Monday, 13 June 2011
Summative:
We were assessed by Linnéa Dimitriou. We did well I think overall; we presented our idea and also explained our U.S.P. (Unique Selling Point) of why our website is going to be different.
Kofi, who was the web developer, showed a sample of what the site was going to look like.
Also we went through all the research:
Target Market/Audience
Finance/ Costs Research
We talked about our competitors, showed our final logo designs and other promotional materials, in particular our idea to sell T-shirts so as to be able to launch the website from the profit we made by selling them.
And as a final assessment we now still have to submit a report explaining our overall contribution to the group. How did it all go? If we were to do it again, would we do anything different next time? Basically, what have we learned and what would we do to improve, as well as all the research we did as a group and focusing a bit more on the information we worked on.
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Formative:
PayPal has two Schemes:
The Basic Plan and the Pro plan
This is what each plan offers:
THE BASIC:
BASICS:
Website payments are standard.
-Lets you offer your customers a safe, fast and convenient way of paying with just a few clicks.
-Ability of adding payment choice buttons on your website which can be customised.
-Quick, easy and free to set up and can start accepting global online payments with PayPal in less than 15 minutes.
BENEFITS:
-Customers can pay you in a few easy clicks
-Enhanced customer experience-helps increase sales
-No lengthy application process-gets approved on the day
-Easy set up- no advance technical skills required
-Ability to sell in over 190 countries and in 21 currencies.
-Industry-leading fraud screening technology
KEY FACTORS:
-No set-up cost/cancellation fees or monthly minimums
-Only low transaction fees based on monthly sales
-Easy integration
-PayPal has over 26 million UK customer accounts and over 220 million worldwide
-You can accept 21 different currencies from 190 markets
-Your customers don’t need to have a PayPal account and can use:
MasterCard/Maestro/Visa/American Express/Solo/GiroPay/Direct Debit/Discover Network/ Compte Banclre/CB and a few others.
EASY INTERGRATION: How to set up..
Add a payment button:
To start selling online you need to open a free PayPal Business account and choose from the buttons below to create an easy payment experience for your customers.
Complexity matters all handled and will also be given an HTML code to copy paste into your source code.
Customisation of options (some technical knowledge required) by visiting: www.paypal.co.uk/buttonfactory
Add to shopping cart:
Option to choose a pre-integrated shopping cart from their trusted
e-commerce partners and simply add PayPal as your payment processor.
Add to your existing shopping cart:
Ability to add PayPal to your existing cart or custom-built solution. For PayPal-compatible carts, just simply select PayPal as your payment service in your cart account setup. For custom-built carts, add website Payment Standard by copying the HTML link into your checkout.
COSTS:
Free to open your PayPal Business account
No set-up costs
No monthly fees or cancellation fees for Website Payment Standard.
All you pay is a low transaction fee of between
1.4%-3.4% (Depending on volume) + 20p on each payment.
Dean’s idea of charging for T-shirts + Subscription Services for the amount of £7.25 a T-shirt cause of PayPal charges (t-shirts a little bit more expensive)
THE PRO:
BASICS:
-Usually for established online businesses, Website Payments Pro is your complete all-in-one online payment solution.
-No need for a separate Internet merchant account,
Website Payments Pro allows you to process all your payments quickly, easily and affordably.
-Website Payments Pro allows you to accept credit and debit card payments directly on your website or, if you prefer, PayPal can host your payment page and enable you to customise the page to look like the rest of your website
-You can also accept payments via the phone, fax, and mail with Virtual Terminal, enabling you to offer multiple payment solutions to attract more customers.
-Also includes Express Checkout (see separate product
guide), which allows your customers to pay in just three easy clicks
using their PayPal account – helping convert browsers to buyers.
