Sherman Foo

After a few weeks of the course the Business of Craft journey for the semester has ended, and so does the finalisation of Neo Line Studio as a potential business. Could it be realised in the future? Maybe. However with the current situation around the world, it would be best to put these ideas on hold for a better time. I have definitely learned a lot from the course, coming from a naive old Sherman who though that running a business was all glamorous and fun. Turns out, I seriously lack the experience of running one, and without the proper introduction and training, I could lose a lot of money to the point of bankruptcy due to the scale of which interior design operates. Using the course as a simulation really shows how vulnerable an operation of a business can be, as a simple mistake could change my life for the worst.

The business idea was initially suppose to be a typical interior design firm, nothing much to talk about except for the way I design. However it does take a lot for a business to take off, especially for a small startup in the competitive market, and learning from my experience in the course that I need to have the edge of my competitors. What makes my company better than others? Why would people choose my company over other interior designers who are definitely cheaper?

Especially with my style of design, it won’t come cheap and may deter future clients. However, it is how you package the brand, and know the value of it to make it justifiable for the high price. Now after learning from the course, the business has evolved from a simple idea to a fully realised interior design concept that revolves around technology, something Im really interested in to work with in my field. 

I still would like to pursue my dream of opening my own practice in the future, perhaps no longer in the UK but back in my home country, Malaysia. The Business of Craft course has really set the foundation of my entrepreneurial journey to the world, and has set me up with the proper real life tips and tricks to ensure the success of my company.

After having all the points and aspects of the business resolved, its time to create the business proposal which culminates all the information together in a nice document for submission. The receiver could be for anybody, like investors or so on. 

Looking the statistics of how often and when during the year people seek interior design services to renovate, it seems like summer is the busiest period of renovations, which makes sense due to the warm weather and ease for construction. Therefore I should use this to my advantage by advertising more during this period. 

How do you effectively advertise to tech savvy clients without the need to of spending a ton of money on advertising on newspapers and magazines? I then looked towards social media as it is a growing platform for advertising, plus I would be able to reach my target demographics at a relatively low cost. 

When it comes to thinking of running a business, we always seem to forget that its not all glamorous and easy to run one. We often overlook the fact that running a business takes a lot of hidden parts to ensure the business can run. Things like insurance, registration, office consumables, or even the VAT itself. Calculating VAT ain’t fun to be honest, but it is essential to businesses in the UK. 

Insurance

To check which insurance is needed for interior design firm, I looked over at the page at British Institute of Interior Design UK to confirm which type of insurance  that I would need to purchase. The types of insurance that is needed is Business Insurance, Public Liability Insurance, Employers Liability Insurance and Professional Indemnity Insurance. Then it comes to finding out which supplier would be good to purchase from. After comparing multiple prices on the internet, I found that AXA offer all insurances at a relatively cheap costs per year.

Premise

To run a business such as interior design, it would be nice to have your own office space, grand and the clients can walk in anytime. Sure it may be great to have it. However, would be a sustainable way for a new start up for my company? Especially since our business income is not stable yet, I wouldn't want to risk with additional expenses such as expensive rent and such. It would be better if we were to work from home until the company can expand later on.

To create a sustainable business, we first have to develop a cashflow projection to forecast the the revenue and overhead costing that the business will operate. I had to create a first year projection, to see if the business would be profitable or at a loss by the end of the year. I seriously hope it is not the latter. Anyways, in doing this exercise, I get to experiment with the pricing, VAT pricing, and do all of the overheads that a business will encounter.

Its quite interesting and I would say that the cashflow file actually really helps to shape the business further for the business proposal, as things you would not have thought about like insurance, business registration, computer equipment etc. 

Below is the list of costings that I feel would be affected by my business, and it would greatly show how my business would be performing throughout the year. I think the best way of generating revenue is to have as many projects as possible, but still be realistic in the sense of the scale of projects. Therefore, having the multi-tier packages from small to large scale projects does help to scatter the revenue gained throughout the year while not overworking the staff.

