The Creative StartUp Guide

PLUS

ONLINE TOOLS: 6 online tools to super charge your start-up

KA MAGAZINE

ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANISATIONS: A mini start-up tool kit directory

FREE BUSINESS TEMPLATE: Get a full business plan template to help fast track your start-up

YOUR

CREATIVE START-UP H A N D B O O K

follow your

DREAMS

TABLE OF

Contents 04 | INTRODUCTION

20 | SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLAN

06 | WHAT IS A CREATIVE BUSINESS AND CAN I START ONE?

22 | STEP SEVEN: Sales & Advertising

07 | STEP ONE: Getting Started

How to get sales?

Find what you would like to do 24 | RESOURCES FOR 09 | STEP TWO: Get Prepared:

CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR

Is a business plan really necessary as a creative?

11 | STEP THREE: Develop Your Brand Naming your business is important 14 | STEP FOUR: Know your marketplace TERMS OF USE

16 | STEP FIVE: Creating Opportunities Audience Development 18 | STEP SIX: Getting Connected Make it easy for your fans to “connect” with you

All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, faxing, emailing, posting online or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the Publisher. All trademarks and brands referred to herein are the property of their respective owners. All references to KA Magazine™ and the Kwantuthu Arts Website KA Magazine™ are trademarks of Littchel Media LEGAL NOTICES While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for error, omissions or contrary interpretations of the subject matter contained herein. The purchaser or reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use of these materials and information. Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, both referral and state and local, governing professional licensing, business practices, advertising and all other aspects of doing business in Zimbabwe or any other jurisdiction, is the sole responsibility of the purchaser or reader. The author and publisher assume no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. Any perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional.

CONTACT INFORMATION Liitchel Media (PVT) Ltd Customer Service +263 718 216 382 Website www.kamagazine.co.zw Copyright © 2017 Littchel Media (Private) Limited

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INTRODUCTION The creative industries refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. They may variously also be referred to as the cultural industries or the creative economy. According to John Howkins author of ‘The Creative Economy: How People Make Money From Ideas’. The creative economy comprises advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, R&D, software, toys and games, TV and radio, and video games.

The purpose of the KA Magazine Creative Start-Up Guide, is to assist aspiring, established creatives, and arts players with a step by step guide, to start or make a viable, sustainable career or business, in the creative industries. In this handbook, we will attempt to explore and showcase the Zimbabwean creative economy. We have put together a simple handbook, that offers tips and advice, examples, online tools and resources to help any creative, at any level of their journey, monetise and grow. As the world is constantly changing, old business models are being disrupted, and we offer you a step by step guide, to assist you navigate your way, from having an idea or talent, to running a viable creative business.

Many people in Zimbabwe do not fully understand the creative industries, that make up the creative economy, in Zimbabwe. The creative economy, provides employment and also contributes to the national GDP. According to the UNESCO EY Cultural Times 2015 report, The creative economy is big business, it employed nearly 30 million people worldwide and generated $2.25 trillion in revenue—or 3 percent of the world’s GDP—in 2013.

the Zimbabwean creative industries generally exported USD$14,7 million in 2012

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The map above shows the global breakdown of the creative economy by region. The creative economy is highly concentrated in Asia, Europe, and North America. Asia-Pacific’s creative economy is the largest, generating $743 billion—or 33 percent of the global total for creative industries—and 12.7 million jobs (43 percent of the global total). Europe is second with $709 billion (32 percent) and 7.7 million jobs (26 percent). North America is third with $620 billion (27 percent) and 4.7 million jobs (16 percent). The global creative economy is growing and the economic benefits of the creative industries benefit the individual and the community at large.

The creative industries play a key role in all societies around the world, influencing various facets of people’s lives, from entertainment to professional activities, Zimbabwe included.

The Zimbabwean creative industries in the Cultural Statistics Survey Report 2012, measured the economic contribution of the Zimbabwean creative industries. According to the report, the Zimbabwean creative industries, generally exported USD$14,7 million in 2012. With this in mind, one gets to see how big the creative industries are and the great potential for exporting your products or services.

