Planning to Transfer your Business?

CMS is experienced in negotiating with owners on behalf of communities or groups of employees wanting to rescue or buy a business. It is valuable to have the negotiations handled through experienced professional advisors.

Not only do you get the benefit of their advice but they carry no ‘baggage’. If you are negotiating with your own employer or with the owner of the shop in your local community, there can be all sorts of personal and relationship issues involved. Professional advisors allow you to side-step these.

It is key that the group form a small steering group (4-8 people normally) to lead the process.

Good communication with the wider group is essential but often decisions need to be made quickly. This steering group needs to have credibility with the wider group and a good mix of skills to enable it to pull the business plan together.

It is important to remember that different owners will have different motivations and these need to be factored into any negotiation.

The owner-manager of the village shop looking to retire will have a very different perspective than a local authority wanting to externalise a small part of its overall services.

CMS is experienced in negotiating so call and find out how we can help you…

If you are a group of employees proposing to purchase an enterprise from its owner or a community seeking to buyout the owner of a local service (pub, shop, etc), it is vital that you do not pay too much for the business.

We at CMS can act as your advisor in these matters and undertake negotiations with the owner so, go on, give us a call and find out more ..

Governance is a critical issue for social enterprises. It is the experience of CMS that in most cases of social enterprises getting into difficulties, problems of governance are wholly or partially responsible. Many conventional sources of business advice are unfamiliar with the governance issues in social enterprises, these sources assume an owner-manager or a small number of owners.

CMS can provide expert advice on:-

• Board composition and recruitment
• Multi-stakeholder and single stakeholder boards
• Good board governance
• Board skills audit
• Developing and involving member
• Managing conflicts of interest

It is vitally important that social enterprises choose the right legal structure. The wrong legal structure can act as a drag on the business, make it difficult to involve key stakeholders, involve the business in unnecessary regulation or close off key sources of funding.

CMS is a nationally recognised expert in legal forms for social enterprise. We are a regular consultee by government on legal forms for social enterprises and have advised several hundred social enterprises on these forms. Unlike many advisors in the sector, we offer expert advice on the full range of legal forms for social enterprise:-

• Unincorporated associations
• Companies Limited by Shares or Guarantee
• Community Interest Companies ( CIC)
• Industrial and Provident Societies (IPS)
• Charities
• Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP)

At CMS we offer expert advice on legal forms for social enterprise and co-operatives so call for chat …

CMS has experience of raising funding and finance in both start up and growth situations.

It is often the case that a mix of funding (non repayable grants) together with loan finance and community equity can help to bring a project to fruition.

We have a good knowledge of national and regional funding regimes, close relationships with providers of loan finance and significant experience of raising community equity through share issues.

For more info why not call us for a chat…..

When Oldham Community Leisure Ltd and Industrial and Provident Society was established in 2002 CMS were instrumental in the development of the company and the governance via the management rules.

Those rules have provided a solid foundation in which to establish the business as an ongoing concern. From time to time queries have arisen in the interpretation of the governance and I am pleased to say that the continued support and advice has been quickly and warmly given. Nothing has been too much trouble to the team at CMS.

I have no hesitation in endorsing the qualities, commitment and friendship that CMS provide.

Ian Kendall

Cheif exc

CMS advised the employees of this Rochdale MBC service when they were told in late 2009 by the Local Authority that the service was to be closed and they were to be made redundant. CMS assisted the employees to negotiate a deal with Rochdale MBC on the stock, premises, redundancy, helped them to form a legal structure and raise funding/finance to start the business.

Visit PEARLS

Headingley has retained an important retail outlet and customers and the community have taken the future into their own hands. Members of the co-operative are able to share in the financial success of the business, as well as steering its strategic direction.

Linda Robbins

Society Secretary, Natural Food Store Ltd