So turns out, there is actually a company called Neo Design in the UK which specialised in lighting. I found the company when I was registering for FreeAgent when I was doing the Cashflow. Wanting to keep the Neo element in the name, which symbolises the futuristic vision that my company is aiming for, I decided to change the name to Neo Line Studio. Neo Line means New Line. Line is the basis of any architectural drawings and it can be used to create any design. I found this name to be quite fitting of my company. 

Then comes the fun part, branding. The logo had to go through multiple iterations until I come out with the final design. I wanted the final logo to look professional, yet futuristic in design.

The final logo was then produced, emphasising on the black color palette which is modern, elegant, sleek, and with the addition of a teal line, exudes a futuristic look. The logo will be used on all promotional materials, including the business proposal and website.

To visualise the vision of the business, I decided to structure out the bullet points of my LEAN canvas into content structure, which will form the basis of my business proposal in the final submission. I first had to create a business name and the branding, this makes it legit. Not only that, this also irons out all the business ideas so that the information presented is clear and precise.

After going through multiple weeks of business start-up ideas and tasks, it was a challenge to come up with a concrete idea which could be innovative yet desirable. I came up with the idea of smart home solutions as a business idea after seeing how my flatmates heavily rely on their Amazon speakers to control the lights in his room. It then struck me as an idea of further expanding on this idea, by utilising and integrating mart home solutions into my interior design firm business model. I then would like to further extend on the idea by creating my own product line in the future, which would help create active income through commercial retail of the product.

Building an Interior Design firm from scratch is definitely not easy, especially when there is a saturation of firms in the UK which competes for clientele. There are ways which could help with the initial start-up, with support and funding in mind to enable the business to move forward.

Professional Membership Organisations

The British Institute of Interior Design (BIID)

The BIID is the only professional institute which manages the profession of interior designers in the UK. The growing memberships represents both commercial to residential sectors. Members are required to continue the prospective professional development through design, practice and regulatory matters. They also provide a directory of Registered Interior Designers so that clients can confirm the credibility of potential interior designers for hire.

Society of British and International Interior Design (SBID)

The SBID is the professional body that is registered in the UK that is tasked to govern and promote fellow interior designers. Companies who are registered also are encouraged to participate by developing agreements, guidelines and standards so that each interior firm in the Uk follows the same objectives and ethical rules.

Malaysian Institute of Interior Design (MIID)

Following the UK’s establishments, my business would also benefit if we were to open a second international branch in my home country Malaysia by registering with the national interior design body, Malaysian Institute of Interior Design. Corporate members also get to participate in annual awards ceremony which showcases excellence in interior, enabling further promotion which will benefit the business.

Business Support Organisations

Edinburgh Innovations

Being a student of the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Innovations allow students to realise their entrepreneurial projects by providing events and networking opportunities. The “Enteriprise Toolkit” that is proved also helps explore resources online that could help move the business forward.

Ubiquiti Networks

Ubiquiti is an American technology company that helps manufactures wireless data communication products for enterprise and wireless broadband providers. We will work closely with Ubiquiti to develop our own line of smart home technology pack.

BT Group

BT Group is a British multinational telecommunications company which is based in the UK, and is currently the largest provider of fixed-line, broadband and mobile services in the UK, and also provides subscription television and IT services. BT will be able to provide necessary IT related knowledge which could help with my business.

Funding Support Organisations

Edinburgh Innovations

As the organisation is able to provide knowledge for new upcoming startups, Edinburgh Innovations also provide funding support and raising investments for potential projects from the start to the end.

Start-Up Loan Scheme

Launched in 2012 to encourage entrepreneurship, the Start Up Loan scheme is a government-backed personal loan of between £500 and £25,000 available to anyone looking to launch or expand a small business. The interest rate is fixed at 6 percent per annum, and the loan can be repaid over one to five years.

