Costings Research

One of my tasks for this week was to get the costings for the business sorted out. I feel like this isn't going particularly well because a lot of obstacles keep cropping up and it is harder than expected to find out actual costs of things for a theoretical business. I know we're been told to keep it simple but I'm finding it hard to find the balance because I don't want to just ignore really obvious problems. 

I used the Prince's Trust website and found a business plan which helped me to work through all the things that needed to be considered in terms of costings. I have used Duke Studios as the primary option for studio space and have looked at some other offices as a more long term option. It was mentioned to us that you as a Leeds College of Art student/graduate you can win a studio rent free for a year at Duke Studios, so this is what I think we will base our first year figures on. However, obviously this wouldn't be long term so I have had to look at funding opportunities which would go towards funding our rent for years to come after this. There is also the option of a loan but if we were actually going to do this, I doubt as recent graduates we would have the funds to put into a business we didn't know was going to be profitable. I think the Prince's Trust and Arts Council seem like the best options for grants. 

Equipment costs - I have looked at the price of a second hand iMac because it wouldn't matter to us whether it was new or not and it would save us money. I have allowed £1000 in total to cover the cost of the iMac and the Adobe subscription for the year. 

Using the guide we were given I am using £30 as the monthly insurance cost. 

The printing costs have become a sticking point for me because this is something I think I need everyone's input on. It depends what quality of print we want, how much we are willing to pay and how much profit we want to make so I think everyone needs to have some input on this. I am going to discuss this research with the rest of my team at the next meeting. I don't want to be making decisions without at least informing everyone and asking for their opinions but I think some things need to be altered for our business to be feasible financially. Because the individual print costs decrease with the quantity of products, it is hard to know what numbers we will be working with. I need a vague idea of whether we are planning to sell one of each product or one hundred because this will make a big change to our pricing strategy.