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Introduction to social enterprises
At its core, being a social enterprise means using business models and skills to solve societal problems.
Setting up a social enterprise is a complex process. Decisions about the social enterprise structure significantly impact the way the enterprise can operate in the future.
The key decision to be made is whether to set up as a not-for-profit, for-profit, or hybrid structure. There are benefits and downsides to each approach - we cover these in our social enterprise fact sheet and guide.
Our fact sheet is an introduction to social enterprises and covers:
- what is a social enterprise?
- important factors to consider when starting a social enterprise
- financing a social enterprise
- choosing a legal structure for your social enterprise
- setting up and operating a social enterprise
Social enterprise guide
Issues when setting up and governing a social enterprise are covered in more detail in our social enterprise guide.
Our guide includes information about:
- factors to consider when starting a social enterprise, including choosing a legal structure
- adding a social enterprise to an existing not-for-profit organisation, and
- legal issues when setting up and operating as a social enterprise
More information
We have related resources on new funding approaches, some of which can be used by social enterprises to help grow the organisation, such as through seeking impact investment.
More information
The content on this webpage was last updated in March 2022 and is not legal advice. See full disclaimer and copyright notice.