InPress... Advertisement, funding and competition

Today we met with Jane to figure out what we need to do next in our enterprise groups. It was really helpful and gave us a good idea of what we need to get done by the time we present. She also commented on our idea for a studio, and we showed her our press ad.

There a couple of things to change about our ad, such as more information about our studio and printing facilities being open to the public. However over all Jane seemed to approve of it and liked our name. She also told us of a Leeds based studio that does a similar thing, just without the graphic design part. They are called Factory4 and I had a look at their website.

These prices are a good place to start from, especially considering that Factory4 are our potential competitors.

They are based quite close and their email is on their website, so I am going to email or ring them tomorrow to see if they will let us have a look around.

We also emailed Ollie at Catalogue and he said Its OK for us to drop by next Friday to have a look at their studio.

We also went to the banks surrounding the college to get some information on starting a business. We also asked about business plans and we were told to go to the HSBC website where we found one.

We collected leaflets about starting a business, but also on loans and finances. We discovered when talking with Jane that our start up costs are going to be quite high, as we will need to either buy or rent a lot of printing equipment.

Here is the business plan template we found.

Things we need to consider and discuss in our next meeting:

• Revise press ad- and find out about run-ons from Creative Review
• Filter down our specific target audience, including business to business promotion
• Discuss what equipment we already have to cut down start up costs
• Consider wether we will keep our part time jobs
• How will we split payment
• Accountant costs
• Compare business bank accounts- which ones best
• Our daily rate
• How much we charge to visit studio and use equipment
• Look at different potential studios
• Brainstorm different promotional ideas