Is Spice a business?
Yes we are a commercial business, rather than being in the charity/voluntary sector! We seek to operate at profit, which then pays our salaries. The main difference, however, from the general commercial world is that those running Spice Groups have made what Accountants describe as a 'lifestyle choice' (which in plain English means that coordinators and staff alike have generally chosen to leave better paid jobs and careers to do something they love and believe in). One other difference is the valuable contribution made to the group by keen volunteers in such ways as casual office help, bookeeping, website and event coordination. This helps us to keep costs down.
What are the major costs?
Obviously having four staff comes pretty high on the list, plus the huge telephone, postage, motoring, and IT bills. These, along with all the general costs of running a business such as professional fees and insurance's (try telling your insurance company you run fire eating!) are not unusual. However, there are some areas of cost which surprise members as they are unique to the way we Spice choose to run our groups. One is the contribution we make to the national running of the Spice network of groups. Another is the cost of producing, printing, packing and posting over 2200 newsletters/ holiday supplements (it's around £2.00 per member each month). Also, because of the huge number of transactions between so many members and events by cheque, direct debit and credit card, Spice banking charges are colossal (we've projected a sum of nearly £7,000 to credit card companies for the next 12 months which is more than double what we collect in 50p surcharges). The other big 'hidden' cost is VAT. The 'vatman' is a particularly large 'cuckoo in the Spice nest' as most of our activity suppliers are not VAT registered yet we have to be. This means that we have to allow a full 17.5% in most of our costs without being able to claim any back.
Where does income come from?
Membership Fees: As a membership organisation, a proportion of our big costs are covered by the fees we receive for membership. We set these to cover the cost of producing and sending the newsletters and the costs of recruiting members (info packs, new member packs, advertising etc). Also, a sizeable portion is returned to Spice UK to pay for the national structure of Spice and the administration of national initiatives and events.
Event Income: In our negotiations with suppliers we try an achieve a price to members which is competitive (in the majority of cases, significantly lower than a 'public price') yet also covers such costs as: the administration of the event, the VAT element and the cost of a place for a coordinator where applicable. There is also an element of 'swings and roundabouts' - in that events which are financially successful allow us to subsidise some other events to go ahead at a loss (rather than having to cancel them and disappoint members), or allow us to speculate on investment in new ideas such as buying the Zorb.
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What is an 'admin fee' ?
When we organise events where there is no way to recoup our running costs, we sometimes levy an 'admin fee' (usually £1.50). This is most common with some of our 'behind the scenes visits' where there is a lot of research and administration involved but frequently the event is offered to us at no charge. On these occasions we also feel that making a nominal charge makes for some commitment to attending - and many of our venues for 'behind the scenes' who pay overtime for staff and put a lot of effort into welcoming us would not be happy if attendance is poor! The other occasion where this is used is when we want to offer an experience that cannot be funded in any other way. For example, some the most popular music and theatre nights (which the promoters know will sell out) offer no group discounts and frequently rely on us buying and pay for tickets well in advance with no guarantee they will sell. Rather than leave such shows out of the programme, we clearly indicate the nominal fee.
Why do ticket prices sometimes differ from the newsletter?
Theatre tickets always have printed on them the final ticket price paid by Spice after any group discount has been deducted. This figure is also net of any booking fees - which can be weighty! Often group discounts apply, but the problem is we don't know whether we will achieve numbers for a discount or what level of discount we will receive in advance. Therefore we have to make 'a judgement'. Either we cost slots at the normal public price, so we don't risk losing out if sales are poor. Or, if we feel very confident of numbers we pass a
proportion of likely discount to members. This is why ticket prices so frequently differ - but over a number of visits you'll find that sometimes we win sometimes we loose sometimes we just break even!
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