Developing Your Co-op
At this stage, the help of a co-operative federation or resource group will be very important. The federations can help you to learn about co-ops and co-op development. They can also help you to understand about your type of business or service. For example, the Ontario Worker Co-op Federation can help you learn about organizing a worker co-op.
MOVING AHEAD WITH YOUR IDEA OR CONCEPT
Up until now you, you've been dealing about co-operatives in general. Now you will need to learn more about your enterprise as a particular type of business or service. For example, if you are starting a day care co-op you need to learn about day care. If you are starting a bookstore co-op, you need to learn about how bookstores are run. Do some research to find out which publishers provide the books you want to sell, see how bookstores organize themselves…
- Research co-ops by talking to people who are members of the kind of co-op that interests you, housing co-ops, for example, or co-op bakeries. Find out how they are run.
- Learn about businesses in your economic sector. Attend workshops and seminars on how to run your type of business. You may also be able to visit businesses to see how they work.
- Contact a co-operative federation, such as On Co-op, or a sector resource group to access further development services.
Before you begin the more formal plans (i.e. marketing, financial and business plans), take some time and reflect on group development, needs & opportunities and co-op sustainability.
CO-OP DEVELOPMENT RESOURCE GUIDE
An excellent guidebook is Co-ops by Design. It has been prepared by the BC Institute of Co-operative Studies specifically for co-op development. The guidebook makes references to the BC co-op movement, but is otherwise applicable to the Ontario co-op movement.
You may also want to look at the Co-op Development Links and Resources page, which is a list of interesting web-based resources on co-op development that are updated on a regular basis.
