Today is the day that our Business Summatives are due! We have to present all our information in a professional manner and deliver it as a business proposal to the teachers. I've completed all my work to date and am ready to hand the project in but an extension is available till Friday for those who are unable to hand it in today. (I might just have to take up that offer.)
From my knowledge the business package must include:
-Business Concept
-Registration Forms
-Domain Search
-Logo
-Letterhead
-Business Letter
-Business Cards
-Brochure
-Website/Flash Animation/PodCast
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Sleep Deprevation Meets Malnutrition--You've got summatives!
This blog has been neglected lately due to the work I've been constantly doing on my business summative. The business is well on its way, which is a very pleasant thought considering how much work has gone into it. I have tackled stage 1 and have completed a logo and business cards for my business as well. Currently we have to be focusing on creating a brochure for our business and a website, podcast or flash film to go along with it. All my creativity seems to be needed to accomplish any of these tasks but it makes the job a lot better than having to do something dull.
There isn't much more that I can say right now as there is a lot of work to be done and a very small time frame to fit it all in. A taste of the life that awaits us? Oh well...it's always best to remember that all this effort will result in something beneficial!
There isn't much more that I can say right now as there is a lot of work to be done and a very small time frame to fit it all in. A taste of the life that awaits us? Oh well...it's always best to remember that all this effort will result in something beneficial!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Making My Mark
Now that my business concept is final and the forms are out of the way, it's time to design a logo for the company. A logo helps identify a company or business in a simple and recognizable way. Logos are very important for marketing because they are easily remembered and often make a more significant impact than just the name of the company. Logos also create a consistency as they are always the same, but may have some variation from time to time.
There are some points that should be remembered when creating a new logo. A logo should be simple, obvious but arranged in a way that appeals to the customers. It should be relevant to the company it is being created for; for example, a company selling cat food should not have a dog as their logo. The logo can consist of basic shapes however, since those do not direct the mind to any specific idea.
Once you have a design for your logo it is critical to pay attention to colour. Colour isn't restricted to rules but both colour and black and white copies of your logo should be kept in mind due to the nature that it might be advertised in. Depending on where and the amount of money that is spent the logo may be presented in black and white or colour.
There are some points that should be remembered when creating a new logo. A logo should be simple, obvious but arranged in a way that appeals to the customers. It should be relevant to the company it is being created for; for example, a company selling cat food should not have a dog as their logo. The logo can consist of basic shapes however, since those do not direct the mind to any specific idea.
Once you have a design for your logo it is critical to pay attention to colour. Colour isn't restricted to rules but both colour and black and white copies of your logo should be kept in mind due to the nature that it might be advertised in. Depending on where and the amount of money that is spent the logo may be presented in black and white or colour.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Clarity In The Form Of PDF
Today we all learned how to download and install a free PDF writer so that we can use it to fill out all our registration forms, permits etc. for our summative project. This being an easy way to do so, there are absolute no excuses for me not to start filling out these forms (aside from the fact that the Service Ontario website seems to be in favour of procrastination). With a PDF writer my job will be much easier and I'm quite sure I'll have these forms done by today (or whenever the Service Ontario website decides to let me in).
PDF writers can also be useful for creating a portfolio of the highlights of our work in this course, which is necessary to submit. Having a PDF writer will make it simple to compile all the work together and make it accessible to virtually anybody.
PDF writers can also be useful for creating a portfolio of the highlights of our work in this course, which is necessary to submit. Having a PDF writer will make it simple to compile all the work together and make it accessible to virtually anybody.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Electricity Jolt
The idea has come to me! I've finally decided what I would like to do for my business instead of freelance writing. I had to think about it for quite a while and search for the materials, but hopefully it will pay off. I'm planning to go into the customized t-shirt business! I've decided on all the details already I just need to finish some registration processes. Just a quick post to record my idea...
Monday, May 07, 2007
Dealing With Formal Matters
Lately we've been smoothly moving through the process of creating our own business. We've started looking at some rules and lawas that will apply to us when we register our business with the province of Ontario. There are many regulations that a sole proprietorship is subject to, and we need to be aware of them. Below is a summary of some basic things to keep an eye out for.
The first issue is registration. We need to register a name for our business, unless the name of our business is just our legal name. This rule applies to all those creating a business in Ontario. In our case, we must think of an original business name and we are not allowed to use just our legal name.
The second most significant issue is taxes. We need to decide if we will choose to charge GST or not. We must charge GST if our annual income is estimated to be $30,000 or more. GST must be registered for and then collected from customers and sent to the CRA. Once you have registered it is mandatory to submit GST.
Often a liscence will be required for your business, it will be issued either from the municipal, provincial or federal government. It is most often required to serve as an operating permit and give you the right to run your business. Government permission will be compulsory for many small businesses and to find out whether this is the case for your business, you are to contact the SBEC or the Canada-Ontario Business Center.
After all this has been taken care of, it is time to consider property and where the business will be located. Thsi is where zoning comes in. There are all sorts of regulations about buildings and locations, it is the responsibility of the business owner to make sure that the chosen location abides by these rules and takes the actiosn necessary to legally operate their business at the chosen location. It is also important to have insurance for this property to protect yourself and professional advice should be sought out to resolve this matter.
The last matter to be concerned with is business communications and advertising. A good business needs to have avid communications so that it can connect with the right people in the right way and keep everything linked. Computers and computer software and people who have knowledge of these are crucial to your business. Fax machines, photocopiers and etc should also be present and accessible to your business. Advertising also needs to be done appropriately and to suit your business. If your service of product is unheard of, no matter how wonderful it may be, nobody will buy it!
