Supporting fair and ethical business in partnership with The Co-operative Bank
Business Support – start your co-op: Application guidance
Jump to table of contents

About the programme

Start a co-op offers

  • Up to six days of one-to-one support with a co-op expert 

  • Half a day of peer-support with an existing co-op 

One-to-one support from a co-op expert 

You can receive up to six days of one-to-one support with a co-op expert tailored to your specific needs. It will usually involve a combination of some of the following types of support:  

  • Choosing the right legal form for your co-op

  • Reviewing or developing your organisational strategy 

  • Testing your business’s viability and feasibility 

  • Reviewing or developing your business plan 

  • Financial planning 

  • Market development strategy (user research, marketing and customer engagement) 

  • Reviewing or developing a membership strategy 

  • Defining your democratic processes 

  • Defining a fundraising strategy 

Six days of support will not be able to cover all the topics above, so we will ask you to indicate your top three priorities. 

The support will be delivered by a co-op expert that is part of our extensive network of advisors located across the UK. You may choose your own advisor from the network, or leave it to us to choose the most appropriate for your co-op. If your application is successful, we will make every effort to allocate you your preferred support advisor. However, we reserve the right to offer an alternative based on availability, geography, skills and experience. 

Peer support from another co-op

Peer support is a great opportunity to learn from those that have been in your position before. They will have the lived experience of starting a co-op and getting it up and running and can offer you insight into the challenges you might encounter and how to overcome them. You can get into the details of running the business or simply visit their premises to get a sense of their day-to-day activities. Once we have assigned you a co-op for peer support, it will be up to you to define with your peer co-op how to best make use of this time. 

In your application form you can suggest the co-op you would like to be paired with, or you can leave it to us to propose the most appropriate co-op. You can find other co-ops by exploring our directory of co-ops. If your application is successful, we will make every effort to allocate you your preferred co-op. However, we reserve the right to offer an alternative based on availability, geography, skills and experience.