Equip your cooperative

Now that your cooperative is created and about to begin providing services, the following tools will complete your equipment and make you fully ready for this new adventure.

1. Open a bank account in the cooperative’s name. Consider the cooperative banks: they may offer you relevant services and interesting discounts.
2. If you are expecting to quickly reach a substantial turnover, it may be wise – or even mandatory – to appoint an auditor or independent examiner. Check the requirements for your cooperative with your national contact point.
3. When you plan to recruit a secretariat, consider if you need to appoint one – or several – director.
4. Create your cooperative stationary (business cards, official letterhead, buffer…).
5. Familiarise yourself with your internal administrative and governance processes. You may already set up your statutory registers.
6. Consider insuring your cooperative. As for banking, cooperative organisations may offer you interesting products.
7. Build your communication strategy, think your organisation’s web presence and domain names. You can also show your cooperative identity with a .coop domain name (http://identity.coop).
8. Map out your governance year, including the end of your financial year and the next General assembly meetings.

Anticipating and preventing problems

Collective organisation is not a long and winding road. Building a cooperative is definitely a stimulating and rewarding experience, but it also goes with its downs and troubles. The complementary material “Anticipating and preventing problems” present a certain number of recurring issues met by cooperatives, and tips to anticipate or handle them.

Now, let's get started! Good luck!