Business Tasks
Task One:
The video I've linked above is a video I've found explaining SWOT. It explains how SWOT is used and how it benefits all types of business. From big businesses like Amazon to small and local businesses.
There is a lot happening in the UK at the moment to say the least. I would say it was a big massive mess to be honest. Especially for local businesses with the Covid-19 pandemic most of all. During lock-down most businesses had to shut due to the national lock-down which had a big effect on business, profit-wise and mentally for business owners and their employees. Many businesses didn't know if they were going to get through lock-down without having to call it a day and shut down. Some businesses are yet to open fully and are still having to rely on loans and grants from the government, the furlough scheme as well for their employees.
My idea for a creative enterprise is to do football match-day videos covering games and getting players, managers and fans opinions on issues surrounding the game and their club. I will now conduct a SWOT into my business.
S - I think I have a lot of strengths to do with my business. Normally (When Covid isn't around) their are football games happening all the times whee fans are always their, so there's always a lot of work out there for me. Also, there will sometimes be no need to enter the stadium for some games, we can just do it outside. Meaning their will be no ticket cost for some games we go to. Also, another strength is that most football fans always want platforms to share opinions with the media so there will always be interest from the public for interviews etc.
W - With all that's going on at the moment with Covid-19 they are not currently letting fans into stadiums, this takes a massive hit to my business because without the fans, a lot of my content would disappear. But, I can move my content online like I've seen with other similar businesses. I don't think this would draw much interest but I believe their would still be enough people to make good content. Another weakness to this business idea is that there is a lot of competitors in this market, and this would need addressing as my business develops.
O - Their are a lot of opportunities when it comes to my business. Direct connections with football clubs which can be developed through time I think is the most important and biggest opportunity that can present itself for a business. Links with football clubs can include pitch-side access and special permission to speak to player and managers before and after games.
T - Threats to my business mostly include bad interviews and a bad repetition surrounding my content. If a fan says a controversial opinion it could start a bit of backlash onto business. Because my videos aren't planned on being live-streamed I could just edit out any of the bad/controversial interviews but if word gets around that their are some mean people on my interviews it could get backlash from the public.
Task two:
Sole traders: a person who is the exclusive owner of a business, entitled to keep all profits after tax has been paid but liable for all losses.
Limited companies: a private company whose owners are legally responsible for its debts only to the extent of the amount of capital they invested.
Partnerships: A partnership is a formal arrangement by two or more parties to manage and operate a business and share its profits. There are several types of partnership arrangements. In particular, in a partnership business, all partners share liabilities and profits equally, while in others, partners have limited liability.
Social enterprises: an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being—this may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.
Charities: an organization set up to provide help and raise money for those in need.
Unincorporated associations: an unincorporated association is a group of people who come together for a common purpose intending to create a legally binding relationship between themselves.
Task three:
A sustainable business model can be defined as a business model that creates, delivers, and captures value for all its stakeholders without depleting the natural, economic, and social capital it relies on. If stakeholders are not getting profits back from the business they are not going to want to invest. If the business model isn't good or sustainable no-one would want to buy into the business.
Task four:
A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is and identifying the goal of its operations. It also includes what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation. These are very important for a business because it gives potential customers or shareholders a glimpse into what kind of business it goes into.
Brand positioning refers to the place that a brand occupies in the minds of the customers and how it is distinguished from the products of the competitors and different from the concept of brand awareness. Brands that stand out compared to other brands tend to do better than companies and brands that are not unique.
Value and drivers are characteristics of a business that either reduce the risk associated with owning the business or enhance the prospect that the business will grow significantly in the future. It is your job as the owner to create value within your business prior to a sale.
Their are a lot of ways companies/businesses can market themselves. Before they start marketing it is crucial that the company/business needs to identify their audience. For example Gucci only really advertise for the middle and upper class. It would be pretty pointless to advertise for the working class because they can't afford it. After a business has found it's target audience they need to find the best way to connect with them, for example if you're marketing towards the younger generation you are best to do most of your marketing through social media and similar platforms. If you're going towards the older generation. You are best off advertising in newspapers because older people are less likely to have social media accounts and more likely to read traditional things like newspapers. It is also beneficial that you know your business inside out so if anyone asks you questions you can answer knowing you know what you're on about.
Task Five:
The main 4 parts of intellectual property are; trade secrets, patents, copyrights and trademarks. Each of these individually make up the bulk of intellectual properties in companies.