All businesses have a start, and this is where most of us need the most help, from idea generation, funding etc, in the case of creatives, one needs to identify skill or talent. In some cases, just to identify an opportunity is good enough. The next steps are Research, Planning, Branding, Marketing etc. These are some of the many components an entrepreneur has to master, the same applies with a creative..

The age of the internet has created a huge single market that anyone can access according to Statista Inc. One of the leading statistics companies on the internet. With a team of over 80 statisticians, database experts, analysts, and editors, Statista provides users with an innovative and intuitive tool for researching quantitative data, statistics and related information. There was an estimate of 3.5 billion internet users worldwide in 2016. This means about 45 percent of the global population accessed the internet that year. This is a huge market one can tap into, to provide creative services, products and market yourself to, without the limit of boarders and huge capital requirements.

The creative industries play a key role in all societies around the world influencing various facets of people’s lives from entertainment to professional activities

The Creative Start-Up Guide will offer you tips, tools and a practical guide to move from idea stage right up to managing a functional creative business.

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The answer is anyone who will see your “ great work “will recommend others to check you out. In the process, you will make a sale, that will translate to profit, not forgetting good planning and clear goals, in order to succeed.

Here are some key points that are vital to the success of your creative business; • Demand: Who is buying creative products or services?

• Competition: Identification of others that are doing similar creative products or services. Who is selling creative products or services?

• Licensing: Do you need to register your product, or your brand, in some cases you would need the protection of an association.

WHAT IS A CREATIVE BUSINESS AND CAN I START ONE? Using the definition provided by John Howkins the author of ‘The Creative Economy: How People Make Money From Ideas’. The creative economy comprises advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, R&D, software, toys and games, TV and radio, and video games.

• Funding: Does your creative business need capital to start and grow, in the idea stage calculate everything together with the interest of money borrowed.

• Commitment: As a person starting a creative business you need to be commitment and involved at every step of the way. • Support: Get all the support you need from your family, friends, financial support etc.

• Management: Get people who are experienced, who are passionate, and drive can your business forward.

• Licensing: Do you need to register your product, or your brand, in some cases you would need the protection of an association.

• Funding: Does your creative business need capital to start and grow, in the idea stage calculate everything together with the interest of money borrowed.

So with that in mind let us answer the first question ‘What is a Creative Business?’ It is any business that uses the exploitation of ideas to make money. Here are a few businesses that are part of the creative economy Wedding & Events Planner, Blogger, Influencer, Publicist, Graphic Designer, Poet and Writer. These are some of the common ones we can identify with in Zimbabwe and can track some individuals around us who are making money from their ideas.

• Commitment: As a person starting a creative business you need to be commitment and involved at every step of the way.

The basics of any business are the same as you think of starting your creative business, you need to know the fundamentals of business. A business is based on supply and demand, as an entrepreneur, one aims at seeing a need and fulfilling it, and in the process make a profit.

Then the question is, what does a creative do in this same situation? The answer is summed up in two words ‘Great Work’

So in a nutshell, to start a creative business, you need to define what you do, where you going it, and what success means for you. When launching a creative business, there are many factors to take into consideration, but the key is to start, because experience is a good teacher. The reality also is, that not all ideas, but only some ideas, you have, may be suitable to pursue. So go for it, start now, begin your start-up creative business. As a creative, take your art, skill or talent as a business, by getting your plan together and be committed to the success of your creative business.

Great Work is your biggest tool in developing your idea, it will create demand for your service, skill or product. You might be asking yourself how will this happen.

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• Support: Get all the support you need from your family, friends, financial support etc.

• Management: Get people who are experienced, who are passionate, and drive can your business forward.

STEP ONE: Getting Started FIND WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO Have you discovered your talent or skill? This question also needs you to consider, what is your passion? This is a critical question to ask yourself, because it helps you know what your interests or passion is. To know what you wish to do, is your first step. The next and most important step is to research about your passion or interest. Take for an example if you have an interest or a passion in film the next step is to find out all you can about film; What would you like to do in film?

What part of the film business would you like to work in?

What is the local film businesses in your area like?

As with everything, you need to find out as much as you can about it. For example, you are an artist who might want to sell your art—locally, nationally or internationally.

You need to stay in touch with new developments in the your industry, that is, how the economy in various places is affecting art buyers and collectors.