THE BENEFITS:
-Accept cards directly on your website or on a PayPal hosted
customised payment page
- Includes Express Checkout which can increase sales by up to 14%*
- Advanced fraud management features
- No need for a separate Internet merchant account
- Add Virtual Terminal at no extra cost†
- Benefit from an additional layer of security with 3-D Secure
- Dedicated Customer Service and Integration support
- Tailored pricing for large volume merchants
*Based on a Q1 2008 SME Survey conducted by NorthStar Research on behalf of PayPal
WEBSITE PAYMENTS PRO IS IDEAL FOR:
- Growing online businesses that want to accept card payments and offer
their own branded payment experience
- Companies looking to consolidate many payment relationships into one
- Businesses with access to technical programming skills
- E-commerce businesses that need advanced fraud management
-For established online businesses, Pro is your complete all-in-one online payment solution.
-With no need for a separate Internet merchant account, Website Payments Pro allows you to process all your payments quickly, easily and affordably.
- Allows you to accept credit and debit card payments directly on your website or, if you prefer, PayPal can host your payment page and enable you to customise the page to look like the rest of your website.
-You can also accept payments via the phone, fax, and mail with Virtual Terminal, enabling you to offer multiple payment solutions to attract more customers.
- Also includes Express Checkout (see separate product
guide), which allows your customers to pay in just three easy clicks
using their PayPal account – helping convert browsers to buyers.
KEY FACTORS:
-No set-up cost/cancellation fees or monthly minimums
-Only low transaction fees based on monthly sales
-Easy integration
-PayPal has over 20 million UK
customer accounts and over 230 million worldwide
-You can accept 21 different currencies from 230 markets
-Your costumers don’t need to have a PayPal account and can use:
MasterCard/Maestro/Visa/PayPal/Solo/GiroPay/Direct Debit/CB and a few others.
STANDARD Vs. PRO:
Not sure whether you need Website Payments Standard or Pro?
In most cases, if you’re selling online for the first time then Website
Payments Standard is the simplest, quickest and most suitable option.
So it might make sense to start with Website Payments Standard, then
upgrade later if necessary. However, if you want to give your customers a more personalised payment experience, Website Payments Pro is what you are looking for.
Comparisons:
STANDARD:
-No technical knowledge required
-Customer is redirected to PayPal to pay then returns to your site
-Basic fraud features
-No monthly fee, low transaction fees
-No approval required
-Your customers’ don’t need a PayPal account
PRO:
-Requires some technical knowledge - .NET SDK or Java SDK or HTTPS Service
-Customer remains on your site or is redirected to a PayPal-hosted payment page, which looks and feels like your website
-Advanced fraud management filters and 3-D secure
-Low monthly fee plus transaction fees
-Approval required (5-7 working days)
-Your customers’ don’t need a PayPal account
COSTS:
There are no set-up costs or cancellation charges and it’s free to open your PayPal Business account.
There’s just a low monthly fee of £20 and a transaction fee applies on each payment.
Next E&E Session - Freelance Day:
Next E&E Session: Freelance Day 26/05/2011
Juliet Sturridge developed and delivered industry training including "Runners' Bootcamp" for people looking to get into the film and broadcast industries. She has headed various companies and is currently involved in setting up a recruitment agency for freelancers. She is a business advisor to Clear Cut Pictures.
The session covered:
To freelance or not to freelance? - that is the employment question.
Acquire some tools to help you work your way through the labyrinth of legislation, discover ways to find, impress and keep employers. Arm yourself with information to protect your position and finally make use of that Maths GCSE with payslip translation, smarter invoicing and ways to measure your true worth.
If you’re looking for a job working for an employer, you usually start at the bottom and have to work your way up. You have to always be polite, helpful and willing, be able to take orders and think how the boss would want something done rather than how you want to do it.
As a freelancer, you are self-employed but this can be as a sole trader, in a partnership, a limited liability partnership – there are pros and cons to each of the different forms of business.
A third of your income goes on tax; you need to be registered for VAT and it’s good if you can get a Lorimer letter (LP10) from the Revenue saying they accept you as self-employed because that will allow companies to pay you without first deducting tax.
You need to be professional, slick, keep up-to-date with technical and other developments in the industry and have a sensible email address. She also explained the various rights you have and how to safeguard them.