TRADE SECRETS
Trade secrets refer to specific, private information that is important to a business because it gives the business a competitive advantage in its marketplace. If a trade secret is acquired by another company, it could harm the original holder.
Examples of trade secrets include recipes for certain foods and beverages, new inventions, software, processes, and even different marketing strategies.
When a person or business holds a trade secret protection, others cannot copy or steal the idea. In order to establish information as a “trade secret,” and to incur the legal protections associated with trade secrets, businesses must actively behave in a manner that demonstrates their desire to protect the information.
Trade secrets are protected without official registration; however, an owner of a trade secret whose rights are breached for example, someone steals their trade secret–may ask a court to ask against that individual and prevent them from using the trade secret.
PATENTS
A patent is a type of limited-duration protection that can be used to protect inventions that are new, non-obvious, and useful, such a new process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter. When a property owner holds a patent, others are prevented, under law, from offering for sale, making, or using the product.
COPYRIGHTS
Copyrights and patents are not the same things, although they are often confused. A copyright is a type of intellectual property protection that protects original works of authorship, which might include literary works, music, art, and more. Copyright protections are automatic; once you create something, it is yours. However, if your rights under copyright protections are infringed and you wish to file a lawsuit, then registration of your copyright will be necessary.
TRADEMARKS
Finally, the fourth type of intellectual property protection is a trademark protection. Remember, patents are used to protect inventions and discoveries and copyrights are used to protect expressions of ideas and creations, like art and writing. Trademarks, then, refer to phrases, words, or symbols that distinguish the source of a product or services of one party from another. For example, the Nike symbol–which nearly all could easily recognize and identify–is a type of trademark. While patents and copyrights can expire, trademark rights come from the use of the trademark, and therefore can be held indefinitely. Like a copyright, registration of a trademark is not required, but registering can offer additional advantages.
Source: https://brewerlong.com/information/business-law/four-types-of-intellectual-property/
Copyright is a very important part in the creative industry. Especially this day and age when content is so easily accessible. An example of copyright is if I was to take a bunch of photos and someone else was to use them without my permission I could then claim copyright against them. There are ways I can help keep my photos safe, e.g. putting a watermark over them to defer people from using them for themselves. This is similar with videos and music. For example, if I was to upload a YouTube video with someone else's music in the background I would get a copyright strike. Three copyright strikes and I'd get kicked off the website.
A trademark is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression which identifies products or services of a particular source from those of others, although trademarks used to identify services are usually called service marks. Trademarks mainly consist of company name's, symbol's and catchphrases. For example, Starbucks, the McDonald's 'M' displayed above every restaurant and 'I'm loving it'.
A Talent release is a legally binding document which any actor (these are called talents) will have to sign in order for them to be in front of a camera for a production. If you are under the age of 18, you will need a parent to sign the form with you.
A location release is a legally binding document that gives permission for a film crew to film at a certain location. This document would need to be signed by whoever owns the location it’s filmed on. If it’s public land you will need to go to your local council to get permission. If it’s on private land you need to go to the owner of that land. There is no specific law against filming people in terms of privacy, so no-one can technically stop you from filming them. There are laws such as trespassing which is illegal which is why it’s good to always get a signed location release to cover your back when filming on private property. There is also no law against filming or photographing children, as long as the photos are decent in nature.
Public liability insurance is a system of risk financing to protect the purchaser from the risk of liabilities from stuff like lawsuits etc. If the purchaser is sued for claims that come within the coverage of the insurance policy then they will be covered.
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is an EU law and a legal framework that sets guidelines for collecting and processing all data from individuals living in the European Union. The seven principles of GDPR are;
- Lawfulness, fairness and transparency.
- Purpose limitation.
- Data minimisation.
- Accuracy.
- Storage limitation.
- Integrity and confidentiality (security)
- Accountability.
The Competition Act 1998 prohibits any agreement, business practice or conduct which has, or could have, a damaging effect on competition in the United Kingdom. This includes abuse by a company which uses its dominant position in a way that harms competition.
Source: https://www.orr.gov.uk/monitoring-regulation/rail/competition/competition-act-1998#:~:text=The%20Competition%20Act%201998%20prohibits,a%20way%20that%20harms%20competition.
The Enterprise Act 2002 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which made major changes to UK competition law with respect to mergers and also changed the law governing insolvency bankruptcy.
