10/12/2015

 As I am coming to the conclusion of this module, I am writing up the final parts of my big Week 8-10 evaluation. I have done the evaluation in two parts - a reflection on the Fashion Show itself and a reflection on the success and sales figures of the actual business. 

From previous experience I have in writing evaluations I am told to try and increase my communication methods to get higher marks. This was a target I set myself this year. To do this I wanted to try and incorporate different techniques to get my statistical information across. I settled on a line chart so I could show the comparing months and how figures increased appropriately and clearly in one table. 

3/12/15

As I have got the majority of the other work done I have been able to focus mainly on the business presentation. I get myself quite overwhelmed about presentations as I find it quite hard to understand how to 'present' the information. However, from past feedback in other years of presentations I tried my best to focus on the main, important parts of my development through the module and portraying this information through different visual communication forms. 

I am really happy with the final product of this and how its improved compared to my previous presentations. I just hope its enough to push my final grade!!

19/11/15-26/11/15

Between this period of time I focused on my week 8 -10 project paper work and started the main 2000 word evaluation to round the module off. I tried to get all my work prior to this evaluation and presentation done before hand so I could focus the majority of my final time on the most important parts. From previous experiences of writing final evaluations I know how crucial reflecting on my development is to my final marks and as I want to try and get the highest marks I can I put the most time into this part.

  I focused on the reflection of the day I had and the development I had within my own personality and feelings towards this type of event. I also covered the importance of entering competitions like this to help boost my profile and brand as much as possible from the feedback, industry contacts made and marketing.  I gained knowledge from this importance from Bridal Buyer - Winning Words (Appendix 3) which helped me push further and gave me tips on how to optimise the opportunity in the best possible way for bridal wear in particular therefore helped me put theory into practice.

12/11/15

I focused today on making a start on the write up of my 'Week 8-10 Project'. I have all my ideas planned out in sections to make it easier and more clearer. 
I managed to get the first section done - the manufacturing side, the second section - the marketing - nearly done, I just need to add in my photo-shoot photos and then I have just got the diary of the day to do and the outcome and evaluation. 
I want to have these done by next week so I can focus my time on the final big 2000 word evaluation, where inevitably most of my marks will come from. 
I also noted down again what I needed to do to reach the higher marks. I still need to evaluate each section in my folder which is starting to become a job I put off and off as my folder grows. I want to get it done over the weekend and get it out of the way.

5/11/2015

As my business plan is done and the majority of my folder is completed (I think) I wanted to make a proper start on my 8-10 week project. I haven't done any work within this yet as I wasn't entirely sure what to include and other work within this module took priority - but after clearing it up with Amy, I now know what is needed. 

As I have already done my live project (Midlands Fashion Awards that happened at the start of October) I am just writing up all my information. I have decided to include information on; the manufacturing of the dresses, why I have chosen the certain theme of them, evaluating my garments, the photoshoot side - evaluating, my own promotion - social media etc, the competitions promotion - their social media coverage and newspapers etc, the day itself - I did a diary, backstage photos, the outcome, and an evaluation on the whole day. I am hoping to have this done within the two weeks of when the project should be live.

Half Term

Over half term I decided to set myself a target. I didn't want to do too much of my 8-10 week project as I wasn't too sure exactly what to include so I didn't want to do loads and find out it's all wrong. So I focused mainly on updating all my work and folder to the maximum I could, and making a substantial start on my business plan. Having done a similar one before in my Foundation Degree, I knew the staple of what needed to be included.  

After researching into business plans and business plan mistakes I learnt what to include specifically to fashion. Luckily I even found a business plan example for a bridal shop which I found incredibly helpful - not just because of knowing what to include but to see how they have worded certain things in relevance to a small bridal businesses. A lot of business plan examples online are relevant to only big corporate businesses that have huge budgets and loans to work from. For example it helped me understand, what certain statistics to include, how to write my competitive edge correctly, my objectives over a period of time, my specific target market and how to sum up my business effectively, realistically and positively in a small paragraph.

I worked really hard on this through half term and managed to complete it all before the first lesson back. I really enjoyed completing it as I am hoping to take this exact business idea forward in the following summer.

22/10/15

Today I focused on my marketing strategy and the initial thoughts of my business plan; what needs to go into it and researching other peoples for ideas of how to make mine specific to my business idea as possible. 
I did some quick research within the business planning to take forward for next week and work on through half term.
After this, I worked on my marketing strategy on a shoestring budget. I looked into doing things locally/cheaply, not only to go within the limitations of the module; the shoe string budget, but also as I am hoping to take this business idea forward in the summer with extremely low outgoings. This can help me set aside a small budget/save up in preparation for the marketing I hope to use. I looked into a variety of ways, mainly internet based as this is where I hope to start off from so I want to try and build up a good, solid internet audience. However, as things - hopefully - progress, I will start to consider adverts in magazine publications, perhaps when I have a studio space for people to come and visit and be measured there. I haven't included this in the marketing strategy as my proposed one is to hopefully have immediate effect rather than what is planned in the next few years.

