- Original Poster
- #1
Hi everyone. New to the forum and to the world of business.
I am working on setting up a non-profit organisation that provides work space for the community around us. To get access members pay a small subscription that will cover the facility and utility costs. We will use crowdfunding primarily for the setup costs of the space which will include rent for a year, partitioning internal work areas, electricity, fire alarm system & other safety devices and so on.
We hope to claw back some of these setup costs through grants that offer typically to pay for 50% cost of a project. Equipment and tools are then donated to the work space from members, members of the public, local and national business, grants and fundraising.
We have also recently seen a need for private work space which we are calling "Studios". These Studios would be rented out to members at an affordable rate. Here where I live there are not other places offering this other than the university and no one really wants to get tangled up in that. That plus having the studios in the same place as a shared work space makes the studios really attractive to creative people who we want to rent to as these studios are for them. This also helps us as we can go for a larger business unit with lower sqft costs, effectively reducing the costs of the shared community area. Obviously we want to keep the rateable value under £12,000 so we don't have to pay council tax.
Our idea has been well received by 1000s of people locally and we have grown the FaceBook page to over 400 followers. I know this is a drop in the ocean but we only set it up in December a few months ago. We have yet to start advertising outside of FaceBook and we have connections with local BC radio and regional BBC News which we hope to make full use of. We have also been in talks with the local council about the workshop space and that too has been well received. They would like to help us by giving us advice and connections within the city as well as access to potential funds they have for organisations like ours.
This sort of thing isn't new. It has been in the UK for over 10 years now and most of the places around the nation have been set up for 5-8 years and are all doing well. We are starting new in our city so are starting with little funds, little experience in business and little equipment and tools. Though we have already received multiple donations and offers of equipment and tools for members to use even though we have not asked for any yet.
The problem is, I have not ran a business before (though I have successfully raised over £20,000 for a startup project of my own last year) so this is sort of slowing us down at the moment as this is a bit of a hurdle to jump over. We are planning on registering the business as a "limited by guarantee" company as we are a non-profit organisation and as we are not personally benefiting financially from this the protection it offers works for us.
I presume the next best move for us is to get someone who has ran a non-profit, ideally registered a "limited by guarantee" company before and can guide us through business plan, finical plan, company setup etc?
Quite happy to also sit down and read on what we need to do and then do it, though the problem is is that there is just so much information out there that it is hard to find the right information.
Any tips or advise would be appreciated!
I am working on setting up a non-profit organisation that provides work space for the community around us. To get access members pay a small subscription that will cover the facility and utility costs. We will use crowdfunding primarily for the setup costs of the space which will include rent for a year, partitioning internal work areas, electricity, fire alarm system & other safety devices and so on.
We hope to claw back some of these setup costs through grants that offer typically to pay for 50% cost of a project. Equipment and tools are then donated to the work space from members, members of the public, local and national business, grants and fundraising.
We have also recently seen a need for private work space which we are calling "Studios". These Studios would be rented out to members at an affordable rate. Here where I live there are not other places offering this other than the university and no one really wants to get tangled up in that. That plus having the studios in the same place as a shared work space makes the studios really attractive to creative people who we want to rent to as these studios are for them. This also helps us as we can go for a larger business unit with lower sqft costs, effectively reducing the costs of the shared community area. Obviously we want to keep the rateable value under £12,000 so we don't have to pay council tax.
Our idea has been well received by 1000s of people locally and we have grown the FaceBook page to over 400 followers. I know this is a drop in the ocean but we only set it up in December a few months ago. We have yet to start advertising outside of FaceBook and we have connections with local BC radio and regional BBC News which we hope to make full use of. We have also been in talks with the local council about the workshop space and that too has been well received. They would like to help us by giving us advice and connections within the city as well as access to potential funds they have for organisations like ours.
This sort of thing isn't new. It has been in the UK for over 10 years now and most of the places around the nation have been set up for 5-8 years and are all doing well. We are starting new in our city so are starting with little funds, little experience in business and little equipment and tools. Though we have already received multiple donations and offers of equipment and tools for members to use even though we have not asked for any yet.
The problem is, I have not ran a business before (though I have successfully raised over £20,000 for a startup project of my own last year) so this is sort of slowing us down at the moment as this is a bit of a hurdle to jump over. We are planning on registering the business as a "limited by guarantee" company as we are a non-profit organisation and as we are not personally benefiting financially from this the protection it offers works for us.
I presume the next best move for us is to get someone who has ran a non-profit, ideally registered a "limited by guarantee" company before and can guide us through business plan, finical plan, company setup etc?
Quite happy to also sit down and read on what we need to do and then do it, though the problem is is that there is just so much information out there that it is hard to find the right information.
Any tips or advise would be appreciated!
