Back to Enterprise Allowance-too many pitfalls?

AineRua

Hi there,

If anyone can help with this, I would greatly appreciate it. Basically for the last year I have been solidly developing a social enterprise idea and have met with an enterprise officer who has not given me any clear guidelines for me to work with re going on BTEA. He told me that I would need solid proof that the venture is financially viable before I can go on it. However, until I continue to test the idea, I will not be able to prove this, so his advice is not exactly helpful

I really want to start launching in 2015 but being on social welfare is not the ideal scenario for me. Also, I am starting to get some media coverage and a lot of people are showing interest yet I am unable to get off the dole. (Just to clarify, I am not earning anything yet)

In addition to this, I am being offered some freelance work to tie me over while the business is still in development..this adds to the frustration of this system, which I desperately want out of (don't get me wrong, I am very lucky to have it) and I obviously want any additional income I make to be transparent and above board. (can I claim on a casual basis, maybe?)

If anyone has any advice re this, I would really appreciate it

Thanks,
Áine

Kinet1c

Have you provided this officer with your business plan?

NotaSheep

The interpretation of solid proof in this instance is that you have done some market research and have gotten an indication that your idea is viable and can be developed into a sustainable business. This can be done by demonstrating similar enterprises that have developed successfully or by presenting information to show demand for this type of service (some statistics in the area, interviews with people in the 'industry' etc). This is not difficult to do and pretty straightforward. The BTWEA Business Plan is also simple to do and all you have to demonstrate here is minimum viability and only provide basic P&L for 1 year. Again not a complicated task. So I would just go for it, the allowance would enable you to concentrate on your launch and to do freelance work without fear of being docked.

Overthrow

In my experience the process of obtaining the BTWEA was a bit of a joke. I did up the business plan and submitted it for consideration. When I went in to talk to the person about it I was pretty definite he didn't even read the business plan beforehand, flicked through it and asked me a few simple questions and that was it.

The form they ask you to fill out only has room for 2 or 3 sentences where they ask you questions such as "what is your marketing plan?" - so even going by the form alone they're not analysing these in much depth at all.

As another poster said, your best bet is to compare yourself to a similar business and make your projections based on that.

If I were you I'd be taking any work that you can get in the meantime and declaring the earnings. You'll be gaining direct experience and maybe it'll reveal (But hopefully not!) that your business doesn't have the potential you thought it did, thus saving you a lot of time, energy and money.

elastico

Include the freelance work in your business plan and word it that its a fairly reliable source of income. Remember this is a box ticking exercise for a civil servant, not an application for a bank loan, they need to pass as many of these as they can so they can write a report at the end of the year that they created say 374 jobs so that their own job is justified.