Finance Lecture

Lecture with Ian Montcrieff-Scott, business advisor from DeD, on business and finances

at the end of this session we were given a selection of paperwork which gave us more information about the grants and loans. this session was too vague and not necessarily relevant to me, last years session (or two years ago) with Juan on startups etc was a much more beneficial session.

Why could it fail?

·         Competition

·         Complacency

·         Manufacturer/supplier increases costs or collapse

·         Bad reviews

·         Demand decreases

·         Rent increases and sales cannot cover it

·         Poor set up

·         Lack of planning

·         Not enough market research – on the IOM there is only 80,000 people, if the business doesn’t exist it is often because there is not enough demand for it to make it viable.

·         Cashflow – start-up costs, trading (few orders)

Costs:

·         Setting up costs

·         Running costs

Working from Home:

·         Tenancy restrictions,

·         insurance, mortgage – banks dislike it if you start up a new business from home if you have a mortgage as you are deemed less reliable,

·         liability insurance

Types of traders:

·         Sole trader – sole liability, trade under your own name or can go to the registry office is opposite bar George if wanting to trade under a different name.

·         Partnerships – limited by guarantee is more common, joint liability

·         Limited company – two directors, this is separate from us (the sole person) risks are less for shareholders, £100/£250/£500 few to start up. Price increases the sooner you want the paperwork completed. Shareholders can take dividends

Pensions:

Must consider this, don’t leave until later to try and sort this.

Sources of funds:

·         Family and friend’s gifts or loans

·         Shareholders

·         Savings

·         Loans

·         Government grants

Advised to use savings and money that is interest free, certainly don’t use credit cards, as debt could increase if things don’t go smoothly.

 Government grants:

·         micro business start-up, match funding, 5day intense course

·         business funding support – if you can say how your business would help to prevent someone supplying the service from off island then you would appear more attractive

·         Vocational training scheme

·         Green loan scheme

·         Full financial support scheme – employing, manufacturing, export

Social Media Lecture with Tanya Andersen

Tanya Anderson – Lovely Greens

Fine art and graphic design degree

Is based in Bauldrine.

Social Media:

Attract customers

Sells @notonthehightstreet too
does online tutorials, lessons in soap making
is a lifestyle blogger
has a YouTube channel

Brand awareness, relationship with followers, advertise products & events e.g. agricultural shows

Drive traffic to shop site

Drive traffic to blog @lovelygreens

Focus on 2-3 social media channels: what’s best for products and your personality

(social media explained-donut edition)

Uses twitter for her blog

Fb- she has two pages – one is for “How-to’s” and making interest in DIY

2^nd is for products

YouTube is for her DIY too

Instagram is great for products

For her blog – does reviews of clothing or gardening products, brands ect. Directs traffic too

Pinterest – 80/90% of her traffic is from here

She uses newsletters (free from mailchimp or paid deom mademimi) to direct traffic to her shop

Designs blog posts for Pinterest i.e. creates images tall and to the Pinterest specifications

Content that she shares is 95% her own – shares links and images

Social media strategy:

#1 site is fb

-goal, sell products and services

- organic traffic

- goal is sales (clicks to website)

- links to products in most posts

- shares one post a day, generally around 8pm

Buffer – 3^rd party subscription allows you to schedule posts

Helps to create a content calendar for sharing

Later.com – uploads images from computer to Instagram

Graphic app – photoshop

Digital SLR camera (use high quality images – is aware images get stolen. Uses a watermark)

Fb insights

Posts at the same time on social media, people will be more aware then that there is new material available.

Blog doesn’t sell directly – has adverts e.g. recipe ingredients has a link, indirect sale if clicked on and purchased.

Handmade living, focuses on DIY’s and lifestyle

Always includes logo on blog images

Web friendly images – means if you go to print it will be pixelated

For blog - #1 social site is Pinterest

-          Goal is to entertain and inform

-          Organic traffic

-          Income; links to ads and affiliate sights

-          Content share is 50% of own

-          Shares always photos

EARLY ADPOTERS OF NEW SOCIAL MEDIA DO BETTER ON SOCIAL MEDIA THAN LATTER FOLLOWERS

Link to google analysis

Thanks anyone who shares stuff

Worked with ray collister

Trello, for making lists/organising

Tailwind for scheduling pins

Later.com for Instagram

Fb scheduler

Fb collaboration group

Know what you’re selling
when your market is
what they will engage with

Post regularly on social media outlets that are best suited for your business

Be consistent, post regularly, experiment with new things

Check out peach – new social media site

Was a hobby, started out very small. 10 bars at first at farmer’s markets

2years to make a profit (usually)

Lovely greens is a person, not just a brand. Hence why she has herself as her profile picture and shows herself making things a lot or workshops with people in them.

Used to design mobile phone interfaces for Samsung

For internal sharing, she says it is OK to remove watermarks from people’s work/stock photos but if you were to use them publicly then you would obviously have to ask permission/pay for the work.

Facebook is more personal, can approach people in a friendly manner to get your stuff removed if not allowed

5pm is just when people are finishing work, in east coast US it is lunchtime, an ideal time to post on social media.

Evergreen content

Ad thrive

Google ads

RESEARCH: PEACH

http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/8/10739010/peach-cool-social-network
http://peach.cool/
https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/14/peach-gets-an-unofficial-web-and-android-version-called-nectarine/
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/peach-3/timeline#/timeline/index

OVERVIEW: After researching up what the peach social site is i have to say i am not convinced. it is similar to twitter and Instagram only is seems android and ios versions of peach differ, in one way with the name. android has the name nectarine and ios, peach. It just seems very simplistic and copying the rest of the functioning apps and sites that most of us use today; such as facebook, twitter and instagram.

Research keywords and sites: 

Evergreen content: evergreen content is considered sustainable and lasting.

Later.com: Visually plan and schedule Instagram posts. Overview: this could be really useful for me to plan out what i should upload to ensure that there is a consistently new selection of work to post to the public.

Tailwind: looks like a paid app but helps to schedule posts for Instagram and Pinterest.
Trello: An online scheduler/diary  service. currently free. can link up to my google account. may be more useful than my phone checklist.