills, cash and cash flow. It has regulatory pressures, market pressures and

personnel pressures. The problems encountered by social enterprises are the same problems encountered by other businesses.

Issues surrounding running a social enterprise

A social enterprise though is different from other types of business and this

difference brings with it a series of issues that are not encountered by other private businesses. This is due to the nature of social enterprises. A social enterprise is primarily a business that will need to make a profit in order to survive and in order to grow. It is how a social enterprise makes its profit and what a social enterprise does with its profit that makes it a social enterprise.

Most people who start a social enterprise do it because they have a particular social objective that are seeking to achieve. This may be providing training to

disadvantaged young people, providing healthy advice or manufacturing Fairtrade or ethical product products. The social aspect often comes first with the enterprise or business coming later. However, the enterprise is just as important as the social and the running of the business well is essential in order to enable the social objective to be achieved.

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Business plan

A well run social enterprise will have a clear set of objectives. These will set out what the social enterprise wants to achieve – why it exists. It will then need a realistic and detailed business plan that will set out how the social enterprise will seek to achieve its objectives. A business plan sets out what the social enterprise, how it will do it and over what timescale.

The writing of a business plan should be one of the first things that gets done when starting a social enterprise. It impacts on all aspects of running a social enterprise throughout its lifecycle – sales, services, finance as well as staff.

Any business, social enterprise or otherwise, will require a set of policies and procedures that relate to the service or products being offered for sale. This will definitely include a health and safety policy, an equal opportunities policy as well as a staff handbook or personnel or HR policy. It may well include equality and diversity, IT and safeguarding policies according to the nature of the social enterprise and the activities being carried out. There are also others which may be required and others that may be required once the enterprise is established, either through diversification or changes to regulations or legislation. A robust set of polices enable a social

enterprise to know and understand what it can do and how it should do it and what it can’t do or should not do.

Insurance

A social enterprise will require insurances of some form or another. If it employs staff then Employer Liability insurance will be required. If it operates from a premises where people enter either to access services or purchase products then Public Liability insurance will be required. Professional Indemnity insurance, Buildings insurance, Motor or Travel insurance and other types of specialist insurance may be required.

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The best commercial insurance is available through brokers or agents rather than from online comparison sites whose main focus is on the domestic market.

Staff

One of the most important and also one of the most difficult aspects of running a social enterprise is the effective management of staff. There is no list of perfect ways to manage staff or a magic way of ensuring a harmonious staff environment.

There are many different approaches to staff management which work for different organisations of all sizes.

However, things to consider to help to create a good staff environment are:

 Good communication  Trust

 Supportive environment  Help to reach potential  Providing feedback

Governance

All social enterprise will have some form of governing body, whether this is a board of directors or a board of trustees. It may be made up of members of staff,

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The governance of a social enterprise is very important. Funders, local authority commissioners, supporters will look for evidence of good and effective governance, with regular meetings, decisions recorded and implemented.

However, it is important to understand that a governing body is there to govern, to provide an overview and help to deice the direction the social enterprise is taking. It is not there to run the business and manage the staff, activities and projects.

Management

Al of the aspects required for the effective running of a successful social enterprise are important but the most important and probably the most difficult is managing a social enterprise. All members or staff of a social enterprise will need to employ management skills of some form or another in the carrying out of their daily tasks.

However, there will be a person or a team of people responsible for the overall management of the social enterprise, its activities, its advertising, sales, marketing, staff, governance, finance, projects. Provision and delivery of good, effective service, project or people management is not easy, hence the massive amount of training, management techniques, advice and support available to managers.

In a social enterprise it particularly difficult as you are managing the double bottom line of ‘social objective and ’profit’

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Useful Social Enterprise information

Volunteer Impact Northamptonshire http://www.voluntaryimpact.org.uk/ Enterprise Solutions Northamptonshire http://www.enterprise-solutions.org.uk/ Social Enterprise UK http://www.socialenterprise.org.uk Unity Trust Bank https://www.unity.co.uk/

Charity Bank http://www.charitybank.org/ Triodos Bank https://www.triodos.co.uk

Business Plan https://www.gov.uk/write-business-plan British insurance Brokers Association http://www.biba.org.uk/CustomerHome.aspx

References

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