The business plan

Finally! The business plan is done:

The business plan

Presentation: The Pitch

This is the pitch I presented to the panel. It was a bit intimidating standing there in front of people who actually know this stuff. Needless to say I was nervous and terrified, while blabbering about my business idea.

The pitch for the freelance/sole trader business: Andreas Nor

Business card

Time had come to make promotional material, so the most common example of this is a business card. This is a great way to give away your contact details at festivals and elsewhere, so this seemed very obvious to me to create.
I wanted the logo to reflect me and what I do, so it ended up with the basic building blocks I use to draw, which I more or less use in stroyboards and animation.

Moo.com[1] has pretty reasonable pricing and great quality, to make those card, so that would be a great choice. They charge £25.98, for a set of 100 regular business cards [2], which is affordable.

I wanted to put only the necessary details on the business card: my name, what I do, and contact details. And of course the logo to make a connection between my name and a recognizable picture.

References:

• [1] Moo.com
• [2] Moo.com - Business Cards
  

More animation salaries

While trying to find out more about animation salaries, I found an occupational profile for 'Animator' [1]. It claims that freelance positions are becoming more common, and that the rates vary enormously. It also says that new animators may be paid £70 to £140 per day.

Something that makes me have to rethink things a bit is that animation is an office/studio based profession, and that some work from home. This essentially means that I will have to be very flexible in moving around the country, which shouldn't be a problem in the beginning, considering that I don't have that many things to move around.

References:

• [1] Prospects.ac.uk - Occupational Profile - Animator
  

Animation salaries

Now that I knew what I wanted to focus on, I had to find out about how much an animator and storyboard artist could earn. If the numbers that ITJobsWatch provides [1], reflects how much a freelancer could get, then it's fully possible to live on animation alone, if you have enough clients to keep it going through the whole year. The survey says that that the average salary in England has been £31,500, while City of London is at the top, with £50,000.

It was quite difficult to find anything telling me about the average salary of a storyboard artist, but a job listing on DesignWeek [2], provides me with a vague hint at what one might be offered. It is a job within advertisement storyboarding, working with clients in the Asia/Pacific region, so the salary might reflect that too. The salary might be anywhere from £20 to £30 per hour, in this particular job. Seeing as it was very difficult to find numbers elsewhere, then this is what I had to work with. It also includes Adobe Illustrator in it's pipeline, which I haven't used that much yet.

Overall, I think I should focus on animation jobs, while looking more into Illustrator, if that really is a common part in the advertisement storyboarding pipeline.

References:

• [1] ITJobsWatch - Animation Jobs
• [2] DesignWeek - Freelance Storyboard Visualiser
  

Service addition: Storyboarding

After a bit of thought, I decided that in addition to providing animation services to various studios, I will offer storyboarding services. The reason for this is that I use most of the same techniques when creating storyboards, as when I animate. I plan both of them with really simple sketches, showing the main poses, and they're both storytelling devices, so I figured it would help me finding work, if I can't find work as an animator.
Here is an example of my storyboards:

Sole trader business

As I wanted this module to make sense in what I was doing, I chose to go for a freelancer business, or sole trader proprietorship. This is something a lot of animators and VFX-people do these day, mostly because it's cheaper and more safe for the studios.

This means that I don't have to pay any registration fees, and as Business Link says: "keeping records and accounts is straightforward, and you get to keep all the profits. However, you are personally liable for any debts that your business runs up, which make this a risky option for businesses that need a lot of investment".

This is of course not a problem, considering that I will be working alone, providing services to bigger companies. There are no production costs apart from the storage media, if needed. All the profits from the client work will go straight to me, but it also means that I have to keep records, showing income and expenses. This is where it would be ideal to let someone else handle that part, since I don't have that experience myself.

It also says I'm personally responsible for any debts run up by my business. Again, this won't be a huge problem as I won't be amassing a huge debt, by providing services to clients.

References:

• [1] Business Link - Legal structures: the basics - Sole trader
  

Business: SWOT

Here's the SWOT-analysis for my freelance business:

Strengths:

- Flexible work hours
- Set your own rate

Weaknesses:

- Managing own time
- Can't be sick
- Unstable income

Opportunities:

- Get better at handling your money
- Work on varied projects
- Learning to "sell" yourself

Threats:

- No clients - No money
- Lots of skilled animators out there

Business: Press release

(This is a fictional press release)


Andreas Nor
+4741690576
dash@start.no
www.andreasnor.com

ANDREAS NOR TO PROVIDE ANIMATION SERVICES

Character animation graduate, Andreas Nor, recently established as freelancer

Middlesbrough, 16 February 2010 — Andreas Nor, recent graduate at Teesside University, established today as a freelance animator.

Having received a BA in Character Animation, he's going to provide quality animation services to film- and game studio clients. He's also able to provide secondary services such as concept art, storyboarding and minor compositing. To be more available, he has moved to London, where some of the more well-known British studios converge.
If needed, he is able to relocate, as long as the employer can guarantee at least 6 months of work.

As more and more companies reduce their core teams in the recession, there's a dire need for freelancers, which is more cost-efficient to hire from project to project. This means the studio doesn't have to lose money to the transitions between projects and sick money.

Andreas Nor has a BA in Character Animation at Teesside University, but has also taken several courses at Fxphd.
Having used 3D Studio for most of his works, he's currently in the process of converting to Maya. He also has experience in Photoshop, Nuke and Premiere.
Andreas Nor has an online portfolio for attracting possible clients, along with a 'contact' page.

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Website: http://www.andreasnor.com