That's a basic summary of what we need to know. Today we also looked over the registration process for our business. This lead to me re-thinking what my business will be, freelance writing seems to be in an entirely separate category! I will update this when I have a better idea, but I'm probably going to do something with computer software.
The first issue is registration. We need to register a name for our business, unless the name of our business is just our legal name. This rule applies to all those creating a business in Ontario. In our case, we must think of an original business name and we are not allowed to use just our legal name.
The second most significant issue is taxes. We need to decide if we will choose to charge GST or not. We must charge GST if our annual income is estimated to be $30,000 or more. GST must be registered for and then collected from customers and sent to the CRA. Once you have registered it is mandatory to submit GST.
Often a liscence will be required for your business, it will be issued either from the municipal, provincial or federal government. It is most often required to serve as an operating permit and give you the right to run your business. Government permission will be compulsory for many small businesses and to find out whether this is the case for your business, you are to contact the SBEC or the Canada-Ontario Business Center.
After all this has been taken care of, it is time to consider property and where the business will be located. Thsi is where zoning comes in. There are all sorts of regulations about buildings and locations, it is the responsibility of the business owner to make sure that the chosen location abides by these rules and takes the actiosn necessary to legally operate their business at the chosen location. It is also important to have insurance for this property to protect yourself and professional advice should be sought out to resolve this matter.
The last matter to be concerned with is business communications and advertising. A good business needs to have avid communications so that it can connect with the right people in the right way and keep everything linked. Computers and computer software and people who have knowledge of these are crucial to your business. Fax machines, photocopiers and etc should also be present and accessible to your business. Advertising also needs to be done appropriately and to suit your business. If your service of product is unheard of, no matter how wonderful it may be, nobody will buy it!
That's a basic summary of what we need to know. Today we also looked over the registration process for our business. This lead to me re-thinking what my business will be, freelance writing seems to be in an entirely separate category! I will update this when I have a better idea, but I'm probably going to do something with computer software.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Evolving Into An Entrepreneur
Ahh...the time has come. We have finally received our major assignment for the end of year, otherwise known as the summative. This project is worth 30% of our final mark, it sounds like a lot but it's better than having the pressure of both a summative AND an exam!
It's time to put all the skills we've learned throughout the course to good use. For this last assingment we'll be applying all our knowledge gained from the course towards one product. This one aim will be a plan to start up our own small business in the form of a sole proprietorship. I'm actually glad that this is our goal for the end of the year; being able to use all our skills for a task such as this proves that this course is very useful!
Ideas do not come easily, and ideas that can be built on come even harder but I've already started to brainstorm some possibilities for this project. Keeping in mind that I have to be able to afford this and carry it out...these are the possibilities:
-Freelance Writing
-Creating Flyers/Advertisements for other local businesses
-Computer software use lessons
These are a few ideas but the one I'm probably sticking with for now is Freelance Writing. To start up this business I won't need much aside from my mind and a computer. I already have these as my assets, so I have a start-up cost of $0. This sounds good, but as I factor in future issues this might not be the best idea to go with.
All entrepreneurs start somewhere...
It's time to put all the skills we've learned throughout the course to good use. For this last assingment we'll be applying all our knowledge gained from the course towards one product. This one aim will be a plan to start up our own small business in the form of a sole proprietorship. I'm actually glad that this is our goal for the end of the year; being able to use all our skills for a task such as this proves that this course is very useful!
Ideas do not come easily, and ideas that can be built on come even harder but I've already started to brainstorm some possibilities for this project. Keeping in mind that I have to be able to afford this and carry it out...these are the possibilities:
-Freelance Writing
-Creating Flyers/Advertisements for other local businesses
-Computer software use lessons
These are a few ideas but the one I'm probably sticking with for now is Freelance Writing. To start up this business I won't need much aside from my mind and a computer. I already have these as my assets, so I have a start-up cost of $0. This sounds good, but as I factor in future issues this might not be the best idea to go with.
All entrepreneurs start somewhere...
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
A Step Beyond Stop-Motion
For the past two classes we have been concentrating on creating animations using Macromedia Flash MX. The software has all the functions available to even create a full-length animation feature. A few simple techniques can produce a very good quality result that manipulates the eyes in certain ways. We've only taken a brief look at flash and below are listed a few of the things we learned how to do.
Motion Tweening: Allows you to move an object without filling in every specific frame. All you have to do is insert a new frame after however many number of frames from the initial frame where the object appears or currently is and move the object to where you would like it in the new frame. The frames in the middle will be filled in by the program!
Shape Tweening: Works basically the same way as Motion Tweening but instead of moving the object, it alters the proportions.
Importing Files: Across your toolbar, if you go to File>Import, you can import files from anywhere else on your computer to work with in your flash animation.
Symbols: We also learned how to convert pictures into symbols. Right-clicking an object and clicking 'convert to symbol' changes the object or picture to symbol format. This means that the object is saved only once individually throughout the entire animation, which in turn lowers the file size.
That's all for now, but I'll be playing around with flash at home for sure. I do have a few interesting ideas....
Motion Tweening: Allows you to move an object without filling in every specific frame. All you have to do is insert a new frame after however many number of frames from the initial frame where the object appears or currently is and move the object to where you would like it in the new frame. The frames in the middle will be filled in by the program!
Shape Tweening: Works basically the same way as Motion Tweening but instead of moving the object, it alters the proportions.
Importing Files: Across your toolbar, if you go to File>Import, you can import files from anywhere else on your computer to work with in your flash animation.
Symbols: We also learned how to convert pictures into symbols. Right-clicking an object and clicking 'convert to symbol' changes the object or picture to symbol format. This means that the object is saved only once individually throughout the entire animation, which in turn lowers the file size.
That's all for now, but I'll be playing around with flash at home for sure. I do have a few interesting ideas....
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