Life's A Pitch

Last week's session was quite unsuccessful for our group. We were brainstorming a lot of ideas but everything merged into one big mess and nobody really understood the concept of the business we were proposing. It was all very rushed and confused so this week was our chance to make things clearer for ourselves and spend time talking to each other. We decided to move on from whatever was discussed last week and start fresh. We had one problem that two people from our group were not here so it was just myself, Georgie and Tyler making all the decisions for this. 

Find the business idea. 
Define business concept. 
What do we care about?
What type of business is it?
Where does it sit in the current market?
What does it look like?
Who does what and when?
What are your personal goals?
How are you motivated?

This was our first idea, a website which functioned similar to a site like Etsy.com and illustrationfriday.com which had a selected product range which rotated around a monthly theme. It would work like a competition where people would submit entries based around a theme and then a select few would be chosen to be sold and the business would take a cut of the profits. The idea of adding a time limit on the availability of the products might increase the demand for them as people know that they won't be around forever. The themes could also work around seasonal things such as Christmas or Easter so that the products on sale were appropriate to the time of year. 

I liked this idea because it was a relatively simple concept which I imagine (without any research) would be cheap to set up, and if the creatives were responsible for the shipping of their own goods, the business wouldn't require a significant team of staff. I suppose this format of business reflects my own interest in illustration and where it can exist, when I think of my own work I see it being available in print form or on products which is very relevant to this. 

The conversation then went onto having the same idea as an art fair where work is submitted around a certain theme and a few products and prints are selected to be sold as part of this collection. This changed the direction of the business entirely and the idea of the website was somewhat left behind. 

We wrote down some of our individual interests but didn't get very far before new ideas kept cropping up. We came up with the idea of a travelling art fair, initially on a small scale (we suggested in a camper van so the business had an 'image'). The travelling part of it needed a restriction so we kept it to the North of England. When thinking about who would enter work into this, we wanted the business to have an ethos of supporting people who are trying to get started in the industry so we thought about it being aimed at students, the recently graduated, beginners and hobbyists. 

The drawing on the piece of paper below was of a lorry where the back opens up and folds out to make this small, indoor space where tables can be set up, artwork can be hung and people can walk around and look at things. This is an upgrade from the camper van we initially thought of, and the double decker bus we thought of after that. 

Then the idea came of including music and food and other stalls in with this. I was concerned that this whole business concept was becoming too complex and I was confused about how it would exist. Would it be an individual stall that would be a part of a wider organised event, like thoughtbubble festival for example. Or would it be an event in itself which brings along its own food stalls and music for entertainment?

Our goal for this were to help people promote their work. We wanted to make this for people who are just getting started in the industry but then didn't want to rule out the inclusion of some bigger names because this might help to boost the profile of the business if some recognised names were on board. 

At this point, the business is a cross between retail and entertainment because it includes both. It is the entertainment side of the plan that I find concerning because I don't know what permissions you need or whether you need to pay to set up something like this in numerous locations. 

Ideas for names - this was really hard because we have not clarified the full concept of our business yet. We wrote down a list of words relating to the plan so far and tried to branch off this to think of more interesting things but we didn't get very far. I think the best names are the catchy ones which are totally unrelated to the theme of the business but really memorable. I think the name will come to us as we continue to develop the plan but at the moment I don't think that this should be a priority. 

My Haiku

I am far from being a lyrical genius but this is what I came up with. Words aren't really my thing. 

Georgie's Haiku

Travelling lorry, 

Supporting local talent, 

Sells creative's work. 

Tyler's Haiku

Travelling art fest, 

Makeshift stalls, local artists,

Inside a lorry. 

We blended these into a super-haiku which we stressed over a bit and changed it at the very last minute before Tyler had to read it out loud to the group. 

Travelling art fest

Unique, local creations, 

Arts, crafts, music, beer. 

The rest of the group got the main principle of the business by saying that it was a mobile art festival which supported local craftspeople. However, I think the last line, particularly the mention of music and beer made this sound more like a large event when I didn't really think this was the case. Some people interpreted it as a party and I think this detracts from the main function of the business which is to sell work. This is probably something the group needs to discuss next session when (hopefully) everyone is here and we can make some decisions as a full group. 

I think it was difficult for our group to agree on things today because there was only three of us but I suppose this will always happen with group work. I feel that it really hindered us not having the other two group members present because we had a limited input and we still don't know whether they will agree with anything we have discussed today. It is difficult being in a group with people who you don't know very well or have different working styles because you have to work extra hard to find compromises and make sure everyone gets their say. I am trying to be diplomatic with the way I am conducting myself in these group sessions but I am hoping that as we get to know each other a bit better we can be more honest with each others ideas and opinions and maybe work much more effectively as a team. 

Since writing out the outcomes of this session, I have started to realise that this business plan isn't really viable. I know we haven't done any proper research about it yet but the costings of just setting this up would be a lot of money. We would have to fund the cost of a lorry plus its insurance and a licence to drive it, storage for when it is not in use, the cost of an allotted space for the fair, and any other licensing to sell. I really think this business concept need to be simplified - the same thing seems to happen to all of our ideas where we have an idea and loads of different things keep getting added and it all spirals out of control. I think we need to simplify it a lot or think of a new idea altogether and restrict the different elements of it from the beginning. 

Could we narrow it down to just prints?
Just analogue media?