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Business support

Cooperatives like any kind of business need support when they are starting up and growing. Some of the advice and support required is the same as for any business for example marketing, business planning and accounting. Other aspects are different and are likely to require additional specialist support due to legal structures and accessing finance in addition to mainstream support.

Generic Business Support Offer

There are some key issues to work through here:

  • Does business support provided or commissioned by the council consider cooperatives and include them within eligibility criteria? There may be funding reasons why some coops cannot be covered (e.g. they exceed 250 employees) but most coops should be able to access start up and growth support.
  • Do your business startup and growth advisors have a good base level of understanding of cooperatives? They should be able to explain what a cooperative is and what the benefits might be and be able to understand where a cooperative model might be appropriate.

Specialist Cooperative Business Support

The key elements of cooperative business support include:

  • Advice on what cooperative business model is right for a given business.
  • Support in navigating the process of incorporating as a cooperative.
  • Support in accessing appropriate finance.
  • Support in the governance of a co-operative.

If you’ve identified a particular sector in which you want to see cooperatives develop, you may wish to create dedicated support for that sector. In Melbourne, Australia this has been done for childcare cooperatives though this could equally be done for community energy coops, community pubs, or worker coops.

Equally, coops – particularly at the start up stage – are likely to benefit from peer-to-peer support from those who have established similar types of cooperative. Someone who has created a similar business will be able to reflect on what challenges they faced at different stages and what they may need to think about ahead of time.

It is likely that you will want to commission specialist advice capacity. You may find there are local cooperative development consultants or local third sector organisations with relevant expertise. If you’re starting from a low number of cooperatives you may be able to procure this support quite simply as it may not reach procurement thresholds.

If you don’t have local organisations you may wish to approach Community Development Bodies (CDBs) and consultants in other places. Cooperatives UK maintain a Practitioners Directory and if in doubt speak to Cooperatives UK for some guidance.