Tuesday 31 January 2012

InPress Car Insurance

We have been considering that if we are going to be a design studio based on face-to-face client contact then we need to consider how we will do this. I am therefore going to look into the cost of insuring myself on my car (as I already have a car). Some of the expenses can then be claimed back through the business, but for the purpose of start up costs it is necessary to consider.

First I looked at Direct Line...




...a pretty reasonable £31.38 a month.

(due to me already using these and receiving discount)

I think this could easily be included in our budget as it will increase our client relationship.

I then tried gocompare.com










woah... too much!

All these companies charge far too much in comparison to what we have previously been quoted from Direct Line.

I also took a look at City Club Cars, as this was a company Bridget had mentioned to us in our lectures...



The idea of this is very innovative and very economical.

I then saw they had a scheme for businesses so took a further look into this...






  At first I thought the prices of this seemed pretty expensive in comparison to the £33/month I was quoted for car insurance on my own car.  Taking into consideration that you would be saving £125 on tax a year, £40 MOT a year and expenses for fuel and maintenance. Using this scheme would be beneficial as it would enable us to ensure we have the client contact we wish for as well as remaining economical and keeping costs to a minimum.
and that you can pretty much just pay to use the car as and when you need it.

Saturday 28 January 2012

Screen Printing Beds

Sadie was given the task of finding out about screen beds. This is what she found:

This website seems reasonable, they do a good deal on a package that includes everything you need to expose and strip a screen, including the screens. Delivery costs depend on the size of the order.




 A small vacuum bed, which is only big enough for A3 screens.







Ink Costings:





She also found another site, but all their equipment seem to be for amateurs and people who treat screenprinting as a hobby. They don't have many deals on buying in bulk. Worth a look anyway.


Another website, much more directed at businesses, however their packages concentrate on screen printing garments, whereas we need a kit for paper!







Something more directed at businesses, maybe the equipment is a bit too large for us? A company based in West Yorkshire, sells used screen printing equipment, and supplies to all over the world.











Friday 27 January 2012

Post Catalogue Visit

We then had a meeting as we were buzzing with ideas from the inspiration the Catalogue boys had given us. Francesca the 'note taker' took these notes from what was said:



-Studio space-organise a trip to umbrella-Friday


-Consider designers for screen prints/logo


-Copywriting name


-Business card


-Organising event/venue/day/invites-Niall talk to library.


-Talk to Jane about date of event- before or after presentation


-Design an Invite for our event.


-Look into riso printing


-Everyone do designs to be printed to sell at event.


-T-shirt screen printers.


-Making screen beds, exposing bed.



Niall came up with a great idea for our presentation. We intend to have an event/ gallery type night. We will promote this with posters around college leading up to our deadline and give out invitations during our presentation. The event will hopefully be held at the library pub where Niall works and will include pieces of our work and T-Shirts to buy. Also if we have time we will produce a small publication showing our work and bios of each of us.

Studio Visit ...Catalogue

Today we took a trip to Catalogue to see where they work and ask them a few questions about how they got started. It proved to be extremely helpful and an eye opener into how realistic is would be to set up your own studio as a graduate. 



The boys had a carousal screen printer which they use to print t-shirts; with either their designs or others which have been requested. They were very honest giving us both the pros and cons with this piece of equipment and came to the conclusion that a one bed screen printing facility would be better than one of these.



Tom and Ollie also showed use their Riso printer. I had never seen one of these, although I had seen the work it produces but just never realised it was produced in this way. They managed to get their riso printer second hand (again saving money). The prints it produces are quite similar to that of a screen print although slightly more grainy and less time consuming. The boys kindly gave us a print to take with us.....




A riso printer is definitely a piece of equipment InPress should consider purchasing.


Aside from these, a lot of the equipment Catalogue use was made themselves; which is a great way to reduce start up costs and save ourselves money. 

This trip has proved very useful and has motivated us to push forward with our studio.

Thanks lads!

Thursday 26 January 2012

Rent IT

Sadie was given the task of researching into renting equipment such as Macs, printers etc....


Rent IT do next day delivery to most parts of the UK and provide most of the equipment that we need for a reasonable price. They also provide a repair service for quite a hefty price, but also allow you to find your own maintenance as long as they are informed.

Here are the best deals on the site, although it may be better to negotiate a quote as they do offer discounts for longer leases.

iMac 27"- 4GB


6 months:    £97.37/pm
1 year:         £70.57/pm

iMac 21.5"-4GB

6 months:    £69.16/pm
1 year:         £50.19/pm

Flatbed A3 Epson scanner- 600, 1200 dpi

6 months:    £67.34/pm
1 year:         £48.67/pm

HP 510 A1 printer- 2400, 1200 dpi. Colour, roll or sheet.

