Business planning
→ Business Plan Guide — an easy-to-use business plan template in MS Word.
→ Business Planning Guide to developing a social enterprise — aimed particularly at voluntary and community organisations that are considering developing social enterprise activities. Produced by Forth Sector Development.
→ Handy guide to legal structures — it compares the characteristics (legal, tax, flexibility, distribution of profits etc) of the various legal structures that social enterprises and other not-for-personal-profit enterprises can adopt. Produced by Anthony Collins Solicitors.
Developing a social enterprise
Our four-part Developing a Social Enterprise resource pack is for those that wish to set up a social enterprise, but have little or no experience of business development.
→ Part 1 – Are you ready for enterprise?
→ Part 2 – Producing a business plan
→ Part 3 – Creating a marketing strategy and plan
→ Part 4 – Balancing principles and profit
→ Start your social enterprise — Social Enterprise UK’s practical guide to starting a social enterprise, taken from ‘Your Chance to Change the World’, by social entrepreneur Craig Dearden-Phillips.
Finance for social enterprise
→ Download our Finance for Social Enterprise guide, prepared by ART, one of the longest-established community finance institutions in the country.
Guide to business advice
Impact
→ Telling tales: A practical toolkit on measuring and communicating your impact. Produced by brap.
→ The New Economics Foundation (nef) has been at t he forefront of developing Social Return on Investment techniques for measuring, assessing and attributing a financial value to the social outcomes of businesses, projects or other kinds of interventions. See nef’s SROI resources.
→ There are many other SROI practitioners and consultants out there, however, including The SROI Network and, locally, Harris & Harris Accountancy.
Partnership working
→ Building Your Cluster – A guide to working in partnership and best practice in joint working, covering leadership and governance, roles and effective communication. Features ideas for group development and checklists. Produced by iSE.
Policy briefings
BSSEC’s periodic briefing papers on key policy issues of importance to the social enterprise sector:
→ The Community Right to Challenge: A guide for social enterprises and third sector organisations
Promoting your social enterprise
Our six-part Promoting Your Enterprise resource pack is for social enterprises that want to improve the effectiveness of their promotional activities:
→ Part 2 – Defining your market
→ Part 3 – Writing press releases
→ Part 4 – Creating leaflets and brochures
→ Part 5 – Producing a newsletter
→ Part 6 – Creating website content
Understanding social enterprise
Social Enterprise UK publications
→ Frequently Asked Questions about social enterprise
→ Social enterprise explained – for beginners, wonderers and people with ideas, big and small
