Sole Trader or CIC

poweller7

Hi All,

Hope you are all well and enjoying the sunshine. I have been working with Children and families for as a front line practitioner for 10 years now for a local authority and the last few months I have written a programme that targets gangs, knife crime and drug crime including county lines which is becoming more apparent in the area that I am working in. No one is delivering such a programme in the area. Over the last 8 weeks I have been undecided in what structure to take legal obviously as a Sole Trader or a Community Interest Company?

I would appreciate any support/signposting.

Regards

skater_kat

You can be a social enterprise under any business structure so in that sense it does not really matter. However, as I suspect that your business will be the kind that you will need to secure grant funding, the majority of funders will not work with sole traders. Therefore a CIC or a CIO is probably a better proposition for you, but of course you will need willing business partners to make that work. You can of course be a Ltd company with social aims, you don't HAVE to be a CIC or a CIO to do 'worthy' work at all. the reporting requirements of a Ltd company are less than a CIC or CIO but could be more HMRC/accounting - heavy.
My only source of this information is having worked in voluntary sector for 20 years and written a number of funding bids.

skater_kat

in terms of signposting look for your local chamber of commerce and also do you have any social enterprise charities near you. lots of social enterprise info online that is helpful about starting up and relevant structures. try searching for "Unltd" or the "school for social entrepreneurs" as a start.