2nd Session Of E&E - Business Strategy Day:
Business Strategy Day
Guest lecturer Peter Le Voyer (former investment banker & serial entrepreneur)
Sources of Money:
There are various possible sources
• Self
• Self funding project
• Bank (Loan/overdraft/H.P.- Hire Purchase /Leasing)
• Friends/Family
• Angels (business investors)
• Institution
Structure of Business:
Can be self-employed, partnership or company (if you form a limited company, your liability is limited if the company goes bankrupt)
Capital Structure
Business Plan:
This should cover:
• Product or service
• Target market
• Financial aspects projected costs and income
• How the business will operate
• Management of the business
Management structure:
Important to clarify the respective roles of each member and ensure that abilities are complementary.
Time-span:
Is this a long or short-term business?
Should have shared values
Ideal is to have high margin and cash generative business
Invest profits
Still need to fund income start up period: it should be as self-funding as possible so avoid releasing too much equity for this
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Our Project Plan:
PROJECT PLAN:
Please address each section- no more than MAXIMUM 2000 words in total. Can be filled out as a team. Your response should be in the format of a PDF or Word document and uploaded to Moodle by the 28th of April 5 pm.
Name of enterprise:
Student name(s):
If you are working in a group, please add each members role/responsibilities/tasks next to their name e.g. Sarah Smith- project manager
- Summary of enterprise:
Describe the business opportunity and how you can exploit it. How will you make money? What are you selling? What is your USP? Mission statement?
-Measurable aim(s) of enterprise
Can be described in monetary and/or other terms. Self promotion? Social or political aims- raise awareness? (‘Triple bottom line’?) Realise an idea? Get experience? How will you measure whether you have achieved your aim? There should be numbers attached to each aim (ie make 10 new contacts, increase hits on my website by 70%, fund my final project with £200 etcetera)
- Your target market:
Describe your target customer/ what is the segment of the market you are aiming for? What research have you conducted/ will you conduct? How have you decided what customers to target? What are their characteristics? What benefits are you in a (unique) position to offer them?
- Promotion strategy and partnerships
How will you utilize and develop your networks in this project? How will you reach your target market? Use of social media?
Action Plan- Please insert a schedule (GANTT chart or similar) mapping the enterprise from planning stage to execution
What will you do and by when? If you are working in a group, assign a clear role along with tasks to each group member.
Budget- please insert a profit/loss budget.
How much will you spend? What are your sales/ income targets? Different scenarios- best case/ worst case
Exit Strategy/ Risk management
What is the worst case scenario? If you are investing money, how much do you stand to lose if the enterprise fails? Can you liquidate your assets? How can you manage the risks?
Finally, please give the link to your blog.
Our Team Project Plan:
Project plan:
Name of Enterprise.
The Third Network.
Student names and roles.
Fahran Younas- promotion, marketing, design
Carlos Carrillo- team leader,
Andy Kinnear- legal structures.
Chris Caldow- general design
Alex Caldow- logo design
Ben Keswick- market research and target audience.
Kofi Ansah- web designer, host
Dean Pankhurst- Finance
Tara Dulake- market research
Keith Trodd- market research
Hayley Allen- promotion
Marios Economides- gantt chart.
Carlos Carrillo- Mission Statement.
Our aim is to introduce a social network within Ravensbourne. The network will allow students to communicate with other courses with ease.
Objectives
1. To develop a site where students can upload their work as an online portfolio within the college.
2. To establish a connection with in all courses at Ravensbourne; allowing easy of access to everyone's specific skills. E.g. sound and fashion.
3. To gain a substantial exposure.
4. Attract industry professionals to the college.
Tara Dulake- Summary of Enterprise.
Business opportunity.
At current, students produce their own websites and promotional materials. Ravensbourne college is in dire need to promote the work in which students do at the college and show the quality and standard that can come out of going to Ravensbourne. At current, the Ravensbourne website only shows a small percentage of work that is produced by Ravensbourne students.
USP
This is a way to link more within the industry. Ravensbourne students are more taken on by people in the industry because of the level of work that comes out from its students, if they could also see and link with students, it would be easier for students to get jobs.
