{"id":29141,"date":"2021-11-30T15:19:29","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T15:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/?p=29141"},"modified":"2023-06-06T13:20:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T12:20:46","slug":"how-can-community-businesses-thrive-and-be-sustainable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/news\/how-can-community-businesses-thrive-and-be-sustainable\/","title":{"rendered":"How can community businesses thrive and be sustainable?"},"content":{"rendered":"
[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” width=”100%” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_team_member name=”Mylene Pacot” position=”Senior Project Manager \u2013 Research and Evaluation at Renaisi” _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” body_font=”|||||on|||” position_font=”|||||on|||” position_text_color=”#1E2D5A” text_orientation=”left” animation_style=”slide” animation_direction=”bottom” animation_delay=”200ms” animation_intensity_slide=”4%” link_option_url_new_window=”on” hover_enabled=”0″ custom_css_member_image=”max-width: 150px;” border_radii_image=”on|50%|50%|50%|50%” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” alt=”Headshot of Mylene Pacot” title_text=”Mylene Pacot” image_url=”https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Mylene-Pacot-500×500-1.jpeg” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_team_member][et_pb_team_member name=”Joyce Chan” position=”Project Manager \u2013 Research and Evaluation at Renaisi” _builder_version=”4.17.1″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” body_font=”|||||on|||” position_font=”|||||on|||” position_text_color=”#1E2D5A” text_orientation=”left” animation_style=”slide” animation_direction=”bottom” animation_delay=”200ms” animation_intensity_slide=”4%” custom_css_member_image=”max-width: 150px;” border_radii_image=”on|50%|50%|50%|50%” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_team_member][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
In this blog, Renaisi<\/a> outlines key findings from two reports published today. The evaluation report<\/a> and learning paper<\/a> focus on three Power to Change programmes \u2013 Bright Ideas, Trade Up, and Community Business Fund \u2013 which intended to help community businesses through a linear journey of growth, providing early-stage support, advisory for growing income, and offering capital investment to support their long-term sustainability. The reports outline the elements of each programmes that helped community businesses grow, their impact on people and places, and the key challenges that community businesses faced.<\/p>\n Bringing together research across the programmes, evidence confirms that community businesses are uniquely placed to deliver social impact. They have a deeply rooted understanding of community needs, and their organisational culture, values, and nature of existence help realise significant impact on people and places.<\/p>\n In particular, community businesses help achieve:<\/p>\n A combination of internal and external factors, as well as programme design elements, enabled community businesses to thrive under these programmes:<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_accordion _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Bright Ideas: helping early-stage organisations develop” open=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Programme design elements that supported community businesses:<\/strong><\/p>\n Factors contributing to community businesses\u2019 success in the programme:<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Trade Up: growing community businesses by increasing their trading income” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” open=”off”]<\/p>\n Programme design elements that supported community businesses:<\/strong><\/p>\n Factors contributing to community businesses\u2019 success in the programme:<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Community Business Fund: help community businesses achieve self-sufficiency” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” open=”off”]<\/p>\n Programme design elements that supported community businesses:<\/strong><\/p>\n Factors contributing to community businesses\u2019 success in the programme:<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][\/et_pb_accordion][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Across all programmes, community businesses that had a clear business model and plan, supportive and engaged community and stakeholders, an effective governance structure, strong leadership and perseverance were more likely to succeed. On the other hand, staffing, lack of internal capacity and suitable skill sets were main factors of community businesses who struggled to achieve their aims. External factors like challenges in acquiring assets, access to funding, and roadblocks posed by the pandemic were additional barriers that community businesses came up against.<\/p>\n Our year two evaluation report<\/a> outlines the enablers and barriers for community businesses, and how community businesses can be supported to become sustainable catalysts for community-led development. \u00a0And you can read more about how community businesses impact their communities, and how long-term impact on place could be achieved, in our annual report for the programmes<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Bright-Ideas-Trade-Up-and-the-Community-Business-Fund-year-2-report.png” title_text=”Bright Ideas, Trade Up and the Community Business Fund year 2 report” url=”https:\/\/icstudies.org.uk\/repository\/bright-ideas-trade-and-community-business-fund-year-2-evaluation-report” url_new_window=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_button button_url=”https:\/\/icstudies.org.uk\/repository\/bright-ideas-trade-and-community-business-fund-year-2-evaluation-report” url_new_window=”on” button_text=”Download Year 2 evaluation report” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Bright-Ideas-Trade-Up-and-the-Community-Business-Fund-impact-report.png” title_text=”Bright Ideas, Trade Up and the Community Business Fund impact report” url=”https:\/\/icstudies.org.uk\/repository\/evaluation-bright-ideas-trade-and-community-business-fund-impact-people-and-place” url_new_window=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_button button_url=”https:\/\/icstudies.org.uk\/repository\/evaluation-bright-ideas-trade-and-community-business-fund-impact-people-and-place” url_new_window=”on” button_text=”Download impact learning paper” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A review of Bright Ideas, Trade Up, and Community Business Fund, Power to Change programmes focused on community businesses growth, early-stage support, advisory for growing income, and capital investment support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":15295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[338],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
What helped to achieve this?<\/h2>\n
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Learn more<\/h2>\n