LAU Graduate Entrepreneur Research Summary

Products and Service

Animation
Editorials (moving, still)
Zines + prints?
Community engagement events in the form of skill-sharing

People we'll be contacting for support

Leeds Inspired (Link) - They are doing small grants for people who are serious in doing cultural events in Leeds
Handmade Cinema (Link) - Sheffield-based community cinema.
Hyde Park Picture House (Link) - independent cinema at Hyde Park, Leeds.
Girl Gang Collective (Link) - Collective of women and non-binary who wants to break social barriers through creative engagement with the public.

Market Research

Opportunities
Leeds 2023 - European capital of culture in 2023; creatives who comes from different cultural background adds the value of the collective. Moreover, Leeds Film City campaign also demands for expansion of any form of film production in the region. This increases the opportunities for us to enter the Leeds' creative industry.

Customer Profile
Leeds student population; they are passionate about social issues and art.
General public who are interested in art and culture; creative engagement, workshops, exhibition, selling prints and zines.

Need to consider about  business competitions! (as stated in the forms)
Other than that, I felt that our body of work shows strong and unique understanding of illustration and animation which came from our overlapping interest in communicating through the moving and the still aesthetic.

Communication & Promotional Tools

possibly during the end of year exhibition, we will be screening the May Day! protest animation and showreel. Leah Tomlinson from second year Animation is also running an art market in July, and there will be projector for people to screen our showreel and films. We will be exploring more of Leeds' independent and arts scene. We will also be attending animation networking events such as Festivus and Loopdeloop screenings.

Finances

cost of setting up and management: (undecided)

estimated income: target of £50,000 investment funds (as required to switch to Tier 1 entrepreneur visa)

other sources of income aside of sales: workshops, grants, crowdfunding websites.

Operations

work week: 5 Days a week, 9 to 5

physical space: Creative workspace; Studio for two, and possibly a workshop space. Duke studio or something similar?

physical equipment & IT software: 

Physical-

Scanner

Photocopy machine

Laptops or iMacs

Papers

Art supplies

Software-

Adobe Creative Cloud (After Effects, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro)

Manufacturing and/or distribution process: 

offline - Print Fairs

online (e-Commerce) - bigcartel, domain website, and maybe other selling platforms such as everpress, awesome merch, and mercht HQ.

Legal Protection 

Business registration: Nobigi. Ltd, 

Protection of intellectual property: Animation and illustration by issuing a "purchase order" which consist of contract terms and conditions that needs to be signed by the clients at the beginning of the project. Also, issuing properly referenced invoice to keep track the finances of the company.

Insurance & Licenses needed:

from home office website

Legal documentation: Invoicing, bookkeeping (consider getting a freelance accountant to work with us), event notices.

Critical Reflection

I have found out that we are still far away from getting to a 'credible' business idea. Despite having found out a lot about the market in Leeds, the realisation plan of the idea still needs working. We will need to research further on legal and financial sides, and also contacting the people whom I'd like to get the support and advice from after PP3 deadline.