Source: Wikipedia
Task 6:
The main industries that make up the creative industry are;
- advertising
- architecture
- visual art
- crafts
- fashion and textiles
- design
- performing arts
- music
- photography
- film and video
- computer games
- radio and TV
- writing and publishing
- heritage
- software/electronic publishing
- cultural education
All of these individually on their own are still strong, however put together these individual industries make a very large percentage of the UK economy. It is estimated that the creative industries contribute around 13 million pounds an hour to the UK economy.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uks-creative-industries-contributes-almost-13-million-to-the-uk-economy-every-hour
The statistics released on 26 Jul 2017 showed that employment across the creative industries reached almost 2 million (1,958,000) in 2016. The sector now provides 6% of all UK jobs. The total employed in the sector is up 5% from 2015 compared with growth of 1.2% in the UK workforce as a whole.
The UK creative industry's generate over 100 billion pounds a year.
Task 7:
What is a regulatory body and what is a regulatory framework?
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers across the television, radio, telecoms and postal sectors and they work with each of these in depth with each of these to make sure that these follow rules and guidelines.
Pan European Game Information is a European video game content rating system established to help European consumers make informed decisions when buying video games or apps through the use of age recommendations and content descriptors. PEGI, have a parent organisation called 'Interactive Software Federation of Europe'. These represent the interests of the video game industry in Europe to the main stakeholders: EU institutions, international organisations, academics, or the general public.
Task 8:
Britain's creative success is based on a combination of public and private investment – including vital government support for national cultural institutions, the BBC and the Arts Councils, along with the National Lottery and significant regional and local investments, which include Arts Council England and Creative England for businesses based in England.
Their are many types of different insurances in the creative industry. These include;
- Professional Indemnity Insurance. PI is ideal for the creative industry and is specifically designed for any business offering professional services, designs or advice and will help protect you.
- Employers Liability Insurance. As soon as you take on staff, whether they be permanent or part-time, freelance or working for you on a contract basis, you are legally required to have employer’s liability insurance (EL). EL will provide you with the cover you need if an employee has an injury at work. It will also help pay for your legal representation should a claim be brought against you.
- Public Liability Insurance. I've mentioned this earlier in the post.
- Business Equipment Insurance. Most creative media businesses will use some forms of expensive technologies and other equipment such as furniture, but the creative industry is synonymous with using high-end technologies that most other industry sectors don’t need ie: photographic and film recording equipment can cost thousands of pounds per item. So it’s essential to protect your equipment in case of loss, breakage or theft.
- Tax Enquiry & Legal Expenses Insurance. This policy is extensive in its coverage and provides a comprehensive level of insurance for most instances where legal costs and expenses are incurred.
- Directors and Officers Liability (D&O). Many business founders of limited companies don’t realise that you can still personally face legal action, fines or prison sentences. You can also be disqualified from being a company director. D&O will help you with this and it will also show you take your responsibilities seriously to potential investors when they perform their due diligence on your company. Many founders of limited companies don’t realise that it’s not just their business at risk. Business owners can personally face legal action, disqualification, fines or even prison sentences.
Source: https://www.caunceohara.co.uk/important-insurance-for-creative-media/
Considerations for home working:
- To be contactable at certain times.
- Having an agreed timescale to inform the employer when the home worker is on holiday or absent ill.
- To work certain hours.
- To attend the workplace at certain times.
- To be more formally supervised.
- To keep a record of time keeping.
Working from home has many benefits. You can generally work when you like, I've mentioned above an agreed timetable but this wouldn't be your full contracted hours. As long as you get the work done, most creative employees don't mind employees working at home. With the Covid-19 pandemic going on at them moment, there are a lot of people who are working from home, which has seen many benefits. It is hard with most creative jobs to work completely from home, but it is absolutely possible to work from home most of the time.
Business rates in England, or non-domestic rates, are a tax on the occupation of non-domestic property. Rates are a property tax with ancient roots that was formerly used to fund local services that was formalized with the Poor Law 1572 and superseded by the Poor Law of 1601.
Source: Wikipedia
In a way it really does matter about your businesses location. Depending on what your business does. For example, if your business is just an accountancy firm it doesn't matter where that accountancy firm is based, because they have little to no business outside of the building. However, if your business does have interest outside of the building, for example a private film school (for filming purposes) it is beneficial to have a lot of film-able areas around your building.
