Having a financial plan for a new venture is critical to its future success. In most start-ups, and especially for those forming cooperatives, reliance on volunteer or unpaid efforts is normal. Harnessing this energy and enthusiasm for the new venture is important but so is avoiding volunteer burnout.
“Ultimately, in a startup, everybody’s volunteering and no matter how devoted you are to your cause unless there is a way to give key people the way to put macaroni on the stove or toast in the toaster, it will burn out,” says serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Heart Linked Community Service Cooperative, Cathy Edwards. “So, I strongly recommend that, while there is a lot of gas in the tank and motivation for the new idea and the new concept, there is [also] a really keen focus on what steps need to be taken to achieve some semblance of self-sufficiency.”
Read the rest at Co-operatives First
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