The Cherry Post No.119 | Princes Trust Workshop

The Cherry Post No.119 | Princes Trust Workshop

Hello to this week’s Cherry Post

Yet again before I start the post, don’t forget to check out the clearance prints at Bonfirecherry.com which consist of old designs going far back as 2013 reduced to a great price. Part from the event I will talk about in the next couple of paragraphs, the prints will be available til July. You can find the designs here.

With out of the way, lets continue with this week’s post!

 

 

I think the title of the post gives away what most of this CP is about but before that I’ve got a surprise new event for Bonfirecherry to appear at. For those who don’t know, for about 5 years I worked in the luggage department of my local Debenhams and during that time I have made friends with a lot of the start til the end of last year. Recently I re-produced a custom print for a friend who works there, with that she knows me quite well and with her connections I’m allowed to do a Bonfirecherry stall at a Debenhams Charity event next week.

 

 

A bit of a different experience for me, with that I have think about what designs I should focus on selling eg as its a department store I will focus on fashion related designs such as ones inspired shoes, handbags and this week I produced a new design inspired by a vintage dress called “Vintage Luna” what do you think?

From Tuesday to Thursday I attended a 3 day (originally was supposed to be 4) workshop hosted by the Princes Trust, it was something I was truly looking forward to since I got invited to it a few weeks ago.

I got to the venue of the workshop a place called Engine (a new creative hub in Northampton) early on Tuesday and there was a good number of people there already, it shows how eager everyone was to learn about the princes trust etc like I am.

There was around 9 of us who arrived for the workshop.

 

We started off by moving into the front of Engine (such a wonderful décor) to fill out the boring important forms. I don’t know why I put myself into spot to sit near the door but was committed to it for the day.

After filling out the forms, we introduced ourselves and our business idea, I introduced myself first to break the ice. There was some interesting business ideas people had such as catering, personal trainers, requirement, hairdressing and florists.

We into the important pros and cons of self-employed and employed which was interesting going into.

We went into the different business structures before going into something I wanted to improve is my attitude to cash and finance and that was something  that we went over for awhile.

Something I knew before hand that an old college friend who is just as creative as me (even more), Micheal Wright aka Millennial Creative was coming for an inspiration chat telling his how he done with the princes trust. It was rather interesting to hear how the trust has helped him during the past 2 years, I believed it helped the group become more confident with their business ideas. I highly recommend checking his business and work out here.

I got to Engine early again on Wednesday (always best to get to places early) and wasn’t the first. There was 2 people who didn’t come back after day 1, their loss as the workshop so far was great!

We had a different volunteer on Wednesday called Jeff to help us with the workshop (The Princes Trust Explore Enterprise course), made sure to get a comfy seat this time. The subjects we went over in day 2 were: Defining a target market (for a business that has been around 5 years I do have an idea of my target market but this made me think of a slight change), defining a brand (product), where will you provide your product (places), establishing a market position (price), effective promotional materials (promotion), Market research and competitor analysis, selling skills and the final subject of the day that was my favourite was about keeping and appreciating customers.

 

I was loving the course more and more and realised it the third and final day (originally then course was supposed on til Friday aka the day this post is published but got cut short so doing two days worth of subjects in one). Originally on day 1 of the course we were supposed downstairs in Engine like a meeting room but there was too many of us but now the number has dropped, so for the final day we had the course down there and it was pretty nice looking meeting room.

Something I was looking forward to learn more about on this course was the money side of business aka one of the things I lack knowledge in that holds Bonfirecherry back and that’s what we went over for most of the day. The money related subjects that were covered were HMRC, Pricing/Sales/Break-even, Cashbook/Profit/loss and cash flow which I found interesting as I often found the thought of those subjects complicated but was explained in a way that I could understand.

The final parts of the course was the next steps eg business plans and mentoring but as I hope to go onto the next steps I will go into that when I go further with the princes trust which I’m planning on doing.

I really liked Northampton’s new creative hub, Engine and with that people who have been reading my tweets and posts during the week liked the place too so happy to announce that yesterday Engine contacted me to invite me for a trial day there next week so expect next weeks CP’s to be about that among other things!

I think that’s everything for this week’s post, comment below with any questions and thanks for reading!

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