Just before I start on the Buisness plan...

I just wanted to talk about Ltd Companies and also Plc Companies.

Ltd (Limited Company)

• Organised Power system within a company, (Often initially Family run) with a small amount of shareholders.
• Limited Liability. e.g, if the company goes bust, it's value in assets is sold in order to pay off debts, if there's any left over nobody is liable, and therefor no one is in trouble.
• Generally bigger in size than a self employed company and it is also easier for LTD's to access money from the bank because they are seen as a better risk for the very reason of being a bigger company.

PLC (Public Limited Company)

• Almost the "next step up" from an LTD, Big company, for example, Coke-a-Cola.
• Could be millions of shareholders within the company.
• Have Organisations dotted around the planet, on a somewhat larger scale to an LTD.
  

Planning a Buisness Plan?

I was wondering how I could tackle this buisness plan, and I decided that the best way to go about this would be to do a plan, for my buisness plan! I was talking to my dad, whose previous job was actually to go to companies and help them write buisness plans (financial advisor). He gave me a couple of key tips in terms of what to do when embarking on a buisness plan.

I told him I was a little lost in terms of what to be looking at when writing a buisness plan and he gave me a "Pre Meeting Questionnaire" This questionnaire was what my dad's company used to all members of staff in a company - this was done in order to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses and act as an indicator for what to put into their SWOT analysis.

After filling in the PMQ, I will do a SWOT analysis on myself, based on the questions from the questionnaire. (this will be put onto the next entry I do, but the questions follow the same tone as e.g "How do you set objectives/targets/plans? Who does this? -And- What is your appropriate product mix". I think it will be a good thing to fill in this questionnaire because it will give me a really good idea on what my standing is as a designer and then how it becomes relevant in terms of buisness.

So, Post SWOT, I want to pinpoint my key objectives, this is also called a Stragergy Link because it links the information from your SWOT analysis with the basis for the Buisness Plan and is basically a refined breakdown of the SWOT analysis. Whilst approaching my stragergy link, I need to be aware of SMART objectives. This is an anagram for :

• Specific
• Measurable (Success rate/Key Performance Indicator or KPI)
  
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Ttimed (expected results)
  

The key aspects will be:

• Financial - How much money do I have? How much will I need for X? Where can I get money from?
  
• Customer - Who is my target audience? What do they relate to? What can I do for them to benefit?
  
• Process - What do I do? How do I do it? Why do I do it?
  
• Learning/ Development - What are my weaknesses? How can I get constructive progress from my weaknesses?

After this I will then go on to fill in my Buisness plan, based on the understanding of all the information I have gathered throughout this process. By approaching my Buisness Plan this way, I will be able to collect a strong set of information in order to base an informed and able buisness plan.

ten statements that summarise my research and identify my standing as a graphic designer.

1-

As a designer i am geared towards print based work, with a love of print and books. An interest and awareness is rapidly developing for sustainability in design also, and I feel in the future this will most definately dictate and lead my design work.

2-

I have confidence in the illustrative field and know what is current but aim to further develop this skill in terms of design.

3-

Taking into consideration my avid interest in sustainability in design - I think I would work very well within an agency that shares these same ethics.

4-

I aim to build up my contacts and network alongside constantly improving on my design work.

5-

I need to develop my work and understand where it could fit when put out there and then pin point my target audience.

6-

I found that using the SWOT analysis technique helped me to understand the ways in which people present their work to the masses, some strong, some not so strong - but in both instances I feel I could successfully exhibit my work and understand how to grab people's interest - whether it be on internet or another platform.

7-

The PEST analysis made me see that it is actually really important to get into your customer's heads, because it makes you see where you fit into another persons world (in terms of your work) and after knowing this, steps can then be made about how to acknowledge this for successful results.

8-

Thinking about how I would distribute my work still confuses me a little, but I think once I produce more work to sell, taking into account what the design actually is, will become less of an issue.

9-

I have had no industrial experience, and been on no placements and I am worried that I really should be getting in contact with agencies or places.

10-

The research done for tis enterprise module has made me feel that I have a long way to go in terms of actually being a designer, but has also made me see that action needs to be taken or I will "get" nowhere.

SWOT analysis

A swot analysis is useful for understanding alot of situations in buisness, and also can aid and boost the decsision making process when it comes to making the right moves in buisness.

SWOT is an acronym for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Oppertunities and threats.

Using the SWOT analysis, I can analyse my competitors and weigh up certain competitve factors (e.g use their weaknesses to my advantage, and be inspired by their strengths and oppertunities.)

I have decided to do an analysis on an illustrator called Kev Grey's website.
I chose Kev Grey because he is involved in things I am very intersted in exploring for future prospects in terms of the illustrative image and mixed media.

