Community Enterprise Toolkit - Introduction
* Please read the
liability and
disclaimer before using the Community
Enterprise Toolkit *
What is a community enterprise?
Community enterprises have existed in one form or another for
many years and operate in many areas of the economy.
A wide variety of organisations come under the term 'community
enterprise' including community businesses, development trusts,
credit unions, LETS-style schemes and some co-operatives. However,
they all share several common characteristics. They are businesses
owned and managed by the community they serve.
Any profit made by the business is used for the benefit of that
community and not for private gain. They put people before profit
and see the social, economic and environmental benefits they can
bring to a community as more important than profit-making. They
also aim to be self-sustaining and rely on selling their services
to generate income, not on grants and donations.
Why have we produced the toolkit?
The toolkit has been produced to bring together existing advice
and information on setting up community enterprises in a
user-friendly way. This has been done in response to the growing
demand for such a tool and the growth in the community enterprise
sector.
What is in the toolkit?
We have split the development of a community enterprise into
nine key stages (see top of page for links to stages). Each stage
contains information and advice on a particular aspect of
developing a community enterprise and several key tasks to
complete. There is also a glossary of
commonly used terms and jargon which you will come across in the
toolkit and the world of community enterprise.
How can you use it?
Each stage is divided into two sections. The first covers what
you need to do and the second how you can do it. There are ideas
and examples of how to carry out each piece of work and a checklist
of key tasks for completion in each stage.
It is designed so you can work through the whole toolkit or
through a single stage - it is up to you to decide how you want to
use it. It is also crucial that you keep written records of all the
work you do in setting up your community enterprise and in running
it. If you have any problems or questions about any part of the
toolkit, then please get in touch with us for further help and
advice.
What is not in the toolkit?
The toolkit does not contain everything you need to know and do
to set up a community enterprise - it is designed to help you find
out that information yourselves.
It does not promote any particular kind of community enterprise
or lay down prescriptive formats for writing business plans or
funding applications - it should act as a guide to help you carry
out these tasks in the most suitable way for your group.
It is not a guide to setting up a credit union or LETS-style
scheme - some of the information in the toolkit is relevant to
setting up these kind of organisations but there is a great deal of
more specialised work not covered here.
