Example Images (Sara)

Example Images

Kathryn Jefferson- Business Start-Up Manager

Although this is a group task we have each been given tasks to produce a response to. I am responsible for the following tasks:

1. A company or sole trader name
2. A Written rationale for your business (at least 600 words)
3. A monthly financial forecast for the first 6 months of trading (this may mean obtaining information from all other managers in your group)
4. A list of professional bodies that will be able to support you during your time of business (The Aop, BAPLA etc.)

We also decided that i would produce the minutes of the team meetings

6th Meeting - Minutes 11/05/10

Task 1- Written Rationale

Before writing our Company Rationale i wanted to research the ones used by other companies to give me a starting point.

We discussed in the meeting that some things to include in the Rationale would be:

• Company style and services offered
• Description of the studio space

Other things that may be worth including in the Rationale are:

• A brief introduction to the Photographer and stylist
• Company history- established in...
• Any awards won by the Company/Photographer/Stylist

Here are some examples of the Rationale's i found on Photographers websites:

"I am a professional wedding and portrait photographer from Bolton, Lancashire providing quality coverage across the North of England and overseas, working for a range of clients for whom beautiful photography is a prerequisite.
I am passionate about creating fantastic images in a relaxed and unobtrusive style that delivers a range of photographs that are unique to your special day, pictures that provide a lasting memory and capture the emotions of the day.


Working closely with couples to provide coverage that is a mix of contemporary, reportage and photojournalistic with a hint of fashion, without forgetting those group shots that are special to you".

This was taken from http://www.erniemelling.co.uk/

This is an extract from the statement on the home page of the site, i think its possibly easier to have a detailed mission statement for a wedding photographer than for our company but i want to try and use this research to help write a mission statement appropriate for our company.

I am not sure which came first, being nosey or an interest in ‘street photography’, but a fascination with people and the way they live their lives is why I enjoy the business so much.


This is another example of a rationale used on a Photographers website, although it is not overly professional it serves the  purpose that he needs it to- to tell people about what he does:
I can’t hide behind lights and technology, I am reliant on a small Leica camera, patience and lots of optimism. But what I get in return is the chance to make an honest picture which people know immediately is a genuine moment and which hopefully burrows deep into their memories.

Taken from: http://www.mattstuart.com/About/Bio
 

Written Rationale- Draft 1

I have spent a bit of time trying to do the written rationale but when it came down to it i found it quite difficult.


It needs to be at least 600 words and so far i have got it to nearly 300 and i feel that it is a little bit cheesy in places...


The first draft is below, i will get feedback from everyone in the team meeting and then change anything that people are unhappy with and hopefully get some ideas of parts i can add to it. In the mean time i will also add to my previous research into other companies rationales/mission statements to give me more inspiration and help me finish the rationale for our company.

Written Rational- Draft 2

After feedback from the team it was decided that the rationale i had done was more appropriate for the website- if we had one.

The purpose of the task was to produce a rationale as part of a business plan therefore aiming it more toward the bank manager than the customer.

Here is the 2nd draft:

Written Rationale - Review of Second Draft

Written Rationale- Final Drafts

Rationale for Web Use

When i posted the first draft of the Rationale i recieved some valid feedback from the rest of the team, i have used this feedback when creating the second draft.

Ruth made the suggestion that the Rationale should be aimed more toward the bank manager than the customer as when referring to the brief this is part of a business plan, during the last group meeting it was decided that this was the right approach. We discussed this with John and decided as i had already produced a Rationale aimed at the customers, we will also show this too.

The below document is the second draft of the Rationale and will be used on the company website as an opening statement to customers.

After producing this draft of the rationale we decided to have the location of the studio in Blackburn rather than London so changes needed to be made to the rationale, below is the ammended final version for web use:

I also needed to ammend the business rationale for the Business Plan- after recieving feedback from the group (shown above) so here is the final ammended version of the full written rationale:

Workflow

Workflow Research

Research

Develop an Efficient Photography Workflow - Picturecorrect.com

This is a basic workflow template:

Source

Some Photography Workflow Examples:

Workflow example from Imagecapsule.com

Workflow example from F29

Workflow example from Blainekendall

Cash Flow Forecast

When doing a cash flow forecast for our business i wanted to make sure everything was included in there. During the lecture whilst discussing cash flow we had put in an allowance for the bank account as usually businesses pay for the use of a bank account, i have found that Natwest offer free banking for the first two years to new businesses and there is some useful information on thier website

http://www.natwest.com/business/starting-a-business.ashx

Another thing i wanted to research was the cost of a business loan to cover our start up costs and give us some cash whilst we are setting up the business.

Given the figures that Sara has given from the equipment list i think a figure of £20000 is more than enough to cover costs and give us some security for our first year in business.

It could be argued that its better to take a shorter term and repay the loan as soon as possible but with this being a new business i think low monthly payments are a priority, if the business over-takes our expectations and it is viable we could always pay off the loan earlier- although this does incurr a charge of 2 months interest for early repayment. So i have decided to work with a term of 5 years giving us a monthly repayment of 388.99 which i will build into the Cash Flow.

When we discussed the case flow in a group we decided to work through the expenditure of the business first to enable us to decide how much to charge and what our profit targets will be.

For the purpose of the workflow i have used a figure of £15000 for the start up costs, this will cover the cost of the equipment list given by Sara and a large amount of advertising and promotion that will be required to get the first customers through the door.

The £15000 figure will include:

Equipment- Cameras, Lighting, Computers & Software etc

Props

Deposit on the Studio

Furniture

Advertising

Consumables

Fridge & Kettle for Refreshments

Above is the first attempt at the cash flow forecast, at the moment i have used provisional figures for the income. I have suggested to the team that we discuss this further in the next team meeting and change the cash flow where necessary. There are a few decisions that need to be made as a group before the cash flow can be totally completed.

I aslo need to include the Insurance when Sara has obtained a quote for the equipment list.