Taking over a school club

marley69

Hi
I am considering taking over a school club that is struggling to get a committee (Im chair on it at the moment!). Its either take it on or give up chair as I am struggling to do this as well as my pre-school job!
If i was to take it on it would be only myself so i take it that i cannot form a ltd company but would have to go down the lines of sole trader.
The out of school club is very popular and is thriving its just that those that need it are working and therefore we struggle to get committee evey year. If i was to do it i would give up my pre-school job.
I am looking at payroll, accounts etc
Anyone got any advice?

Thanks

Savvy_Sue

I've done this twice, as a volunteer, setting up from scratch.

1st time I had a committee, but ended up doing 90% of the work myself, and it was HARD work. Any problems with staff, and it was me who dropped everything and re-arranged my day (or week) to cover.

2nd time I was treasurer not chair, and life was a lot easier because the committee actually did their jobs. Also with that one there was no point calling me in to cover for staff absence, because I was in a far less flexible job and much further away from the club!

However, I didn't find payroll and accounts that difficult, and I think payroll's easier these days because there are online calculators (whereas I was looking everything up in reference manuals on paper). What's key is that you have to do it, and update the records, absolutely without fail, because the one thing you can't do is not pay the staff. You can, however, outsource payroll fairly easily and it could be worth considering that if you have a lot of staff. Unless everyone works exactly the same hours each week it could still be fairly labour intensive however, because again, absolutely without fail you'll have to make sure the payroll company gets the information they need by the time they need it!

You say it's thriving, but it needs a long hard look to establish whether or not you'd be able to pay yourself for the work you'd need to do. Also do you see yourself doing this for the long haul?

As for getting a committee together, the very best way I've ever found of this is to actually physically look likely (and unlikely) people in the eye and say "Look, we really need help with this, how about it?" And you know the saying about "If you want something done, ask a busy woman?" It's true ...