Business Plan

Background

The Bond Board provides bond guarantees to private landlords to help homeless people secure tenancies – a place to live.  They also offer floating support to homeless people, working to help vulnerable, homeless households to get housed, maintain their new homes, and maximise opportunities to achieve a brighter future.  Their successful work includes the development of a social lettings agency which has won an award from Crisis, the national homelessness charity.

The Issue

Andrew Beeput, Chief Officer, felt that the organisation lacked confidence and was risk averse.  Initial discussions covered all aspects of the charity’s management, from how the board worked to communicating their work to landlords, homeless people and to local government.  The Bond Board had developed a business plan for its lettings agency, but did not have one for the organisation as a whole, and a more coherent, planned approach was needed to support the growing charity and its complex work.

The Solution

Cranfield Trust Project Manager Nick Stojic identified a volunteer with the right skills to support Andrew.  Rick is a senior manager in the aerospace industry, with a combination of engineering and management expertise on major projects and programmes.  Working with Cranfield Trust, the charity confirmed its strategy and developed a full business plan for the organisation. 

Following this project, Andrew requested mentoring from Cranfield Trust, to support him as he worked to implement the business plan.  Rick agreed to continue the working relationship with Andrew, building on the work they had done together.  Andrew said: 

“Rick has provided some fantastic support and advice that has had a real, visible impact on our service.  Most notable has been our recruitment adverts.  In what is a very tough market place for employers, before his advice we would have had one applicant, after his advice we had seven well qualified and skilled people to interview and we were able to recruit an excellent person.  Tangible stuff, just brilliant.  Rick’s coaching skills are excellent and he delivered a confidence boost.  The confidence in our organisation and myself has encouraged us to be more ambitious.”

Outcome

Over time, Andrew’s confidence and the strength of the Bond Board’s services, supported by Rick, created significant change for the organisation.  On completion of the mentoring relationship Andrew reported:

“Staff team will double this year, income has grown.  CEO working at a different level with his team.  Our turnover has gone from £427,000 last year to an expected £876,500 this year, based on our business plan of building the organisation’s core competencies.  That we identified while working with the Cranfield Trust volunteer. We are now able to help more people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness than we have done before.  Our new structure has allowed us to have the confidence to take on more work and to start working across Greater Manchester.  I was very impressed by the quality and experience of the volunteer who worked with me.  After the first meeting it was clear that they had a great deal to offer and they were genuinely helpful.  It was a joy to work with him and we were able to achieve so much for my organisation together.”