Too many awesome ideas die or are lost in notes and are cleaned up on whiteboards, because some people have a hard time to find the right idea to peruse. There are many ways to ensure your idea is new and worth pursuing. You can gather information from industry associations, web searches, periodicals, government or parastatal institutions and industry leaders. This will help you narrow down your idea’s list to get to the one worth persueing.

These questions help you choose your area of speciality, they also help you know the requirements needed to be part of the industry of your choice. Lastly they help you know what you would like to do. For some people, getting the idea and imagining the possibilities is the easy part. It is what follows that is the problem. To know your industry is vital, here are some questions you need to ask yourself; Write down your answers to the following questions: How big is your potential market?

Who is buying creative products or services?

Who is your competition (i.e., producing similar work) and what sort of prices are they getting for their work?

Who do you want your audience or customer to be?

Where does your work fit in the broader creative marketplace?

What type of spaces do you want your work to be seen in?

What are the basic charges?

Who in is interested in what you offer?

Too many awesome ideas die or are lost in notes and are cleaned up on whiteboards, some people also have a hard time to find the right idea to peruse.

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KA STEP ONE: Getting Started This is market research, market research doesn’t come so naturally for most of us, but it is vital for the success of your start-up. So the questions you asked yourself above, help you start the market research process. Which helps you in getting to know your market, the important thing is to understand your work. Once you understand your own work and what you have to offer, it’s time to start finding the right market for it. One is often blinded by the thought of the multibillion dollar market they have identified. This is a dangerous way to start your creative start-up business, as some ideas do take off, and in some cases they crash and burn. Market research, then, can prove invaluable in determining your idea’s potential.

ACTION IS THE FOUNDATION KEY TO ALL

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Now you have put together your research, your research will be used to make a plan for your business. The plan you are making should spell out the objectives of the creative start-up business and give you the information you need to either go ahead with your idea, fine-tune it or take it back to the drawing board. After you are done with your research you can now go to the next step which is making a business plan for your creative start-up business.

STEP TWO: Get Prepared

IS A BUSINESS PLAN REALLY NECESSARY AS A CREATIVE?

What is a business plan? A business plan is a written description of your business’s future.

Be it you a dancer or a photographer, you need to know where you are going, what your goals are for your creative start-up business. This is vital for one to track their progress and measure if the venture is growing, or if it is meeting the planned targets or goals. So when coming up with a business plan, ensure it conveys your goals.

The strategies you will use to meet your goals, potential problems that may confront when you building your creative start-up idea and ways to solve them.

The people you will need to work with (organizational structure of your creative start-up business, including titles and responsibilities) and finally, the amount of money required to finance your creative start-up idea and keep it going until it breaks even.

KA

STEP TWO: Get Prepared So the question now is with an outline of your creative start-up businesses future, don’t you think you can operate much better with a business plan? A business plan also assists you to seek finances to run or expand your creative start-up business. Your business plan can also be used to negotiate with key suppliers even in recruiting key staff.

So in a word ‘YES’ a business plan is necessary. There are three primary parts to a business plan: • The first is the concept, where you discuss the industry, your structure, your particular product or service and how you plan to make your venture a success.

• The second is the marketplace section, in which you describe and analyse potential customers: who and where they are, what makes them buy and so on. Here, you also describe the competition and how you will position your creative start-up business to beat it.

Finally, the financial section contains your income and cash flow statement, balance sheet and other financial ratios, such as break-even analyses. This part may require help from your accountant and a good spreadsheet software program. Breaking these three major sections down even further, a business plan consists of seven key components, not all necessary, choose what you need, based on the three main sections above: 1. Executive summary 2. Business description 3. Market strategies 4. Competitive analysis 5. Design and development plan 6. Operations and management plan 7. Financial factors These are the common components of a business plan, and after one has decided on the creative start-up business they want to start. Seek expert advice, from experience individuals, consultants and public institutions who assist in business development is also a good thing for one to develop a good business plan.

So as a creative, what does a business plan mean for a you? Here is an example, if you have a passion for music and decide to become an independent musician (independent musician; is a musician that is not signed to a record company). Below is are some of the questions to ask yourself that will help a musician come up with a plan one can follow; Write down your answers to the following questions: What do you expect to earn from your work over the next 12 months?

