As a business that trades principally to provide social benefits, a social enterprise has to think about the goods and services it intends to provide. There are many reasons why social enterprises emerge - it could be because of a private service provider withdrawing from a local community (or not even selling its product there in the first place). It could be because of an opportunity for a community-based organisation to deliver a public service. There could also be regeneration or environmental reasons and therefore opportunities to trade.
Generally though, social enterprises find gaps in the market, and are able to make money from that gap. In essence they provide a business response to a social issue.
For sport, active recreation and leisure-based social enterprises there are current market opportunities in terms of coaching, health and well being and tackling in crime and anti-social behaviour through sport. This includes opportunities for public sector procurement (PSP) such as GP referral schemes and entry to employment (e2e) or alternative curriculum programmes.
You can see several case studies here in the sports project Progress Report
For a voluntary club or sports association traded income will include that income which is not subscriptions for membership. Any trading income (not including grants) would also be unrestricted which will support independence and growth.
Because of the mutuality that exists within the sector, social enterprises often engage in selling goods and services to each other. This in turn opens up new markets for trading as well as provides you with goods or services that you require.