When you are starting to trade you need to have thought through and researched the possible risks. Many groups, however, may also FEAR trading and believe that:

• it will be too difficult.
• will mean that they have to know lots of new things.
• that they may fall foul of some law or that business is always high risk.

It is wise to be cautious but it is also worth exploring if your attitudes and possible fears or risk averseness are based on reality.

It is a good idea to set out your own ‘Risk Management Process’. This involves:

• Identifying the risks.
• Prioritising the risks in terms of how likely they are and the level of impact they may have.
• Manage the risks – set out what you would do to reduce, avoid, transfer or accept the risks. Management may include, for example, having insurance cover against certain occurrences.

Links and Tools
	Tools for Trading Funding and Finance Toolkit 2 Tool 2.1 – ‘Exploring attitudes to enterprise’ Page 7 (Finance Hub)
	‘Charities and Risk Management’ General approach to managing risk in charities(Charity Commission)
	‘The good guide to trading’ pages 105 to 112 (NCVO)
Case studies
	Umbrella - preparing for change
	Enterprise Sinfin - attitude to risk

Key
Basic		Intermediate
Advanced		Book
Website or download		Worksheet
Information/guide alone		Training