In what months will the money come in?

How will you manage during months when nothing is coming in?

How much work (music) will you need to sell in order to meet your income goals?

How much work in terms of album sales or shows will you need to make in order to get to that amount?

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These questions help you to identify what your market is like. This market is the one that you wish to sell to, who can book you for a show and the needed market strategies to help you earn more or meet your income goals. With the answers to the questions above you now start to come up with your business plan in this way.

The Executive summary is where one writes an overview of who you are as a creative, what you offer, and who your market is. A business description is a full explanation of what you do. Take for example, as a music artist you give a full explanation of your music and brand offering. The types of music performances you offer, band size, technical team, types of guest appearances you offer, include services like voice over’s, jingles, etc. With a well-researched and detailed business plan, as a creative, you can use it to monitor your growth and not lose the initial targets you set when you started your creative start-up business.

Think of your business plan as a map, and refer to it every now and then to make sure you are still on course.

For example, if you had planned for a certain income, coming in the first 3 months of the year, and it doesn’t come in, then you have to find a way of making that up, in the remaining 9 months.

The fact that you had a plan in the first place, means that you can react quickly, when things don’t look like they are going well as you had hoped. At the end of every year, do a complete review of your business plan, from annual cash flow projections, use this to help create the following year’s plan.

STEP THREE: Develop Your Brand

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STEP THREE: Develop Your Brand

NAMING YOUR BUSINESS IS IMPORTANT

uncomfortable. It requires, at the very least, that you answer the questions below: What is your creative start-up business mission?

What are the benefits and features of your products or services?

What do your customers and prospects already think of your creative start-up business?

What qualities do you want them to associate with your creative start-up business with?

Once you’ve defined your brand, how do you get the word out? Here are a few simple, time-tested tips:

Naming your business at the moment you are working out how much it will cost to run your creative startup business, the number of staff needed, and a name storming session could be a bit of a headache or a bother.

So to do it after the first two stages is recommended. Here is a story, to highlight the importance of a good brand name.

Did you know that the BlackBerry phone service developed by RIM in 2001 apparently hired a consultancy called Lexicon Branding to find a name for their new wireless messaging devices. The CEO at the time, Mike Lazaridis confessed that he could have called the new wireless messaging devices “Uber-Electro-Swiss-ArmyTelecommunicator” really hard to say, hey. Well after much convincing, the name we love won. BlackBerry a far much better name. The devices were largely dark coloured at the time and the name has stood the test of time. One can also use the functionality of the product or service to name the business. Another tip is a word that has no meaning and the business defines what the word means in relation to the brand.

•

Get a great logo. Place it everywhere.

• Write down your brand messaging. What are the key messages you want to communicate about your brand? Everyone should be aware of your brand attributes.

• Integrate your brand. Branding extends to every aspect of your business--how you answer your phones, what you or your sales people wear on sales calls, your e-mail signature, everything.

• Create a “voice” for your creative start-up business that reflects your brand. This voice should be applied to all written communication and incorporated in the visual imagery of all materials, online and off. Is your brand friendly? Be conversational. Is it ritzy? Be more formal. You get the gist.

• Develop a tagline. Write a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand.

Blackberry source –www.cio.com Article RIM BlackBerry History: Origin of the Name “BlackBerry”

• Design templates and create brand standards for your marketing materials. Use the same colour scheme, logo placement, look and feel throughout. You don’t need to be fancy, just consistent.

So from the Blackberry story you see the importance of a brand name. Defining your brand is like a journey of self-discovery. It can be difficult, time-consuming and

• Be true to your brand. Customers won’t return to you--or refer you to someone else--if you don’t deliver on your brand promise.

HOW TO START A CREATIVE STARTUP BUSINESS

by Littchel Mathuthu

FOLLOW YOUR PASSION Have you discovered your talent or skill?

