Third East Asian Seas Youth Forum Toolkit - PEMSEA.org

Young Champions for the OceanRecruiting your teamThe really great thing about running a project is that you can get other people excited by your vision, and have them work with you tomake it a reality. Working with friends and others who are passionate about your idea also means that you can achieve a lot more than ifyou were working by yourself. You won’t be alone. And there will be others with specialist skills who can do things you can’t.Sometimes you’ll already have a team or a group of friends who want to help out before you’ve even fleshed out your idea. Other times,you’ll want to decide the roles you need and then go out and find the right people for the jobs.How will you pay for everything?The other key thing to think about before you start your project is money! Developing a budget can seem daunting, but it’s really just aquick two-step process.ExpensesStart with expenses. List estimated figures on how much you think things will cost.IncomeNow, think about your income. List where you are expecting or hoping to get money from. Estimated figures are fine at this stage.Look at your budget and ask the question “Is that realistic?” After realizing that it’s usually not, think “But really, what can I do”.Categorize items in your expense budget by importance:• What things are non-negotiable and just cannot be reduced?• What could you scale down?• What’s optional?• And is there anything that is not important at all?And also by type• Cash. Do you have to raise the cash to pay for them?• In kind. Is it more likely you can get them given to you, which is called “in-kind”?What could go wrong?There are lots of ways of preparing a risk assessment. A useful way of doing this is going through your workplan and asking the question“What if?”What are the things that could gowrong?What are you going to do to make sure theydon’t?If it does go wrong, how will you manageit?29