Plunkett Foundation has designed an on-line Business Appraisal Tool to help community businesses assess their strength and weaknesses.
The tool will offer organisations that take part a tailored report of recommendations.
Plunkett – the support charity for rural community businesses in the UK – is offering the service for free. Community businesses taking part will be asked a series of questions about their organisations. Once the questionnaire is complete they will receive a report with recommendations, an action plan and the resources to help them make improvements.
The tool will look at seven areas of each business: benchmarking against other businesses, governance, the business itself, people, mission, finances and Plunkett support.
To get the most out of your online appraisal, Plunkett recommends that community businesses share the report and action plan with their committee, and complete it annually before their AGM so they can assess progress.
Plunkett says the tool will also help it gather data to recognise trends, identify areas that need more support, and understand how it can better help community businesses.
It will review and develop the tool as the project develops to ensure users have the opportunity to feedback on changes they’d like to see.
To take part, community businesses should register their details on Plunkett’s Community Business platform via the form here.
