For this series of entries, I will be explaining the steps I take in developing my startup during my placement year at the Northumbria Business Startup Hatchery. Hopefully, these monthly report-style blogs can be useful to someone in a similar position, who is looking to get started with developing their business idea.
ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN FOR DECEMBER 2016
- Wrote a blog post on my experience at the VRy Merry Christmas event arranged by VRTGO Labs, which was an opportunity to explore the present and future opportunities in the virtual, augmented and mixed-reality spaces.
- Spoke with previous collaborators (Grainger Games, Northumbria University VRV, Gateshead College) in order to get testimonies for my services, which I can display on my website to bolster my reputation.
- Attended the Grow Your Business With Digital Marketing event, arranged by the Northumbria Enterprise and Business Support (NEBS) and held at the Northern Design Centre.
- Evaluated the advice given at the event in order to create and implement a plan to improve search engine optimisation (SEO) for my own website, as well as a targeted online ad campaign to attract business from across the United Kingdom.
- Worked with Dayle Traynor from NW Design to implement my digital marketing strategy, which included learning how to the tools to define the goals of my campaign, which combination of analytics would produce the most representative data and how to extract insights from the analytics reports in an effective manner.
- Conducted two long length seminars at Gateshead College for the HND Games Production students, which included individual one-to-one evaluation and feedback for over two dozen students.
- Spoke with Gateshead College staff from other courses in regards to providing further support options for them in 2017.
- Utilised the proposal documents I created in November to contact each potential client in the North-East region in regards to providing the VR for Education service to them.
- Contacted the Digital City initiative after this year’s round of European Regional Development Funding, looking for opportunities for help, however, they have since re-branded and are now focusing on retail ventures.
- Began a line of enquiry into the Startup Loan, with the idea of getting prepared to for seeking government-backed funding should I begin to turn a profit.
- Created a professional profile for both Upwork and Freelancer, with a view to seek out and bid for paid VR client projects from an international audience.
- Priced my services based on the work I had done so far during the year, allowing me to accurately calculate the fixed and variable costs to arrive a sensible price for each service offered.