Stop doing everything in your CIC yourself!

Community interest companies usually come from one persons dream. But to be sustainable they need to grow bigger than just you doing all of the work yourself!

This week my partner Nick started working with me on our Kreador CIC company. He has taken the plunge and quite 16 years of scafolding. Now he's out of the elements the Cornish weather brings and away from the exhausting labour that had him asleep on the sofa by 8pm each night, we have now gained all of this new time together to work, grow, create art and live the life we want to. 

I have already noticed a big difference in having two of us working. Sharing the load is a massive help. 

On top of this we have been outsourcing certain jobs. I found a couple of great social media marketing assistants and I am looking into a virtual admin assistant. Incase your interested virtual assistance from outside the UK can be hired by your LTD or someone else's and then the LTD invoice your CIC for admin work marketing work which you budget for on your grant or maybe you pay for with other earned income. But don't put a virtual assistant from out side the UK on a grant budget funders will quirey it.

You can't do it all and wear loads of hats. I have at least always had an accountant but some CIC owners don't even have that. 

Stop trying to save money and just budget for others to do bits of work. You need to be a CEO and have time and room to develop ideas and deliver work. 

There can be benefits to doing things yourself in that it; saves money, gives you experience and a range of skills and gives you control over it all. 

But honestly you have got to let some of that go and get some help. 

Volunteers are great and free of course. I know CIC’s that advertised for admin help and have volunteers. It's amazing what people out there will do. Many retired people have skills and want to use them to help the community. 

Grant funders will also expect to see a team effort and do not like to see only one person working on a project. They want to see volunteers, hired in professionals and external evaluation budgeting for. 

If you are worried this could take much needed money away from you don't be. You can still get the largest chunk of pay for your lead project manager work but will also be able to build a fantastic team that will set up quicker. 

Long term imagine if you build your dream CIC with great sustainable income and a team delivering outcomes and you get to just take a CEO role. Consultants and project managers on big CIC projects can get paid £600 per day on grant budgets. It’s big bucks and small hours when you're established and successful. 

Another way to look at it is the ‘rich dad poor dad’ book model (I have talked about this before, Google this book or YouTube it). This model states to be successful you need to move up the stages. From employed to freelancer to business and then to investor. 

Many CIC owners turn into these freelance superheroes that do it all themselves. It’s not the dream to leave a 9-5 job to work all hours stressed and burned out! 

So I plan to move from CIC freelancer to CIC business owner. A CIC CEO with a team. 

Kexx 🫶🏼