ENVISION YOUR THE FUTURE Write it down your creative idea, how much you want to make, etc

REGISTER YOUR CREATIVE BUSINESS

DO YOUR RESEARCH Find out your competition, target market size, etc

DEFINE YOUR BRAND Create a "voice" for your creative business brand

POLISH UP YOUR FIRST PRODUCT/SERVICE working with your team build it till it makes sense

BUILD YOUR TEAM get the necessary people to run your creative business manager, booking agent etc

PRESENT show your creative business idea to 100 people

LAUNCH Let everyone know the creative business you have started and your product/service be it be a painting, music etc

LAUNCH AGAIN try new ideas, concepts until people like your product/service

GETTING CONNECTED Make it easy for your fans to “connect” with you

GET YOUR FIRST SALE using your audience you have built get your first sale

NO

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT you create your audience by generating many opportunities for people to view your work

PE O YO PL UR E A PR RE O LIK DU I CT NG /S OR ER B VI UY CE IN G

$

VE LO T Y UC HE OD S T PR YE Y M

GET FEEDBACK FROM YOUR FANS

5% 1,000

SUCCESS KEEP GROWING -

for another 4 years and at that rate you will reach 25 million fans

GROW 5% A WEEK

GET YOUR 1000 FANS

STEP FOUR: Know your marketplace MARETING PLAN

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To know where you can sell your services or products, is vital for your creative start-up business to function and putting it into a marketing plan details how you plan to target your potential consumers and covert your audience to sales. Here is a starting point doing a basic SWOT analysis with an internal and external outlook: When you start developing your marketing plan, think of your creative start-up business as if it were a person with its own unique personality and identity as explained in defining your brand. With that in mind, create separate lists that identify your strengths, weaknesses and goals. Put everything down and create big lists. Don’t edit or reject anything. Then, find priorities among the bullet points.

If you’ve done this right, you’ll have more than you can use, and some more important than others. Kick the less important bullets off the list and move the ones that are important to the top. Through this process you will identify what you have as a possible competitive advantage. You will have identified what your weaknesses are and what needs to be fixed through the lists.

As you follow your Marketing Plan and start making sales, doing reviews and working on your creative start-up business, just remember that your marketing plan for your business plan needs to be revised. As your creative startup business grows so your marketing plan should continue to evolve along with some of your assumptions also need to change, as will also the business landscape. Some parts of the plan also will work better than others, so review and revise to accommodate what you learn as you go.

Next, list is to make outlines of your opportunities and threats. Think of both as external factors that you can’t control but can try to predict. Opportunities can include • New Products – what you can develop • Trends that favour your creative start-up business.

• New Markets – unexplored markets or niches.

Threats include competition and advances in technology that put you at a disadvantage. Now your list is complete use it in the next step.

Now after you have narrowed your list of your SWOT Analysis you are beginning to come up with a Marketing Strategy. This strategy focuses on the clients that best align to what you are offering. At this point now it is to get down to the details that are precise and measurable covering all the basis. Your Marketing Strategy then will develop into a plan that includes weekly or monthly reviews, tracking and measurement. Sales forecasts can now be drawn up that define your market segments and have specific messages for each segment. Expense budgets of how much you will spend on campaigns and non-monetary items for tracking progress. Non-monetary items could include phone calls, blog posts, web page views, website conversion rates, proposals and trips, among others. The detailed document that you would have come up with after this process will detail your plan to get sales for your creative start-up business is your Marketing Plan.

When you start developing your marketing plan think of your creative start-up business as if it were a person with its own unique personality and identity as explained in defining your brand.

STEP FIVE: Creating Opportunities

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT 16 Kwantuthu Arts Magazine Creative StartUp Guide

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STEP FIVE: Creating Opportunities

While your business plan generally outlines your business’s future, a stand-alone marketing plan focuses specifically on creating opportunities, and sales in more detail. On just that one function how to get people knowing your business and building an audience. Whatever venture you do you will need customers, so first you will need fans and you create fans by generating many opportunities for people to view your work. You should also know that fans come in many shapes and sizes:

Admirers – These are people who simply like your

work and may never be in a position to make a purchase, but they will support it.

Creative community fans – Here are people in a

position to help progress your career, e.g., media, curators, Radio DJ’s, Journalists, major collectors, or other artists.

Future customers – These start off as fans, but at

some point will invest in your work. It could be in 6 months’ time, it could be 2 years, but they have already committed in their own minds to buying your work at some point in the future.

Actual customers – Obviously, customers are just

people who make such a connection with your work that they are willing to invest in it. In the creative industries, in the case of art they are known as collectors. No matter what type of fan a person is, they all have to start at the same place seeing your work via the opportunities you have created.