Task 9:
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) is a specific government cabinet position which looks after what is stated above. On the gov.uk website, it states their priorities are;
- growing the economy
- connecting the UK
- encouraging participation
- sustaining excellence and promoting Britain
- supporting our media
- ensuring social responsibility
They also state they have 900 staff working for this specific department. This department have had a lot of work to do in 2020, along with everyone else! These have notable been closing all theaters, and most importantly, having to stop grassroots football twice, because of lock-down. This department have been working hard over recent months to try and save the theaters. Recently, it has announced that it will be making a Culture Recovery Fund worth 75 million to help theaters still closed.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/75-million-for-iconic-arts-venues-and-cultural-organisations-from-culture-recovery-fund
Task 10:
In this task I will be applying all of the above to my own creative enterprise, Matchday with Louis.
Personal SWOT analysis:
My idea for a creative enterprise is to do football match-day videos covering games and getting players, managers and fans opinions on issues surrounding the game and their club. I will now conduct a SWOT into my business.
S - I think I have a lot of strengths to do with my business. Normally (When Covid isn't around) their are football games happening all the times where fans are always their, so there's always a lot of work out there for me. Also, there will sometimes be no need to enter the stadium for some games, we can just do it outside. Meaning their will be no ticket cost for some games we go to. Also, another strength is that most football fans always want platforms to share opinions with the media so there will always be interest from the public for interviews etc.
W - With all that's going on at the moment with Covid-19 they are not currently letting fans into stadiums, this takes a massive hit to my business because without the fans, a lot of my content would disappear. But, I can move my content online like I've seen with other similar businesses. I don't think this would draw much interest but I believe their would still be enough people to make good content. Another weakness to this business idea is that there is a lot of competitors in this market, and this would need addressing as my business develops.
O - Their are a lot of opportunities when it comes to my business. Direct connections with football clubs which can be developed through time I think is the most important and biggest opportunity that can present itself for a business. Links with football clubs can include pitch-side access and special permission to speak to player and managers before and after games.
T - Threats to my business mostly include bad interviews and a bad repetition surrounding my content. If a fan says a controversial opinion it could start a bit of backlash onto business. Because my videos aren't planned on being live-streamed I could just edit out any of the bad/controversial interviews but if word gets around that their are some mean people on my interviews it could get backlash from the public.
PEST(EL) analysis - what current factors are impacting businesses and ventures in the UK?
Economic - My business I don't feel would have that much of an economically impact on anything. Not because I don't think it'll be successful it's just I plan on this being a one-company plan, I don't plan on branching of this idea with any others.
Social - I feel my business would have a big impact socially on the community, since I would be giving football supporters a chance to voice their opinions on matters to do with their or other football clubs.
Legal - Since I will be filming, there is obviously a lot of legal issues I would need to consider. Weather that's public filming or having permission to film certain people, minors in particular. This can be easily resolved. Either I could ask the football club or the local council if I could film on their property, this'll make it a lot easier to film. When it comes to who I'm feeling, since they would want to be in front of the camera, or they wouldn't have volunteered, it should be fine but if there is any issue, a simple talent release form will more than cover it.
Environmental - The only issue environmentally I can think of is travel, since I plan o going to games all around the country, I would obviously need to get myself over to the football ground, weather this is by car, train or bus I will figure it out based on which would be the easiest way to get over there or the cheapest.
Technological - Since I will be using modern-day filming equipment, modern-day editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro. There is a lot of technological issues I would have, the biggest I think, it keeping up with the latest technology
Political - When looking at my business plan there is nothing to political about what I intend to do.
What would Brexit mean for my business?
Brexit wouldn't generally have that big of an impact on my business since I only intend on doing clubs in the UK. It would be something to defiantly consider but with all I know and information I have gathered, Brexit doesn't seem to big of an issue for my company as a whole.
Cultural policy - what is currently happening in the UK?
Obviously the elephant in the room with the UK at the moment is Covid-19. This has impacted businesses massively including my own. Not being able to attend elite football stadiums
is a massive blow to my business model, although temporary this will be. Many similar business including Matchday with Max have moved their interviews online with companies such as Zoom to help them out.
What type of business trader would I be?
I would class myself and my business under a sole trader. I have very little to no plan to have a partnership with anybody and I would plan on taking home any profits I make for myself. However, I am completely open to having a partnership if I can see the benefits in it.
How can an individual, business or organisation market themselves?
