Services
We know it can be unclear what ‘co-operative development’ means so we have made a list of the services we can offer below.
If there is anything not on the list, please get in touch and we will let you know if it is something we can help with or not.
While our expertise is in co-operatives, we can work with any organisation looking to be more democratic and act more democratically, just get in touch to see if we can help.
Is a co-op right for you?
It might be clear to you that you want to be a co-op but if it isn’t we can talk you through what it actually means to be a co-op to help you decide whether it is the right choice for your business or not.
Registration
If you are in the early stages of wanting to set up a co-operative, we can help you to look at the different options of which legal structure to set up and which model rules to use.
Conversion
If you already have a business set up (either a co-operative or not) and are thinking of becoming a co-operative or changing your legal structure, we can help you through all aspects of this process.
Rules Amendments
Sometimes groups will find that certain rules no longer work for them, or they might want to add in or remove things. We can work with you to get the right ammendments to serve your needs, and make the official changes to the rules.
Governance Support
Co-operative decision making is often new to people so whether you need someone to look at your rules and policies, someone to deliver a workshop on the practical methods for co-operative decision making, or someone to come and facilitate meetings around difficult dynamics – we can support you.
Culture
We know that sometimes it isn’t quite enough to have all of the rules and policies in place, sometimes there can be something harder to define that is holding us back from co-operating well or effectively operating as a democracy. There can be a lot of un-learning to do from our society and it can be incredibly helpful to have external support during this process.
Finance/ Business planning
Making sure you have enough money is essential to running any business, even a co-op! We can support with business planning, including creating financial projections, and putting together Standard Mark compliant offer documents for Community Share Offers.
Strategy/ Legal compliance
For many of us, being in a co-op is our first time with real decision making power over how to run a business. Whether this is all new to you or if you have done it many times before, we can provide support with everything from creating long term strategies to making sure you meet the legal requirements of running a business.
Want to find out more?
Unable to pay for support?
We understand that many co-operatives have tight budgets and may not be able to pay for support themselves.
We are a registered provider with a number of organisations which pay for business support for co-ops. If you are interested, please get in touch and we can direct you towards the most appropriate organisation for they type of work you are looking to do.