So, you load up kev greys webiste and the first thing you see is an illustration of a bulldog which you have to click to see the main page. After clicking, this then takes you to quite a simple main page which has a scroll window for some of his choice illustrations. Along the top you can navigate to the follwing pages: Artists, projects, blog, shop and about.

The website is nicely designed, and says alot about grey as an illustrator, there are nice images of his work which vary from vector imagery, scans of his illustrations, and photography of his mixed media work. From looking at this website Grey is clearly successful and I would say because of the lack of work to actually buy there and then from the website, Grey is a commission based worker. He has done illustrations for the frontman of the band, The Cure and also had his work displayed on the arena at Download Festival. So, time for the SWOT analysis:

Strengths: Nicely produced website, easy to find your way around, with a good amount of information about Kev's background as an illustrator and contact details. Good images of his work up and also a nice variation of his work on display. Kev also displays good competitive advantages over other illustrators by showing the large variation of media his work has been translated onto e.g Skateboard designs for EAST skateboarding and t- shirts for Fenchurch. Kev knows his main target audience well as he is obviously immersed in that culture, and therefor caters for them well with his artwork. (His target audience being, skaters, the more "gothic" and rebellious of us into metal and also men AND women who are into the burlesque or "new age" punk scene.)

Weaknesses: Theres a limited amount of work to order straight off the website, and Kev also sells his works for a very low price. (£8 for posters, and £7 for his book.. Underselling might reduce his audience's desire for his work.) On the webiste it also says nothing about kevs awareness for distribution or marketing reach. I dont know if theres a postal charge etc...

Oppertunities: Kev obviously gets alot of interest, being an independant, commission based designer is doing him very well from the information displayed on his website. As he has done works for major bands, festivals, skate industries, clubs and tattoo shops. As I said before he knows his target market well, and competitors dont seem to be a factor for Kev as he has his own niche, which larger companies seem to really like. From the website it is obvious Kev has contacts in high places, just through commission based work and also has got a platform to sell through.

Threats: A big threat to Kev is the market demand. Kev has a certain visual approach to his work, (this is apparant) which is very "in" at the moment with the rebirth of the vintage fashion craze. A risk could be that when this vintage hype dies down, so does the demand for his vintage and macabre work. There are timeless elements to kev's work but his media might trap him in a place he doesnt want to be in in the future.

Another example

I was just thinking about how to get into the heads of a target audience when selling a specified product, and my mum is a really good example of this, because she is looking at prints for the bathroom at the moment.

The product/ artist designer

Bespoke prints depicting a nauticle theme, pattern oriented and simplistic with a heart warming tone of voice.

The Demographic

Middle class mother of two, living in a boderline working class urban society,happy and artistic/ creative with a comfortable income, doesnt mind paying a little extra for prints with a one off, personal feel. Often feels if art is cheap, that the artist is under selling themselves.

2nd Task where? A PEST analysis

I think in order for this to be successful I need to invent a situation where I am selling something because otherwise I'm really just not going to be able to do this, this can be easily done because I did used to sell alot of urban inspired illustrations on canvas. The subject matter was often bleak and grim.. So, let's use that as an example.

The demographic of this target audience : creatives, contemporaries, innovators, alienated people in society, seekers, teens/ young adults.
How are they as people: enjoy decoding imagery, like mess, not arsed about society as a hierarchy, go out on a night locally, small group mentality, fun is loud, uneasy about violence.


Politically: Have a feeling of unease towards political standing, but also have strong feelings about current issues/ world affairs.

Economically: this can vary as there are levels unbalance when it comes to this sort of illustration, the image could simply appeal to people with quite a bit of money as equally to someone with none.

Socially: the social background of these people I have found mostly to be urbanised young adults who are aware of their surroundings and want to pursue extra corricular activity in creative fields, such as urban/ contempory music , e.g Hip Hop music and culture.

Technological: When it comes to music software there are alot of adepts in this demographic, being young adults and in an urban backdrop they find it easy to use technology such as the internet, alot of products they desire can often only be found on the internet eg certain types of clothing or specialised publications or software.


This leads nicely to where they would be:
these sorts of people are most likely to be middle class city dwellers, who would probably live in the outskirts of the city where life is similar to the nature of the art, this type of art was born in these conditions so contemporaries in similar places will obviously identify with imagery of an urban and suggestively rebellious nature. The internet is at their fingertips, and they are constantly subject to the mass media in a culture where advertisement is inescapable.

What media do my target audience use?

As i said in an earlier brief Im still sort of looking for who I am as a designer and currently dont know who my target audience on a larger scale would be, but I guess the nature of what I do at the moment (Being illustrative, mixed media and print work) The audience would have an appreciation for illustration and materials, this could be almost anyone, however the aesthetic qualities of my work lend themselves to a younger audience at the moment, but also an audience that likes to dig a little deeper than normal to get what they want!!