15/10/15

Today, my target was to try and focus on gathering as much book sourced research as I possibly could. After my 1:1 I noted down some of the things I was missing throughout my folder to gain the highest marks possible and went over to the library. I found a perfect book called How To Set Up And Run A Fashion Label by Toby Meadows. Reading/photocopying/annotating this book really helped me improve my fashion based business knowledge as many of the online articles etc are just aimed at people wanting their own business in general so miss out crucial details such as manufacturing and production time scales. It helped me understand why businesses chose the wholesale route - which is something for me to consider. "The three main reasons why many fashion start-ups choose the wholesale route; limited funds, distribution and credibility." It also helped me understand the full production process for when I start sampling myself. "Researching trends, colours, shapes, fabrics. Developing product designs. Ordering sampling fabrics and trims. Patterns developed. Toile developed. Product samples cut and sewn. Final sample collection selected. Selling season - orders taken and production run calculated. Final product modifications made. Patterns graded for sizes sold. Production of order. Quality control checks. Packaging and shipping." Learning the full insight of this process can help me set up my professional critical path of manufacturing coinciding with my Final Major Project. 

I went through and highlighted and annotated what I found important and useful in relation to what I hope to be doing within my own business. 

Reading this information also made me aware and opened my mind to new possibilities. For example, I ideally want to make all my dresses from scratch - to order,  but if I found there was a demand for a small capsule, ready to wear collection; I now know slightly more information on how to go about having that mass manufactured. 

This is all I got done today as I had to leave early to complete my final touches on the dresses I made for the Midlands Fashion Awards for the next day. 

My target for next week is start summarising each section within my folder to increase my word count and improve my grades. 

8/10/15

We moved on to learning about competitors and marketing today. I enjoyed looking into this as one of my main values within my business is not stepping on anybody's business 'toes'. Also its helpful to see who my competitors are and what they offer so I can help carve my own business plan and find my own gap in the market rather than just copying somebody else's business idea and constantly fighting for each other's competition. 

I did a quick competitor analysis in this part, just to be able to sum up their pro's and con's and make it easier for me to flick back to and refer from. I also did a case study on my 'biggest' competitor to help me identify their weaknesses so I can help build up on that therefore, using them as my strengths. 

I started research on marketing and using Bridal Buyer as a source of specific bridal business marketing. This really improved my knowledge on marketing as most of the internet based sources are very loose and direct their information at people who want large corporate businesses rather than small 'homely' style ones. They also had information on marketing through visual merchandising etc which again, I found really helpful as bridal shop windows tend to be designed a lot different than normal garment shop windows; so it was nice to have specific information within my specialist area. My aim before next week is to look further into researching about a social media strategies and start writing my own marketing strategy.  

1/10/15

Today we mainly focused on narrowing down the target audience for our businesses. I decided on my target audience by researching into various different business similar to mine and searching through their 'real brides' section on their websites to build up a good image of who I would ideally sell to. I found this really helpful as I was able to start aiming my product at a potential customer. This will then lead on to help me when I start to draw up a marketing strategy for my business, and the market research. I also began to look into the costings and cash flow forecasts. This was meant to have been looked into last week but I had missed the lesson. I drew up my own persona survival budget so I knew how much money I would need to make a month to cover my own personal outgoings to make the business a job rather than just a hobby. From these figures I also completed my own cash flow forecast and financial forecast. I made sure these were realistic figures to ensure I had the best chance of making my business a success straight away. I am trying to limit my loan income and focus on saving the money myself to cut down on the potential losses when repaying my loan. I also tried to take into consideration the wedding season and the dips throughout the year so I am prepared for 'dry patches' throughout the year and I can put money aside from the busy periods to cover my outgoings in the quieter periods. 

I will be looking into the marketing and promotion side of the business for next week's lesson.

24/11/15

As I was ill today I stayed at home and worked from my laptop gaining more research. Using the lesson plan  from last week I focused on increasing my knowledge on the legal structures of a business. I looked into various websites on the start up legal procedures you would have to take before starting up your business. This is extremely helpful for me as I didn't know some of the choices you could make - which would effect the business in later life. I learnt the differences between each label your business could be and the repercussions it may have, e.g. the tax you'll pay and what benefits you may receive. Between today and next week I will look into more of the legal side and read up on all my notes, highlight and annotate them ready for next lesson. Keeping myself organised in this way allows me to make sure I am never behind on work, and allows me to thoroughly annotate my work without rushing it at the last week before hand in. 

Lesson 1 - 17/09/15

With it being our first lesson and an introduction to the module we spent a lot of time discussing our initial ideas. We got into groups with similar subjects and swapped our ideas whilst picking up on new ones. I found this helpful as they were people I hadn’t met before so gave me new ideas from completely different perspectives. I have thought about my own business prior to today so I have a quite a solid business idea which makes it easier as I can get on with my work straight away without wasting too much time thinking about it. I have experience in creating a business plan and thinking about all the financial side and the marketing – however I haven’t really thought about the values as a business and what’s important to me as a business. So far, I am feeling quite confident about the task as I feel like my idea is well researched into and I feel quite confident about it. I am hoping to take this forward by before next week, researching into different competitors and doing case studies on other similar companies. I am also hoping to interview some similar businesses to see if their answers can advise me in the right direction when starting up my own idea and business.