Kickstarter

Knowing the right clients could help promote my business, while actually appreciating the added functionality and convenience to their operations. Although we would like to introduce the technology to the residential market, the initial demographic would be start-ups in Edinburgh who are forward vision thinking, and the potential customer based will drive up attention to my business. The product that would be recommended to these clients would be ID service for their new office, with smart technology integration. Clients that could commission my work include:

Google

Google opened its first office in the UK in 2003. Under the leadership of Managing Director Ronan Harris, the Google UK team builds tools that help people, businesses, and organisations achieve those small, everyday tasks and those big, life-changing goals. So far they have 3 branches in the UK which is based in London, and they could use our service for the 4th location as our services heavily utilises their core products.

Website: https://about.google/intl/en-GB/

Skyscanner

This online travel agency is no stranger to Edinburgh, and is the largest online travel agency in China. The company allows people to research and book travel options for their trips including flights, hotels and car hire. Although their service is online based, their office could use our service to streamline their operations, further enhancing the staff working experience

Website: http://skyscanner.com

Boundary

Boundary is a smart home alarm venture established by entrepreneurs Robin Knox and Paul Walton in 2018, hoping to disrupt the home security market. They have introduced an innovative home security system controlled via mobile devices, which according to them, brings neighbourhood watches into the 21st century. Features include break-in notification, mobile phone alerts to friends or family living in the area, compatibility with other smart home systems, remote monitoring and more.

Website: http//boundary.co.uk

Appointedd

Appointedd is an online booking and management platform for small businesses by acting as the virtual personal assistant, handling diary management and meeting bookings online or via social media. It is currently based in Fifth Floor, 23 Lauriston St, Edinburgh EH3 9DQ.

Website: https://www.appointedd.com/

CodeBase

CodeBase is an incubator space that provides an affordable, city-central location for newly-tech startups to launch their business. Their Edinburgh space currently hosts over 90 startup companies and is located at Castle Terrace.  

The question that comes into everyone’s mind is, what is a smart home? A smart home by definition is “a home equipped with lighting, heating, and electronic devices that can be controlled remotely by smartphone or computer.”. It is the technology of the future that everybody should be embracing as we head closer to home automation. What if there is a way for us to further explore this untapped market and expand the catalogue that extends beyond minor additions to the house? What if we could further enhance the human interaction and experience by integrating the technology seamlessly into the architecture, whilst being able to control everything from the convenience of the user’s mobile phone? The potential of this technology is boundless, and is already in used in markets today, albeit at a smaller scale. Such products that exists in the form of smart home technology includes:

Smart Assistant Speakers

Smart assistant speakers such as the Amazon Alexa Echo, Dot, Apple HomePod and more are widely used in the market today. It can function as a music player, control certain functions like Philips Hue (see next point) via Wifi or even check information on the internet such as the weather.

Google Nest

The Google Nest is a smart home thermometer that can be controlled via a smart hub console that is installed in homes. The function of the thermometer is an electronic, programmable, and self-learning Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat that optimizes heating and cooling of homes and businesses to conserve energy.

Philips Hue

The Philips Hue series are a smart-enabled LEDs that can be controlled by the user the mobile app or by a connected smart speaker. Functions that could be changed include the color, intensity or being on and off. Users just have to say “Hey Alexa, turn on the lights” and the connected Philips Hue will correspond to the commands.

What’s the potential rate of adoption (ROA)?

There is a market potential for smart home, as the chart (below) shows the ever-growing adoption of smart home technology by the mass market in the UK during the last 5 years. Not only that, certain countries like Korea and Japan has similarly adopted the technology into their home architecture, using the form of a home control console which controls, lights, ventilation and security. Therefore, there is potential of pushing the growth of technology adoption of this manner in the UK for years to come.

Source: Strategy Analytics, October 2019

To create a viable business plans, there are certain questions that needs to be carefully answered which include:

Background to your practice, what skills can you take into your business

Prior to my Masters programme in Edinburgh, I had completed my undergraduate of Interior Architecture at Taylor’s University at Malaysia from 2015-2019. In 2018, I had completed a 6-month internship program at Ooi Designs Sdn. Bhd. Which has contributed greatly to my character development as a designer. Having these credentials has allowed me to gain relevant skills necessary such as design, human interactions, time management and IT skills.