The idea is also to get collaboration within the college and promote jobs that maybe needed to be done between projects at the college. For example if and animator needs a sound designer, the job can be posted. At current, emails are sent which do not always get received. The same as if someone from the industry wants a student to do a small bit of design work for them they can look at the profiles and get in contact with the students direct rather than going through lecturers.
This idea could even get expanded through set up for other universities and companies who want to offer creative field job opportunities.
We also intend to set up a stall where customers can purchase merchandise that promote the 3rd year films.
Products on this stall will be: t-shirts and badges.
Measurable aims of Enterprise.
To connect the student network and gain a substantial exposure.
Experience of working as a team
Exclusive network.
There is a degree of exposure.
To be used as a form of communication.
To make a £10 contribution to the degree show.
Hayley Allen- Merchandise.
Popular merchandise for films includes t-shirts, mugs, figurines or soft toys, badges, posters, as well as art work and books for higher end budgets. Many shops now sell products as cheaply as a pound for merchandise, although the quality of these items is often not so good.
T-shirts can be made using transfer paper, which can be printed on at Ravensbourne and ironed onto the t-shirts. The paper can be found at £4.95 for ten sheets, making it around 50p per shirt, then plain t-shirts or vest tops can be bought very cheaply for around one or two pounds each.
As the stall will be based in Ravensbourne, artistic material like pencil cases, rulers etc will be more likely to sell as they are useful within college. Plain pencil cases can be bought online from around 1-2 pounds each (for example at http://www.cc-craft.co.uk/pencil-case-1-pc-light-natural.aspx) and could be sold for around £3-5 after being customised. Alternatively, pencil pots can be made using card by hand:
We could also sell sketchbooks or notebooks by buying paper in bulk and binding them with our design on the cover. We can also print our own art books in the University.
The stall will also market our website service via the logo and web address appearing on their carrier bags. Paper bags can be printed upon and made by hand easily (http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6395369_make-paper-carrier-bag.html) and very cheaply, and are more environmentally friendly than plastic.
Ben Keswick- Target Market.
The target audience we are aiming for, to begin with is the Ravensbourne student. There are many benefits the students would have with the site it’s a better way of networking and collaborating with other students at Ravensbourne. Student can see other students work and decide if they could work together. It’s a creative on-site network. They also are a possible that if it is successful it could be expanded to other university. Its perfect for student due to the way it showcase there work and connect to different departments.
Market Research.
Research done by Tara Dulake and Keith Trodd.
Our Competitors in Portfolios and Networking:
We have researched into whats already out there and if its needed:
Behance Network (www.behance.net)
Carbonmade (www.carbonmade.com)
Shown'd (www.shownd.com)
Coroflot (www.coroflot.com)
Professional on the Web (www.professionalontheweb.com)
Deviantart (www.deviantart.com)
design:related (www.designrelated.com)
Portfolio's Friend (www.portfoliosfriend.com)
The Portfolio network (www.theportfolionetwork.com)
Sunoasis (www.sunoasis.com)
Creative Cin (www.creative-cin.co.uk)
Portfolio Workshop (www.portfolioworkshop.com)
Foliotek (www.foliotek.com)
Linkedin (linkedin.co.uk)
MY Hammer (myhammer.co.uk)
Big Black Bag (bigblackbag.com)
Basekit (Basekit.com)
Folio Focus (foliofocus.com)
With all of these websites and companies looked at providing very similar services, we have gathered information of their strengths and weaknesses to try and get the best out of our service. The following applies to the strengths.
• Showcase online of peoples work
• Links everyone together
• Anyone can view the portfolios
• Jobs can be advertised
• Can be translated into a few languages
• Sign up for free.
• Can comment on services done by the person and put recommendations on.
• Jobs can be quoted for jobs.
• Can be linked and followed on Face book and twitter.
• Free e-newsletter for non members too
• Holds a clear creative directory for people to advertise jobs they want done
• Jobs can be searched through location and company and job type
• Hold special networking events
• User friendly set up.
• Accessible on the Iphone.
• When registering allows user to identify themselves as a person just looking for a job, just an employer and both.
• Very easy registering process
• The personal account page is very clearly laid out and easy on the eyes- nice light colours.
• There is a specialist section on the portfolio site, this is useful to employees as they can search by specialty with regards to software.
