Background

You Can Cook’s mission is to encourage and empower local communities to make informed choices about their food and health. They enable participants to engage in a social and educational activity through learning basic techniques and skills in cookery.

Need for Support

In 2020, we facilitated some strategic thinking to consider the pros and cons of possible future options based on evaluating what has been achieved to date.

In 2024, under the National Lottery Community Fund’s framework, Community Enterprise provided a range of support focusing on investing in the growth and sustainability of You Can Cook during a time of strategic change as a result of our work with them in 2020.

The organisation is developing a pop-up restaurant. There is a need to diversify the income streams further. The CEO and founding entrepreneur identified the following priorities;

1. Identifying strategic partners to maximise contract and SLA opportunities in Edinburgh
2. Identify appropriate funding and set out a strategy
3. Support to market the You Can Grow book

 

What we did

The business plan began by reviewing the many streams of work ongoing within You Can Cook and scoping out what funding pots could be tapped to sustain these. Potential partners were also suggested for implementing large-scale projects. 

A five-year financial model was created, along with solid targets for You Can Cook to ensure sustainability through the coming change. 

The marketing plan for the book aimed to support You Can Cook in embedding into their new home of Edinburgh. Target customers included groups relevant for You Can Cook's wider work, such as children’s growing groups, allotment societies and forest schools. 

Edinburgh's vast array of independent bookshops were researched, and best practices for engaging these retailers were defined. 

Messaging was proposed that demonstrates the book's value and alignment with You Can Cook's values. A marketing audit was also undertaken, and recommendations were made for incorporating book promotions. 

Outcomes

You Can Cook was presented with an organisation-wide business plan that wove together the many different strands of work planned and ongoing, and a funding plan was proposed to sustain the organisation through this time. 

A marketing plan for the book You Can Grow was also delivered. This plan proposed target customers and retailers and laid out engagement plans for them.