Although these are the skills that ultimate qualify a person to become a certified Interior Designer, there are certain skills that I had obtained outside my studio time, which includes rudimentary HTML, CSS, PHP, Photoshop, 3d Rendering and Language Courses. These extra-curricular skills could be beneficial to contributing to my business which focuses on smart home, whilst presentations skills with language could be used to gain customers through interaction. Not only that, my short term during my internship also taught me leadership skills which could benefit leading a team of people to bring my company to great heights.

What will be the main consideration you face when setting up?

The consideration that I have to think about when setting up would be the clientele for the first year. The first year would be the hardest because the inflow of customers is uncertain, therefore the business is at risk of months without cash flow. Also, the style of design language might not be suitable for everyone, hence it might be difficult to justify the high business point sale to customers.

How will you develop a clear vision and set goals and part of this process?

To develop a viable and sustainable business plan, it is crucial to develop a clear vision for the business, like what are the final goals and how to achieve it? It would be essential to determine the type of business that I want to showcase to the public. Sure it maybe be easy to say “rich company and be femes”, but an actual business doesn’t work hat way. Yes, having lots of cash and a reputation would be good, but a long-term strategy would be needed to develop for the next 5 years. The goals could be unrealistic in a sense, but would be better if we take the goals slowly to ensure the viability of the company.

How will you approach this business plan? How far will you look 1,3, 5 years ahead?

Being an interior-design firm, there is no realistic expectations that can be placed as there are a number of factors that could affect the business such as clientele, number of transactions and projects in progress. However, an ideal business plan of how the business were to be run will be similar to a normal interior firm, . The goal of the company would also be the development of our own product line of the smart home technology, as the usage of our own propriety will allow for internal integration and own development.

Year 1

Working from home with a staff of 2

Smaller projects

Advertisement through word of mouth

Joining international competitions

Year 2

Launch of physical office space

Hire a team of staff of 5 people

Launch of merchandise products on Amazon, Lazada, Shopee

Year 3

Start of commercial tenders

Recruitment of IT engineers for secret project

Securement of funding for secret project

Hire a team of staff of 10 people (total staff number: 17)

Installation of secret project at office space (beta testing)

Publication Listing

Year 5:

Launch of second firm branch for expansion

Secret project enters commercial market testing at small scale

Hire team of 10 for second branch

Year 10

Business Plan Proposal Development

During the class, we did the napkin test where we would have to sketch our business idea on a napkin. We have heard stories of how great ideas usually appear out of nowhere, hence writing on a piece of napkin. Albeit it being a test, it could lead to an innovative business proposal for the future. I tried to sketch out an idea within 5 minutes, but it looks more like an end goal of the business plan instead of the actual business proposal. Perhaps the short timeframe made me anxious, and I just quickly drew whatever was in my head.

One of my Week2 tasks was to categorise myself in the generational cohort and Acorn structure, identifying the differences between myself and my proposed market demographic.

First off, as I was born in 1997, I am listed as a Generation Z cohort. Funny enough, I thought I was a millennial as based from media that kids born in 1990s are.

Secondly, in the Acorn structure which depicts the home conditions based on lifestyle, I am currently in the Student Life (Financially Stretched) category per my living conditions in Edinburgh. However, if I were to be back home, I will be labeled under the Steady Neighbourhoods (Comfortable Communities). I have two perspectives that I can work on, and I would have differentiate myself with my market demographic.

My design practice is intended to be in the upper-end of the design spectrum, meaning its expensive. The designs that I create are complex and hard to manufacture, which increases cost. Living under the Student Life and Successful Neighbourhood, the design that I create would simply be unaffordable. The market demographic that I’m proposing would be in the upper categories such as Affluent Achievers and Rising Prosperity. These cohorts are the people that are willing to spend for the final design, instead of creating compromises to lower cost, which ruins the intended design. The initial stage of my practice will target the Comfortable Communities to create the initial client base loyalty, by creating smaller projects and downscaling the style for lower cost. Once the business has achieved financial viability, the design and size of project can be increased.

Postcard to future Sherman