10 steps to a successful social enterprise

Please read the following advice on the 10 steps you should take to build a successful social enterprise. Check back regularly as this section is updated with interviews, articles and insight into social enterprise

1. Get your mission statement right:

Sounds simple, but in the absence of a purely financial profit motive, it is important that you can articulate exactly what you are trying to achieve. This will help you communicate effectively with clients, funders, partners and other stakeholders.

2. Understand your market:

Do you know who your clients are? How do you know that they would pay for your service? Who are your competitors? How much will you charge for your services and why?

3. Know your numbers:

Make sure you, or someone in the management team, understands the financial implications of what you are trying to do. It is very important that you can present the business case of your enterprise to funders, your board and other stakeholders.

4. Assemble a skilled management team:

Do you have all the necessary business skills to make your organisation a success? If not, ask a friend to join, hire someone or go on a course.

5. Tell the world:

Do people know about your services? Advertise online, talk to your local paper, email all your friends and acquaintances, distribute flyers in your local pub, write to your MP and walk around town with a billboard. Anything goes as long as your clients hear about you.

6. Innovate:

If you are trying to make a really big difference, come up with something new. Or do something better that other people. Or apply existing concepts and business models to a new field. Be bold.

7. Plan your delivery:

Make sure you understand in every detail what you are going to do. Write it down, show it to your team and your advisors and go over it in your mind to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. Look at all the things that can go wrong and look at your own experience or that of others, who have done similar things in the past, to understand where the pitfalls are.

8. Seek experienced advisors:

Do you have a board of trustees, Non-Executive Directors, a mentor, a business advisor or consultant who can help you navigate your growth path effectively?

9. Choose the right legal structure:

There are many ways of registering a social enterprise. Options include Charity, Community Interest Company (CIC), Industrial and Provident Society (IPS) and many others. The legal structure you choose will impact your fundraising, tendering for public contracts, flexibility in managing the company and your ability to pay dividends or sell the organisation.

10. Enjoy:

Are you having fun yet? Make sure that you are happy with the balance between your work and the rest of your life.