Promoting our business..

As a sustainable and environmentally aware design studio we wanted to come up with a good campaign way of targeting out target market of the high end fashion retailers.

There are many ways of promotion:

Instead of sending out designs and printing, wasting a lot of paper of which will just end up in the bin, we decided upon doing our promo work digitally.

Create a website and promote the website and designs on as many networking sights as possible, directed at our target audience specifically!

We also thought about sending out a USB stick in a small package or possible business card design. Then on this USB stick we would have all the information of which would be on a poster/flyer but saves on printing.

This also works out pretty cheap as USB sticks can be purchased quite cheaply these days and would save on printing, ink and paper costs.

As a group we decided we would firstly go into the industry ourselves for around 3 years then create the group business after the three years after having our own experiences and knowledge along with saving £5000 each to put into the business. 

However obviously it will cost much more to get a business fully up and running on this money especially when we are hoping to set up in London. Therefore we need to look into funding.. 

Government grants

You will need to apply for grants through your local council, which will have a list of what’s available. The typical amounts up for grabs are from £500 to £1,000, but in some cases businesses can apply for multiple grants.

There are three main factors that will determine your eligibility for a grant:

Location: if the business is based in an area that is undergoing regeneration, there is likely to be more money available for start-ups. Areas in East London undergoing Olympic development and parts of the North of England have more money set aside for grants.

Size: generally, grants only tend to be available for businesses starting up. Getting a grant as an established company in London, for example, is near impossible, says Andy Berrow from Business Link in London.

Sector: the grants that you are eligible for will depend upon your industry, and which sectors are in favour depends, in turn, depends on your location. In London, privileged sectors include hospitality and tourism, restaurants and the creative industries.

Before applying for a grant, you should prepare a business plan working out how much money you need to start and whether there is a market for what you are doing. For more information go theBusiness Link website.

Community Development Finance Initiatives (CDFI)

There are more than 60 of these organisations in the country, which provide loans and support to businesses and individuals.

Nicholas Nicolaou, managing director of GLE oneLondon, a CDFI, says the initiatives are designed to help viable businesses in need of funding.

The sorts of loans accessible will vary depending on the region and CDFI. So you will need to go to theCommunity Development Finance Association website to view what’s available where you are. In London, for example, there are various loans for small businesses, such as through the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Loan Fund, which provides sums of between £10,000 and £50,000, at a rate of 7.85 per cent, with an additional one per cent arrangement fee.
The other major advantage of using money available through the CDFIs is that they don’t take into account credit history, will look at applications on a case-by-case basis and tend to cover all sizes of business from the sole trader looking to boost cash flow to a multimillion pound concern set on expansion.

R&D grants

Grants for research and development are for introducing technological innovation in your business. The amount you are eligible for will depend on the size of your business and the project you are undertaking. Grants are available for projects worth between £5,000 and £500,000 and will cover a percentage of the total cost of project (usually between 35 to 65 per cent). For more information click here.

The Prince’s Trust

The Prince’s Trust is open to 18 to 30-year-olds who are unemployed or working fewer than 16 hours a week. In addition to business training schemes, the programme provides funding of up to £4,000 (or £5,000 for partnerships), along with support for your business idea.

The typical amount of funding businesses usually receive from the Trust is £2,500. Interest on the loan is three per cent (to cover administration charges) and the repayment scheme requires that you only hand over £20 for the first six months, with the remainder spread out over a period of two to five years.

The Carbon Trust

If you are looking to cut down on your overheads by using more energy-efficient equipment, you can get zero-interest loans of between £3,000 to £400,000 at 0 per cent with The Carbon Trust. There’s no arrangement fee and loans are repayable over a four-year period. For more information visit The Carbon Trust website.

Invoice discounting

Through this facility, you can get an advance onmoney owed to you by customers. Essentially it acts as an overdraft, with the payment due acting as your security. Both banks and specialist financeproviders offer invoice discounting but terms will vary, so it’s worth shopping around.

John Benner, director at commercial financial company IGF Group, says this option tends to be relevant for companies that trade in the B2B market, have a turnover of more than £50,000 and are seeking money against overdrafts worth between £100 and £100,0000. ‘The amount we provide will depend upon the company, but it will typically be 80 per cent of the value of invoices discounted. We then take a cut of between three to six per cent,’ he says.

For companies concerned about late payment, there are also factoring services available. They do cost more than invoice discounting, but also provide you with a debt collection service. For more information go to the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA).

Regarding our business with HSBC we do get 10% off for banking with them.

Our insurance includes:

- Personal Accident
- Covers the equipment up to 20,000
- Public Liability
- Proffessional Indemnity up to £1M

For 12 months it will cost: £88.32 

Accountants within the EC1 area. Perlin Franco seem to be quite a trustworthy accountants, within a lot of positive feedback from clients. It also offers the chance to train staff up so in the future if we were to earn enough and wanted to we could employ someone to control and organise the accounting and book keeping.

After deciding upon using HSBC Bank Account it also provides a deal with the insurance, with also 18 months free banking.
For creating a business account with them you get 10% off the insurance which includes:

Our little list of costs for our equipment.. 

When we first calculated what we would need to buy it came to: £16220.21!

Which was a bit much, although we did say we would each go into graphic design industry for several years then later create this business therefore we could put some of our own money into it. 

We then realised the place is fully furnished! And took out all the equipment with the stars next to it.. Which then came to: £15032.12 which is much better!

Also Maya was looking into funding. 

Filing Cabinets

For the studio I also found filing cabinets in Ikea which turned out at pretty good price! For the start up of the business we would probably only need one as we wouldn't have any paper work/ or very little.

I think this white cabinet below is really nice for on the wall of the office! However for start up costs, we would probably look at the cheaper version, however maybe in the future these would be a good buy!