Since I plan on having my videos put on YouTube and all over social media; marketing my business would properly be the easiest part. Alongside uploading my videos onto social media channels I plan on making collaborations with similar businesses in my field which will boast my social media presence. I could also look into once I get a fairly large following I can look into getting a sponsorship deal of some kind with a football brand or even maybe a football club.
Business Plan:
I plan on starting my business going around to local football clubs and capturing what the fans think of their team etc. When my business gets larger, I plan on going around to bigger football clubs and do the same. As my business gets bigger I plan on looking into sponsorship deals I can have to cover most of my income. For example I could look into getting deals with sporting brands like Nike or football brands like Mitre.
Mission Statement:
Letting fans have their say. I plan on having a fully legitimate, following all laws to do with social media etc. I plan on using any money I earn early on and putting back into the business to invest into new equipment such as cameras, lenses and editing software's.
Brand Positioning:
I would like my customers/interviewees to see my business as a place where they can be open and honest about questions asked. I see with a lot of businesses that they don't really mind how their customers see them in terms of how their business is run, with me, it is very important that anyone who outlooks on my business sees it as a positive business not a negative one.
Trade Secrets:
Since my business is a very public one, my business won't have many special secrets. The only thing I will have to keep in mind is passwords for social media and YouTube. Obviously I will have to keep my accounts safe and secure so hackers etc. won't be able to get onto them and steal any details I will keep on there, for example bank statements.
Copyright and Trademarks:
Since I will be uploading my videos onto YouTube and maybe a website, copyright would be an easier part of my business, but still a big part on it. YouTube have a really good system of detecting any copyright claims someone else might use against me, or how I might use against someone else. So I don't think copyright would be that big if an issue directly to do with my company.
Talent and Location Releases:
ts to speak to the camera, they can, they would know that if they're being interviewed with video recordings, the video will end up somewhere, in this case on YouTube and a website maybe. If any people that want to be interviewed are concerned, I will offer the option of a location release if that will make them any more comfortable with being in front of a camera.
Public Liability Insurance:
PLI is something I could look into for my business to ensure I'm not out of pocket if any of my equipment breaks etc. I will need to be very carful when filming in bad weather because I don't want to get water damage to any of my equipment etc.
GDPR:
GDPR is a very important issue for pretty much any business in the world. It is important that if I do collect anyone's details that I store it online in a secure way, I can't afford to have someone's details in person and me losing it, this'll mean a lot of trouble for my business in the legal sense.
The Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002:
It is important that my business follows both of these laws. I will make sure that my business doesn't try to hinder any others business progress and also to have a fair sense of competition/rivalry between similar businesses. I will look to collaborate with rival businesses not undermine them.
Regulatory frameworks:
ASA - The Advertising Standards Authority would be an important factor to my income for my business, a lot more than most other business. Since a percentage of my income will be AD revenue I need to make sure that I'm following and adhering to the ASA so I can get the most money out of ads as possible.
ISPO- The ISPO will play an important part of my business because they will be the main people (other than my subscribers) holding my actions to account. If I do or oversee something that they consider wrong they will hold me to account. When making videos I will need to make sure that I am following the editors code when writing stuff on Twitter or on my website for example.
Finance and Insurance:
As far as I'm concerned there are no available financial support or start up scheme for YouTubers. The closest thing I could find we're giveaways people/companies offer. The chances of winning these are very slim but there's always a chance you might get lucky. Since you can start YouTube for free of you want to I believe I won't need as much or any funding because of the very low start up cost. I've mentioned Public Liability Insurance above but I also think Professional Indemnity Insurance would be a very important part to my business as well because it will ensure I don't get scammed as a content creator.
Working from home:
As I've seen from one of my case studies, Matchday with Max. He has proven that he can run a business from home, instead of going to stadiums he will do conduct interviews on a platform called Zoom, the quality isn't as good as it could be because it's all online and all he and his interviewers use are the webcams in their phones or computers but he had proven it still can be done, for this reason, I believe that I could be able to work from home if I absolutely had to.
Business rates:
To the best of my knowledge I don't believe YouTubers pay business rates, they do however pay tax for any ad revenue they earn using AdSense.
Geography, transport and accessibility:
Since I will be travelling all around the country I fond it irrelevant where I base my company (I'll be basing it at home to start of with) because of the miles I'll be traveling when my business starts to take off. I will get whichever transports most convenient to get to the stadiums and I will set up and make it clear where I am so fans can have their say.
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