Enterprise & Innovation - Group Meeting.

We discussed our progress over reading week and where we were up at this point. With just over a week left we really have to push to make final decisions and get things done in order to tackle everything for the presentation.

Marty and I have put together and designed a rough idea for the layout and order of the presentation, it needs a few tweaks as we missed out anything about finance.

Claudia and Lisa have done some research on the location for our business and looked at networking opportunities.

We came to the decision that we will be based at The Unit in Leeds which is part of Leeds City College. The rent is just £50 a month and it gives us 6 hours and month which would be perfect for weekly briefings in person. The rest of the time communication can be done via telephone, Skype and email.

After the first year we would hopefully rent out and office space at The Unit for £150 a month, this would allow us to keep the same address and contact.

We've decided that the focus of our business that will appeal to our clients and possible collaborators is that we are brand new, we are young and fresh and vibrant plus we are able and willing to compete on price against bigger more experienced businesses.

We plan to cut back our overheads with the hot-desking at The Unit for the first year, this will allow us to build up our client base, our reputation and funding to move into a more substantial office space at The Unit. Furthermore we will be providing a number of personal assets for the business to cut back on the overheads even more.

Claudia put forward the idea that we could hand out bottles of juice like orange juice at the presentation/any face to face business pitches as a creative give away apposed to a simple leaflet of print. The reason for juice is it connotes the characteristic of being fresh and refreshment to the audience. The labels will include our logo, slogan, mission statement, any contact information and any other services that we provide. We will of course be designing standardised business cards and letterheads for formal reasons as not every business or client will respond in such an informal manor to us. 

This idea then lead me to think about sponsor ship and who could provide the orange juice? Off the top of our heads we could think of supermarkets and their own brands of juice, Innocent Smoothies and The Amazing Smoothie Company. If we were to get sponsorship from anyone of these, they could provide the juice we hand out and some financial backing for expenditures and equipment in exchange for free advertising and publicity. Furthermore, the ethics and credibility of the juice company would be reflected onto our business and give it positive light with a wide range of possible clients.

Action plan.

Claudia - mission statement and slogan

Marty - business cards and bottle labels and letter head

Lisa - overheads and spreadsheets

Charlie - Networking opportunities and sponsorship