The second activity of the week was to look at three different elements of a business plan
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Mission Statement
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The Product
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The Market
I decided to undertake some research before drafting my version of these three elements of my business plan. I found a business planning website that contained three business plans for different types of photographic practice:
All the business plans contained the three elements required for this particular activity yet they went into further detail covering other aspects of a business plan:
Alongside the mission statement they covered objectives and key success factors for the practice. All plans contained a section on company structure and startup. The products section contained summaries of each of the products offered by the different practices. Then detailed analysis on the market and the competition faced by the business. A section covered ‘strategy and implementation’ that examines marketing and sales for the business. There was a management summary that considered how the company would operate i.e. sole trader or would the business have multiple employees. The final section of each business plan considered the financials of the business.
For this week’s activity I will restrict my activities to the three elements requested for the activity.
Mission Statement
As a storyteller who uses visual media to stories the focus of my practice is to tell stories that will engage the reader over to repeatedly gaze upon the image and find new meaning each time they engage with the image. My stories are primarily based in Essex the county of my birth though a passion for travelling and exploration means the different series within my body of work are not restricted to a single location.
I aim to develop a discerning audience who will selectively collect images and books produced by my practice.
Product
My visual storytelling will will be resolved through the creation of limited edition images, photobooks and photographic art objects.
- The photographic art objects will be sold as unique pieces and will vary size depending upon the specific story associated with the object.
- Images will be sold as limited edition prints usually in an edition of 5 with 2 APs in no more than two different sizes. Each print will include a certificate of authenticity
- Photobooks will be sold in editions of 500 or 1000 each book uniquely numbered. For books with an edition of 500 the first 50 will be sold with a signed print from the book. For books with an edition of 1000 the first 100 will be sold with a signed print from the book.
All of these products will be produced to a high standard inline with the expectation of the target audience
Market
My practice market is primarily aimed at individual collectors who are interested in collecting photographic prints and photobooks. The primary market for my work is the UK with the USA and China being potentially big markets for these types of products. The primary channels for sale of these products will be via Art Fairs and online sales. In the future it would be great to being selling through a small number of galleries.
The series will be marketed through a combination of traditional marketing, online marketing and social media. The plan is to enter photographic competitions to help raise the profile of the practices.
