The Questions

14 November Event

Questions to come... pop me a mail if you have a burning question/thought/epiphanies that need to be aired 

25 July Event

Questions and discussion points for the panel

** we will try to touch on all of these but we might not have time as it is quite a list but I see us chatting through these and we will see how we go**

What got you started, and what keeps you going?

Examples of highs and lows to illustrate?

Where does your motivation come from?

Do you work strictly to business hours?

How do you balance the creative side with the business side?  Do you have a business partner or great accountant or super duper admin assistant?

What is your strongest skill in your business and do you capitalise on this fully? 

Cash flow - every small business owner’s nightmare or not a problem at all?  How did you get comfortable with managing your cash flow?

Pricing products and goods – do you adhere strictly to a pricing model?  Or do you win some/lose some on certain products?  Will you sell a product that you don’t make enough money on but that you really love? 

Do you price a product strictly according to how many hours you have put into making it or do you often have to adjust this to leave space for the retail markup and still ensure that the selling price is right?

Relationships/PR/Marketing with retailers and the general public – do you have any gems to share on how to do this effectively and what has worked for you? 

Eg:  Social media?  Word of mouth?  Traditional print media? 

How do you approach the issue of 'branding'?  And how important has it been in your business?

How have you differentiated your product in the market place? 

Have you consciously structured your product offering and business into separate areas?

Copyright...  a very grey area in design.  How do you deal with this and keep growing creatively?  And what do you do when you see something that really looks awfully similar to your product or concept?

www.myows.com – copyright registration site for creative who want to protect their work. Cape Town based and started by Chris Human who owns a creative agency to combat this problem.

www.ideanav.co.za  another free IP resource.

Does your personal moral code influence how you do business?  If so what do you see as the most important values in business?

Trade shows – have you found these to deliver a return on investment in terms of actual sales?  How do you feel about Design Indaba, Decorex and so on in terms of what’s on offer there?

Advertising – is it worth it – have you seen an ROI on this?

World Design Capital 2014. Where do we fit in?  How would you like to be involved?