Changing our company structure (and our name)
1/5 posts reflecting on experiments in doing work differently
Published in
6 min readJan 23, 2023
← Back to the list of all 5 posts
In 2022 Enrol Yourself (a limited company), became Huddlecraft (a Community Interest Company) after working on this transition across 2021–22, for what felt like ages! I’ve captured reflections below.
💡 Why did we decide to do it?
- When Enrol Yourself Ltd was reaching 4 years old, we were finding that our structure wasn’t fitting us like a glove. Many of the things we were doing were non-profit, which felt awkward as a limited company. Whether it was the Host Fellowship, which we run at cost so we can keep Huddles as accessible as possible, or Money Movers, which we are licensed by Friends of the Earth to lead as a non-profit venture, it wasn’t profit that was driving us.
- Plus, we weren’t eligible for nearly all relevant funding that might support us. We were driven by purpose, just about covering our costs — and then facing suspicion from potential funders that we might have a profit motive! It was faintly ridiculous.
- In summary: we wanted to structurally and visibly acknowledge our social purpose and commitment to our community: so that we might serve it more effectively and access support and resources that would help us do so.
🎥 How did it go?
- It took a long time! And at times it was frustrating and boring! Everything took longer than we imagined when we set out, although speaking to people about their own structure and governance transitions quickly gave us an insight into what was in store.
- We had to engage with our shareholders in order to show them the rationale and decision making for each step we took, so that they could feel confident to ‘come with us’.
- We then went through a looong process with lawyers, documents, shareholders (and about a thousand company structure related voicenotes between me and Anneka) that eventually culminated in submitting the documentation to Companies House to wait for confirmation of the changes.
- In the meantime we were gearing up to change the company name as well, which meant hiring Katie for a brand refresh (that turned into a full rebrand).
- In early 2022, and just in time for our 5th birthday party where we’d been hoping to announce the change, we received our certificate confirming that we were now a CIC.
- Shortly afterwards a shareholder decided to part ways with us and essentially gift us back their portion of the company. This was an unexpected outcome of making big changes!
- For the first 8 months or so, the company structure change did not feel any different. The change of name, brand and website had a much larger initial impact, not only because that’s the bit that people see publicly and get interested in, but because it took a monumental effort from the team (and Katie in particular) to make it happen. However, happily, over the last few months we’ve received news of several succesful funding bids for Money Movers, none of which we would have been eligible for this time last year. So it has taken time to prove itself to be the right decision!
🎓 What did we learn?
- “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” — John Muir. I learnt that in practice changing a company structure is hitched to so many other changes, changing the name, changing the brand, changing the website, changing every single document we have, changing our email addresses, changing every single account on every single website... This is a huge undertaking and actually naivity was an essential ingredient in getting started and keeping going!
- I reaffirmed my belief in the importance of celebrating significant changes. We organised a 5th birthday party, and this was an important moment that acknowledged all the work that had gone into the changes.
- I think I moved the dial on my ability to think long-term. Not only was this process long, it’s not really over because we’re only starting to feel the benefits of it now. It’s all about delayed gratification with these kind of transitions, and I feel like I’ve acquired more embodied experience of working in this way.
- I learnt that we should have created more space for our stakeholders earlier on, to truly understand their perspective and their position. Inviting more candid conversations sooner, could have saved us some energy later down the line.
- Alongside the company structure change, we were also engaged in a long process to establish the terms and governance of our license agreement with Friends of the Earth, for Money Movers. These processes, happening simultaneously, were both painful and fruitful in terms of learning. Recognising this led me to apply to be part of the group stewarding the Transformational Governance Project, funded by Lankelly Chase to provide a learning space for organisations or groups who want to shift their governace.
👉 How will we take it forward in 2023?
- No more immediate company structure or name changes!! Try to enjoy the fruit of changes we made in 2022 for a minute or two?!
- In the longer-term we have discussed the possibility that one option for Huddlecraft could be to become an Employee Owned Trust. When the moment is ripe we can start to develop these ideas further.
🤔 Remaining questions?
- Who has been through a transition to become employee owned that we could learn from? UsTwo has recently done this, but I wonder if there are examples of smaller organisations, or even better CICs, who have done this? Please reach out if you know of something!
- Could it also be interesting/inspiring/generative for us to look at examples of ‘exit to community’? I know that Open Collective are preparing to do this.
🍭 Tips for others who’d like to do this?
- Really think through the number of transitions you will actually need to do simultaneously in order to make your company structure transition a reality. If you keep the same company name that will require much less work than if you decide to change it. Every change will be hitched to another change, to a thousand others. And unless you have the resources to hire others to boss the process, you simply won’t anticipate everything. The one thing you can anticipate is that you won’t have anticipated everything.
- Map out everyone you need to engage with in this process. Whose agenda do you truly understand? Who do you want to have a candid conversation with? Where is informal or 121 conversation going to complement more formal settings where people may not fully speak their mind?
- Really research the options before choosing a new company structure, even if you think you know what to do. This is the kind of (often irreversible) change that you’ll want to have documentation of your decision making process for — even if your mind was made up from the start! Put together options and a pros and cons list that will enable collective or collectively-informed decision making about what to do.
- Get lots and lots of perspectives when you’re developing and evaluating options. You might have lots of blindspots unless you do a thorough process. Connect to others in your network who have gone through similar or different transitions and ask them lots of questions.
- Think through which aspects of this process will benefit from wider perspectives, collective team input, solo input or input from a few core team members. Make sure you’re continually supported and continually having your assumptions challenged. I would recommend having a small working group or a buddy on this task throughout to provide this support and challenge.
- When it came to doing the paper work of course it was time to get professional help. We experienced vastly different quotes for the work. I think we saved some money, but as a result things took longer. I would probably opt to pay more next time.
- Have a party (little or large) when the changes are finally official!
