Useful sources of information

• For any registered charity, considering trading guidance must first be sought from the Charity Commission website. In particular the Commission's publication CC35, Charities and Trading .
• HM Revenue & Customs www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities – a single point of reference for information about tax and VAT for charities along with information about tax reliefs for charitable donations.
• The county voluntary councils and rural community councils often provide support to existing and start-up social and community enterprises.
• Social Enterprise Coalition – www.socialenterprise.org.uk. The trade association for social enterprise in the UK.
• It is often worth contacting the Community Development, Regeneration or Economic departments of your local authority since many are increasingly supporting social and community enterprises.
• The Development Trusts Association is the membership body for development trusts. It provides support to existing trusts, advice for start-ups and advocacy for Development Trusts at a policy level. Their website provides information on local members who may be good examples of social enterprise activity in your area.
• The Association of Charity Shops is the membership body for charities that run charity shops. It produces succinct guidance papers on emerging issues and has an introductory leaflet series covering a range of topics from shop health and safety to house to house collections for donated goods.
• The Charities Advisory Trust produces surveys of charity trading activity and its publications include a guide to charity trading and legal issues.
• The definitive reference source for setting up a social firm is Social Firms UK, which provides guidance and technical assistance to social businesses created for the employment of people with a disability or other disadvantage in the labour market.
• ‘Charities, Trading and the Law’ written by Stephen Lloyd and published by The Directory of Social Change (www.dsc.org.uk) gives a clear introduction to the legal and tax implications of charitable trading.
• NCVO’s sustainable funding pilot selected seven organisations to work up a single idea for trading. From Asking to Earning: Experiences of Trading (PDF 3.35MB) discusses the findings from this pilot.
• Jerr Boschee is a US pioneer on social enterprise and further details can be found at www.socialent.org
• Get Ready, Get Set: Starting Down the Road to Self-Financing is a beginner's handbook on nonprofit enterprise produced by NESsT, which is an international, nonprofit, nongovernmental organisation committed to strengthening the financial sustainability of voluntary and community organisations. NESsT works primarily in Central Europe and Latin America but NEsT's website is useful for exploring social enterprise and includes several practical guides.
• Social Economy Bristol has produced numerous useful publications providing accessible information about setting up and managing a social enterprise. These can be downloaded from their website.
• Consider subscribing to one or more of the publications dedicated to social enterprise. These include Social Enterprise Magazine, New Sector (the magazine of co-operatives and community-owned businesses in the UK), New Start (dedicated to regeneration activity), or Can-zine (an online newsletter produced by Community Action Network).