• Good layout and easy to navigate
Things to which we may want to avoid…
• Cluttered website – too much at once
• Have a big upload space as a limited upload space, may not be enough.
• Make clear who’s portfolio is being viewed and ensure that it cannot be changed from people on the outside.
• Not having the browsing easy to navigate, as getting to and from the homepage should be easy to use.
• Make sure the portfolios “look” are not all the same and unique.
Fahran Younas- Promotion strategy and partnerships.
Seeing as the website is entirely digital, the best way of getting our website out there and known is to utilise the student network via online/social networking and a small promo team based inside of the university building to help establish a presence.
We can use the major social networking sites to easily and rapidly get the students at Ravensbourne hooked up together. Examples being:
• Linked in
Creating online groups on sites such as Facebook will easily bring the student body together as it is such a widely used networking site.
Getting our website connected and associated with the official Ravensbourne site is also key. Seeing as one of our unique selling points is the fact we are bringing together and exclusively showcasing the work of Ravensbourne students, it is essential that we get this point across when advertising the site. If we are able to get our website’s link up on moodle and possibly the main Ravensbourne website, then we are attracting the attention of both our target markets; the first being the students whom we need to sign up and showcase work (with moodle being a service every student uses on a daily basis, it is ideal for promoting our product) and the second being everyone else (whether its production companies, studios or anyone looking to see what Rave has to offer).
If we can utilise the universities’ name and facilities like this, we will be able to create an effective flow and influx of visitors and users. Of course getting the university to allow this might not be the easiest case, but speaking to the right people is essential. This kind of opportunity would benefit everyone as at the end of the day, it is all about the students and showcasing Rave talent.
With the online promotion easily bound to bring our site to the attention of students, it would also be best to have a small team of 2-3 who are based inside the university building, perhaps once a week in a set location or a team that scouts around inside the building handing out promotional material. The team could be armed with business cards, leaflets and flyers which advertised the website, speaking to students and raising awareness. Having banners and posters placed in key locations throughout the building will be extremely effective in catching people’s eye.
Having a stall at the end of year degree show promoting our site is also an ideal opportunity to branch out to potential employers and let them explore the wealth of student work that will be on the site. Having a few PC/Macs available to run the site throughout the event could be just as handy, providing all visitors with a quick way of accessing the website.
Once the site is up and running, getting potential employers to be aware of the site will be extremely important, so getting the right people at uni as well as ourselves to email studios and professionals will be detrimental to the success of the site in terms of helping the students who use our site a chance with kick starting their careers.
Marios Economides- Action plan.
Mariluz Noto- Resource Management.
As part as the resource manager, i have discovered that the skills needed to create a home internet business are people who can use
• Basic web surfing and navigation using a web browser
• Use Search engines and proper search techniques
• Download programs, pictures, and other files
• Print web pages
• Upload html pages to the Internet using ftp
The location to where we want to set up our website is unknown yet as further research will be done later. The equipment and facility we need to have for this business to carry out is a domain name and server space which i looked into is from a website called go.daddy which Linked in used to set up their website and a computer.
Andrew Kinnear- Online Legalities.
This is a summary of legalities that we as a business need to be aware of.
Copyright – Do not steal from other peoples websites.
Create original material to avoid copyright
Fair use policy
If you use somebody's work then you must ask to use that work and then it must be credited within the website to avoid copyright
Domain names- have to make sure there is not a registered website that already has the name that you wish. It is also advisable to make sure there is not a company that already exists with the chosen domain name, as this would infringe upon copyright laws.
Defamation – creating false statements about people or companies that damage their companies, slander.
Disclaimers produced along with terms and conditions to secure the individuals work but also states that the company cannot be held accountable for an individual plagiarizing work as they are responsible for the legitimacy of their work.
We cannot be held responsible for any injuries obtained through use of this website.
We will need a formal contract that outlines payment methods and what people will receive from the service that we provide. The contract will also include the disclaimers and terms and conditions which prevent us as a company being sued for anything.
Dean Pankhurst- Budget.
