My business plan – business perspective
Going back to the questions raised with the tutorial, after I’ve done supporting research which has helped me filter down my business options:
What is my business?
A collective. This approach seems the most fitting for the message I’m trying to portray. If my business was a collective, this would mean that I could work in one place, and my network of people could be working from their locations globally. Not only would this increase exposure and talent for the business, this would be ethically beneficial to the business. There would be no overhead costs of running a studio. There’d also be alternative meeting rooms that we could hire to meet clients, and if we have a team that is global then clients will be close to someone. Venues/conference rooms could be hired out for client meetings.
Do I need to hire freelance specialists for this type of project?
Definitely. But this could be the beauty of the business – we support freelancers and work with many creative (sometimes not creative) people in the industry. This would also allow us to create the best work for the client.
When creating concepts, think of a rule of threes –
1. create one concept directly on brief
2. create one concept slightly outside of the lines of the brief
3. create one concept completely abstract from the brief, be risky
My collective team:
Creative Director – oversees the direction of the studio (myself)
Project Manager – manages projects and logistics
Senior Designer – 10+ years design experience; able to generate ideas from concept to design
Middleweight Designer – 5+ years design experience; able to generate ideas from concept to design
User Experience Designer – oversees all interactive elements such as sound, lighting, video effects
Web Developer – creates websites, high knowledge of java, html and CSS
Senior Creative Artworker – Illustrates both digitally and by hand, including typography
Rates:
Creative Director – £125 p/h
Project Manager – £95 p/h
Senior Designer – £125 p/h
Middleweight Designer – £95 p/h
User Experience Designer – £50 p/h
Web Developer – £60 p/h
Creative Artworker – £50 p/h
Now to think of my process:
Richard posted this on the ideas wall which breaks down each individual component for beginning a new business plan. This is helpful as I had not considered RFI/RFP or stages for ‘challenging’ or ‘evaluating’.
- Consult – meet client
- Challenge – 3 x concepts
- Brief – client picks 1
- Conceptual thinking – team meeting, allocate deliverables
- Refinement – theme established, mock-ups, further development
- Design and Test – samples of supplies, full scale refinements
- Production – products, printing, launching
- Implementation – deliverables delivered
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