Paying Yourself as the Founder of a Social Enterprise

Options, ethics and answers:

There’s something that no-one ever talks about when you set up a social enterprise: how do you pay yourself through it, so you can still afford to pay your rent, eat, etc?

Most of the national policy and programmes around supporting and growing social enterprise are all based on the assumption that as the founder of it, you’re ‘independently wealthy’, and can afford to somehow live without taking any payments from it in respect of the energy, time, and personal risk, you’ve been investing into it’s future success.

This session will explore the options through which you might be able to pay yourself as the founder of a social enterprise, as well as the implications of them for yourself, the enterprise, and your wider community.

It will help you consider how:

• as a Director, you need to legally act in the best (financial) interests of the enterprise, not yourself;
• for any payroll salaries paid, the need to budget for ‘on costs’ which can often be forgotten, and how these create hidden ‘financial bombs’ for future cashflow;
• considering if the type/extent of work you do for the enterprise would fall under HMRC's IR35 rule (as well as what this rule is about, and why you should be aware of it);
• comfortable you may be to manage you own personal tax returns through self-assessments, as well as managing the tax returns for the enterprise;
• your wider employment circumstances, alongside your work on the enterprise, might impact on how you can pay yourself;
• the presence, involvement, and roles of other co-Directors impacts on available options;
• knowing that the minimum wage doesn't apply to Directors’ salaries, but that this may/will be viewed differently by any grant/investment making bodies when they scrutinise management accounts, etc.

Through the session you’ll be able to identify what the best options might be for your circumstances, as well as understand why other options which may be being presented as ‘the best way’ might not be right for you.

About Adrian:

Despite being awarded an honorary doctorate in business support, and being a Lord, most agree that Adrian Ashton is able to help anyone understand what they had previously thought too complex for them to be able to do themselves: his introductory sessions on bookkeeping and understanding accounts have seen people subsequently fire their accountants; and people have shared how they feel more confident in being able to 'look after' the legal form of their social enterprise without needing to involve solicitors or lawyers, after he has been able to translate the legal jargon associated with them into plain English.

A keen proponent of the 'walk the talk' catchphrase, he annually publishes a social impact report on the outcomes of his work on client groups, the local community, wider sector, and natural environment, which generates international interest.

For more information and cheesy pics: https://linktr.ee/adrianashton