Our financial plan, the way we are going to get the money by initially investing £10 each, towards funding and the setting up the website. With the money we are going to buy the domain name and server space for the duration of the degree show. That way we plan to earn our money back is by selling portfolio space for students with an initial £10 fee, for three months, promoting and selling merchandise for the degree show.
Budget
£120
Domain name
£8 godaddy.com for a year
Web hosting
£51 godaddy.com for a year
£14.52 for 3 months.
£4.24p a month
Budget for merchandise.
£98
Income Target- break even
Best case scenario- we make a profit
Worst case scenario- we make a loss or do not make any money.
Exit Strategy/Risk Management.
Risks.
Doesn't work- nobody is interested in the product,
Problems with the suppliers- risk of disappointed customers.
Not enough capital to set up the business and keeping costs low.
Being able to distinguish ourselves as a unique business when competing with larger competitors.
Exit strategy.
Refund customers money and shut down the website.
Blog links.
Fahran Younas- http://fahraneande.blogspot.com/
Carlos Carrillo- http://carloscarrilloeande.blogspot.com/
Andy Kinnear- http://thirdnetworkak.blogspot.com/
Chris Caldow- http://chrisceande.blogspot.com/
Ben Keswick- http://benkeswickeande.blogspot
Kofi Ansah- http://koansah.com/blog/?page_id=1160
Dean Pankhurst- http://dpankhurst3.blogspot.com/
Tara Dulake- http://taradulakeenterpriseentrepreneurship.blogspot.com
Keith Trodd- http://3rdyearenterpriseentrepreneurshipblog.blogspot.com/
Hayley Allen- http://hayleyallenee.blogspot.com/
Mariluz Noto- http://mariluzeande.blogspot.com/
Marios Economides- http://marioseconomides7.blogspot.com/
Alex Caldow- http://alexceande.blogspot.com/
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Finding a group:
Originally a few of my classmates (Fahran, Kofi and Clym) asked me to work with them on an idea for selling cupcakes to raise money for our degree show and I said yes. Then I found out they had added other people and the idea had changed to creating a website to showcase final year work; this would help people on my course promote their work by renting space on the website. I had been considering working on my card idea but I thought it would be too time-consuming to do properly and I could achieve more as part of a group. So I ended up joining the group working on Carlos's idea and was assigned the task of scheduling and co-ordinating the work to be done. I decided to use Shotgun, having used it in Jared's unit to organise my individual project,for this which will help me to produce gantt charts and as it is online, everyone can have access to it.
Besides managing the schedule for the group i.e. Gantt chart, I will also be available as back-up to give help to the rest of the group for anything else they need so as to see this business work out.
Here is a Link to the Online Schedule:
https://ravensbourne-l3.shotgunstudio.com/page/1896
These are some snap shots of what our schedule is like at the current moment:
Coming Up with an idea:
Regarding the strategy plan he then explained the differences between long term and short term schemes. The short term scheme will take off quickly and make money but it does not last. The long term scheme is the one that takes a while to get started but has more chance of lasting long term.
I need to estimate the number of employees that I need to start with and to consider increasing this number as the business gets established. Depending on the product, if it is something that is man-made you would have to consider the parts/materials/suppliers and consider costs. I would need to do business with other people in order to make mine successful.
If I want to sell this product I would have to consider location/supplier/distribution and naturally costs. Where will I be selling my products? I need to do research the most lucrative locations and this all depends on the product - think time and place. The research needs to be based on the product and the public's demands.
I would need to think about how I am going to advertise my business and he suggested that by going through a charitable organisation I could make a name for myself. You need to spend money in order to make money. By giving a product to a charity you are benefitting the people behind the charity while at the same time my business could get good press coverage and free advertising.
Another way of pitching my product would be to call the press and invite them to an event, give an interview and have a professional spokesperson to 'sell' my product.
Regarding being exclusive, I need to do research on companies that are already doing a similar concept to my idea and look into how I can make mine better than the existing ones, find that USP.
My brother recommended that I do worldwide research and not limit myself just to the UK, this will help expand the business in the future. Other cultures may have very different tastes and so the product may have to be adapted accordingly.