New Business – new things to learn and do!

OCTOBER 2017

1. Company Administrator
   October was the month for “starting a company” administration with lots of form filling in and policy creation.  What fun!
2. Marketing Executive
   Late October saw the start of my marketing campaigns with me emailing 60 primary schools in and around York with information about my company. Initial response rate was 1 in 30, but I had several friends working at some of the schools which resulted in a 1 in 15 response overall, which I’ve been told is good going!
3. Hot Desk “Digital Nomad” Worker
   The 27th saw me start using the hot desk office space for the Hiscox Business Club. I had applied earlier to join this club which provides free office space, WiFi, printing, drinks AND toast! Hiscox really know how to benefit small businesses! There are around 20 or so other small businesses in the club, and it’s a great place for advice and support as you start out with your own business.
   Having a hot desk helps you focus on trying to keep your whole working like in the digital arena. Having said that, apart from my laptop, I do have an A4 plastic box file (2cm height) for the inevitable pieces of paper that I need!
   
   NOVEMBER 2017
   
   
4. Graphics Artist
   Where did October go? Time to be a web designer and sort out the website. I have used WordPress in the past so I decided that I’d go with that (despite seeing lots of adverts for Wix).
   Next job, design a Business Card! So with the help of my son Ben, from https://benpriestphotography.com, a logo was designed first, and then the fonts and wording were chosen for the text. I also decided that to help people keep my business card I would design some stick people to go on the reverse side in order to show you how to juggle 3 balls! The other members of the Hiscox Business Club were very helpful with comments and advice throughout the process.
5. Giver of Freebies 
   The initial email marketing campaign was followed up by offering the schools a free juggling stall at their Christmas Fairs, and as a result, my initial response rate of 1 in 30, improved to 1 in 5, and resulted in 8 bookings! There’s nothing like the word “free” to encourage people to give your company a try!
6. School Club Provider
   One of the schools that responded to the first campaign offered me a lunchtime circus skills club for the 2nd half of the spring term. So after a bit of frantic research I discovered that a lot of people use https://www.clubenrolment.com to simplify all the administration of running a club – including making payments really easy (parents can pay online), so with that sorted, it was time to put my Graphics Artist hat back on and sort out a flyer – didn’t have room for the bunting on my business card but there’s plenty of space for it on the flyer!
7. Christmas Fair Juggler
   On the 25th I ran my first free juggling stall at Poppleton Road Primary Christmas Fair, which was great fun with lots of children and a few adults enjoying to juggle scarves and beanbags.
8. Circus Skills Workshop Provider
   Yes, the 27th November was the first occasion since starting the business on October that I was able to go into a school (Copmanthorpe Primary – largely thanks to a friend who teaches there) to do my very first trial PE lesson for both year one classes. This went very well and I hope that at some point they will be able to fit me into their PE provision schedule. Yippee!