Has anyone set up a CIC?

[PositiveCat]

I want to offer yoga and other wellbeing services to people who can’t afford them at market rate. I’m thinking preventative healthcare, mental health relief, reducing stress, and generally offering something of value that’s often seen as a luxury. Does anyone here have any experience, tips, or advice please?

I do but remind me in the New year! After the weekend. 😁

I used to work with community groups who wanted to set these up. Chat GPT has good information on the process and the hoops you need to jump through. Have you got a business plan? Premises? Identified your target groups? How will you fund the set up? How will you identify those who are lower income from those who just want cheap yoga sessions?

Best thing for a new start to do is find something similar that’s already established and examine what they are doing. Then get your business plan written. Chat GPT can help with that too.

Thank you!

How are you going to fund it?

If you're in England @PositiveCat then many LA's will have what is called a 'local infrastructure organisation - LIO'. They are the support body for the VCSE sector in that locality and will often have sector development staff who will provide advice/support on setting up a CIC (including checking that this is the best/right route for you). NAVCA is the umbrella body for the infrastructure sector and if you go to their website they should have a map which will give details on who to contact locally. In addition to the advice around governance, most LIOs also provide VCSE networks, information on funding opportunities and act as a representative body for the VCSE in various statutory settings so even if you get your CIC advice elsewhere, I'd recommend getting in contact with your LIO for wider support/engagement.

Apologies, I'm not familiar with the set up outside of England.

OP the LIO’s are often known as a CVS council for voluntary support so do look for that too.

Fabulous, thank you 🙏

Why do you need a CIC? They have more compliance costs than a regular company and require a board of trustees. Sounds a lot of work.

I want the work to be funded so I can offer services to people who would really benefit but can’t afford it at market rates. As a sole trader I can’t apply for grants, but I could as a CIC.

Where do you plan to get the funding from? What’s your fundraising strategy?

who are your target market? Are there other organisations offering this service? How do you know it’s needed?

Cics are best for businesses which can fund by running as a business but might also benefit from a little bit of extra funding available to cics. If you don't have a good business model without accessing grants then a cic is not a good plan. I started one about a year ago and then realised that it wasn't sustainable for this reason and have just shut it down. You might be better starting a charity? Then you can access the funding and also fund raise yourself?

All useful questions, thank you

Hi OP,

I am a freelance fundraiser and often work with CICs. The challenge with CICs is that they are often placed under greater scrutiny than charities, and they may make a judgement that you are going to financially gain from funding and it may not go in your favour or you will receive a lower amount.

I would recommend looking at what support is available locally, it does differ from area to area. we have 2 x local infrastructure orgs here plus a volunteer centre and these can offer free support and some even have seed funding…

I would also recommend a free resource called Buddle which is sport England’s ‘club’ support programme - info on diff legal structures and other things that you might find useful

If you are looking to start up new activity Sport England Movement Fund would be a good place to start.

Not to mention the fact that funding is so hard to come by at the moment and the OP will need to have various funding streams to be sustainable and not rely on grants. OP my first thought is that there are more established organisations who are doing what you want to do as part of a wider offering. I’m not clear what your USP is, so you would need to refine it.

I appreciate all this.

I worry that this may be outing, but oh well. Maybe if I explain what I want to achieve that might help you advise me?

I’ve taught yoga for 5 years and built up a nice little side hustle. Then I’ve just qualified as a yoga therapist (for which I have taken on a tiny office/therapy room, in order to complete the practical side of the qualification).

The space I rent basically eats up the profit from my other classes, but if I don’t have it, I can’t work as a therapist. I also use it to offer private yoga and online classes (i don’t have access to a suitable space at home, and sharing a space is so much less convenient as to make the privates and the online classes almost impossible).

i also work as a school teacher 2+ days a week.

Having spent years living on a very low income as a single parent, and having suffered poor mental health health since I was about 12, I really really want to offer these services to people to whom they would normally be out of reach. That’s my goal, but how I achieve it is a question for me.

There is a yoga studio in a nearby town which operates as a CIC (I’m fairly sure) and offers trainings, teacher training and so on as well as free yoga but most offerings are at market rate. I have tried to contact them previously but had no response (I intend to reach out again). I thought that if I were a CIC I could offer market rates but also subsidised classes and therapeutic yoga in community centres and so on, with a view to working towards a small studio space with therapy rooms that I and others could use to offer talking therapies, massage, meditation, etc. I was thinking it could be by social prescription referral but also an honesty system of tiered pricing (I see other yoga teachers offering this), or something similar. But have no money to invest in the business as all mine is accounted for. I can’t afford to work for free, although what I’d like is to not have to hustle so hard, I hate the money side of business.

I also feel I don’t quite know how to approach people speculatively, services and schools and so on, because although I’ve done a lot of that I get very little response (one opportunity has come from another bit of work I did, which makes me think that when people see what I can offer, they see its value, but if it’s conceptual they struggle to). Help and advice very welcome 🙏

Nothing to stop you offering tiered prices. Obviously you need to earn a living. With a CIC you cannot pay dividends, as there are no shares. You would have to run payroll and pay associated NIC etc. Not particularly tax efficient. Accountancy costs will be more. Probably 1 to 2k.

I can’t afford to work for free, although what I’d like is to not have to hustle so hard, I hate the money side of business.

there is nothing about setting up a CIC that makes any of this easier. If you hate hustling for yourself, you will also hate doing it for whatever you set up, there’s nothing in a CIC structure that absolves you of this. A CIC is a company at the end of the day and operates in a similar way to any private enterprise - you’ll still need to find clients on an ongoing basis.

I would try and find funders now, before burdening yourself with a CIC.

I kind of get what you are trying to do, but maybe you are better seeing if you can subcontract to an organisation that already takes on social prescribed clients.

(I'm an accountant who was on the board of a 3 person CIC set up by a friend)