4 weeks:    £208.32

HP CMYK- prints 250 A1 pages (estimate) per cartridge

The cost of delivery is quoted on request, and payment is required in advance of every month.

08002985186
http://www.rentit.biz/


The next is HiRental, which is based in Leeds. This could be convenient, although it is more expensive than Rent IT and doesn't have all of the equipment that we need.

iMac 27"


6 months:    £268.17/pm excluding VAT

http://www.hirental.co.uk/



Business Growth Fund

Sadie has found a really useful webpage by Leeds City council intending to help out people starting up a business, and even mentions a 'Business Growth Fund'. I will look into this further.

http://www.leeds.gov.uk/Advice_and_benefits/Council_departments/Enterprise_Leeds.aspx




Enterprise Coaching
Enterprise LoansIf you need finance to get your business going, and aren’t getting anywhere with the banks consider
Leeds City Credit Union who offer loans up to £5,000:
The Business Enterprise Fund who offer loans from £5,000 to £60,000:

Artistic and creative businessesHelp for artists/creative people who want to sell their products:
Enterprise CentresThere are a number of enterprise centres where you can hire hot desks and office space.
  • Shine, Harehills Road, Leeds, LS8 5HS
    T: 0113 388 0000
    W: 
    www.shinebusinesscentre.co.uk
  • Hillside, Beeston Road, Leeds, LS11 8ND
    T: 0113 387 6300
    E: 
    info@tiger11.org.uk
  • Louis Hamilton Enterprise Centre, 47a Louis Street, Chapeltown, Leeds, LS7 4BW
    Peter Wenham
    T: 0113 262 0123/ 0781 6138 733
  • Factory4: Sheepscar House, 15 Sheepscar Street South, Leeds, LS7 1AD
    Space for artists with screen printing, woodworking and jewellery making facilities: T: 0113 391 2547
    E: 
    factory4@leedscitycollege.ac.uk
Help for those wanting to set up a social enterprise via Unltd

Grant SchemeThe Business Growth Fund scheme is a grant limited to 20 per cent of capital costs subject to a maximum grant of £10,000 and a minimum of £1,000.

The grant may be used for capital equipment, machinery and tools; alterations to land and/or premises to meet the needs of business or security measures.

The business must be based in Leeds, and be established for six months or more. For full details, eligibility criteria and an application form call Neill Fishman or Katie Dunlevey on 0113 220 6350.
If you have any questions on the above support services call 0113 220 6359

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Enterprise Meeting with Jane


We had our group meeting with Jane today. It was just a little discussion to see how we were getting on and to give us some feedback on what we needed to do. This proved very useful and Jane gave us a few scope for thought.  Sometime this week we plan to go into the bank and talk with someone about business loans. Once we have our business plan sorted we will then go back to them and see if, from what we present them, if the bank would hypothetically offer us a loan. We also have a trip to Catalogue studio lined up for this Friday. Jane gave us some direction of what sort of questions we should be asking them and also other locations we could choose to look at in terms of a creative studios with space for our own printing facilities. Although this is a hypothetical business, it already seems that we are treating like a real business.

Monday 23 January 2012

InPress Promotional Material

Francesca was given the task of sourcing promotional material that we could possibly use to promote ourselves as a business:



Some intriguing ideas here and many that can be achieved if we take the time to use the resources available to us within the college.

Sunday 22 January 2012

InPress ..where to advertise?

Although we have already been given the task of looking into advertising costs to advertise in creative view, we have consider that it is predominately going to be designers that are reading the magazine so we would need to advertise to a wider audience and non creative. Also creative review was immensely expensive so something a little cheaper could be considered....




 You can advertise free with the yellow pages online application, this can also be transferred to mobile phones taking it on the move. Seen as it is free advertising there would be no harm in signing up to it!



Thomsonlocal provide the same service, also for free.

I am not so sure this is how we want to portray ourselves (through these free mediums) as people may think we are cheap and tacky, however, they are possibilities which are exploring.



Google offers a similar service, however, it is not free, payment is based on how many clicks you get.


 Again, this is not a free service, it is based on you setting a cap and paying only that among. Facebook is so commonly used people would definitely see the as. Nevertheless, like me, I think many people ignore the ads and find them annoying!

So far I have only considered digital medias of advertising, so I am going to try and find some alternate ways to advertise.


The Business Link website contained some useful information on how to create a marketing strategy for your company in a range of ways....