Enterprise: The Pitch

The day of our pitch was a nervous thought. It wasn’t long after our market day and we hadn’t put much work into it to begin with as we focused directly on our product and getting it finished to a high quality for sales day. After the market day we immediately divided our business plan up into equal parts and went to work. Together we made a fantastic business plan and got it printed in the University’s PrintShop and had it spiral bound and a hard cover added for a professional look. As we took loads of pictures over the course of our project to show the progression we added them into a slideshow for our pitch to highlight our creative adventure. We each had a section to explain which reflected our roles within the group. As I was the finance manager I spoke about our projected profits and financial targets. This was really interesting to research and discover. We made a profit of 330% of our initial spending which is a great success! Our pitch went as planed despite being nervous as we presented in front of a panel of 6 potential investors, who gave us feedback in return based on what they heard and saw form our presentation and our financial figures. They highlighted their admiration of our team collaboration and how well we worked as a team and got along with one another’s personality.

Here is my script as followed:

— START —

Hi, my name is Ben Walton and I am the Finance manager of our team group Paper Trail. I am joined today with Dwida and Juliana. Dwida and I study graphic communication and Juliana studies textiles. Our 4th member Barbara, could not be with us today however she was a crucial member of our team throughout the project.

PRODUCT IDEA

During the initial stages of starting our business we decided to target the christmas market to maximise our potential revenue. As a group we chose to create christmas cards which took a spin on the usual xmas card found in shops. At first it started with the idea of a small hand-illustrated design which could be screen printed to give it more character in contrast to digitally printed cards. The cards would be small enough to fit into the buyers hand to make it feel more personal and to help it stand out from the other cards. After exploring the idea of making it interactive we decided to make a design that could be personalised by the buyer.

The problem with todays cards are that they don’t feel as personal as they could be, many people don’t put much thought into what their card represents and are normally bought as a necessity are are tape to a gift.

Our vision was to strip bare this modern day connotation of a christmas card and draw it back to traditional ways of making a card, a handcrafted card. People love to make things themselves and it brings a sensation of achievement for even the smallest things. However, most people fear making new things as they are unsure of where to start, or what to do. Our company has overcome this problem with a ready designed card template which can be coloured in as the buyer wishes and really make it their own edition. But the personalisation doesn’t have to stop with just the buyer, some of our collection can be cut out and crafted to make christmas ornaments which could be hung on the tree or mantle piece for the following year as a remembrance that it was personally decorated by the sender. From our pre-sale we demonstrated the cards activity to potential buyers and those that commented, said that it was a clever idea that their kids would enjoy doing on boxing day for example, which also keeps them occupied while the parents can have a few hrs to themselves. One lady bought a bundle for her niece and nephews as a pre-dinner activity.

PROFIT

When it came to buying the materials, we compared the different market prices from local shops and online retailers like eBay and Amazon. We found card that you could get from Tesco for £2 cheaper online per 100sheets. At first this didn’t seem a lot, however if we were to make a larger order this would save us hundreds. We also bought our packaging through online retailers for much cheaper than the competitive Staples. With all of our materials bought we spend just over half our budget at £56.05. We did the calculations and found that for each completed card, it would cost us 46p to make. Comparing this to the average retail price of a card in the UK of £1.44, we already knew the market would let us make a minimum profit of £1 per card. However, as we felt our card differed from those currently sold in shops, we felt it was best to sell our cards for £2 each.

This was a mark up of 77% from manufacturing costs, which gave us an estimated gross profit of 334% per 100 cards sold. As a marketing scheme we decided to use the incentive of bundle buying for a discounted price. We felt this was fair as our price was higher than the UK average cost which may have discouraged some buyers.

From our pre-sales and final sale event on Tuesday, we sold 76cards which we felt as a team was a success and clearly demonstrated that there is a market for our product. We are happy to say we made our money back and a profit of £67.20 which we will split equally between all 4 members of our team.

Thank you for your time, any questions?

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