Do not stop creating opportunities for your creative start-up business or it will simply die away. Creating new, ongoing opportunities may be the single most important thing you can do, other than create the work itself.

Here are some examples; Gave away business cards Hold an open studio day, album listening session, pop up fashion show Book exhibition space at an festival Commission an online video documentary of your creative start-up business Make relevant Social Media pages to suite your audience .

Whatever venture you do you will need customers, so first you will need fans and you create fans by generating many opportunities for people to view your work.

STEP SIX: Getting Connected MAKE IT EASY FOR YOUR FANS TO “CONNECT� WITH YOU If someone sees the work done by your creative startup business on one of the many audience development initiatives you have created. If they decide that they really like what they see, then there is a good chance that they will be interested in seeing more. Making it easy for them to connect with your creative start-up business becomes vital for your growth.

This means having an engaging, professional online presents that people can connect to at their leisure. Ideally, this is your own social media page, website or blog that offers a rich and rewarding experience to the viewer. Social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram can be useful places to show your work and connect with your audience.

All of the audience development initiatives you create up to this point, have one simple objective, to drive people to know what your creative start-up business does and eventually make a sale.

COVER

ONLINE PRESENCE In the 21st century no matter how modest or how you believe that you don’t need a website. Your business will need online presence and as a creative, your online presence is where you connect with your fans.

Maybe you’ve been putting it off. After all, we weren’t all put on earth to write codes on the web, this is the time for hiring someone who might turn out to be expensive. To find the right web solution one needs to ask them -self what role the website they need will play. As this is an investment that you are taking up, you need to find the right service, and this is key to your success.

The internet is full of horrendous sites, and we are not just talking about bad design. There are many other elements besides how a website looks that go into making it visitor friendly, not to mention the ‘call to action’ that inspires a website visitors to actually want to do business with your creative start-up business. Here are the essentials that every website should have for it to effectively help you do business.

Have a clear description of who you are.

• A simple, sensible domain name that anyone can remember.

•

Easy-to-find contact information

•

An obvious call to action like ‘download’ or ‘register for free trial’

•

Fresh, quality content, good design and style that’s friendly to online readers.

If what you do requires custom interface design, a solution that caters to your specific needs which could give you a competitive edge. Probably you need your website to integrate to specific systems, then your business needs a web development company such as to develop a website solution to meet your specific needs.

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A

STEP SIX: Getting Connected

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLAN Is a social media marketing plan important? The question to ask now is what are your goals of using social media?

Will it help your creative start-up business? If it won’t help your business then don’t even use social media. But if it will then to know what your goals are and how much resources you will need to achieve the goals, then you need a plan. Creating a social media strategy for your business by developing a plan, you create a critical foundation on which the rest of your social media efforts are based.

Social Media platforms are good for creatives, and here are some of the benefits based on each platform;

INSTAGRAM

Since its inception, Instagram has proven to be a powerful marketing tool for businesses and creatives alike looking to expand their online presence and the visibility of their products. According Instagram, their social media presence currently brings with it over 800 million active users. Of those millions of people, over 500 million are on the platform on a daily basis. With such numbers there is no limit to the people you can reach via Instagram.

Instagram is a great way to show potential customers new products, latest offers, and a great way for people to connect with you. Live stories is a good way to connect with your followers. The best way to use live stories is to show behind-the-scenes images or videos. Exclusive information is the most valuable to use on live stories, as 20 Kwantuthu Arts Magazine Creative StartUp Guide

information is the most valuable to use on live stories, as it will ensure that your followers learn more about your brand. Some examples are videos that show how products are made, a music jam session, or live Q&A sessions between you and your audience. Instagram live posts are also an excellent way to build trust and credibility with audience.

FACEBOOK

Facebook has over 1.2 billion user accounts, and has proven to be a good platform to use for the Zimbabwean market. More than 1.37 billion active users visit Facebook daily (source: Facebook as in Q3 2017). Facebook offers multiple platforms to connect with your audience you can marketing in the form of pages, groups, and ads.

Building a Facebook page for an your brand is the most popular way to represent an business. A group page can be opened by a business or an organization to promote activities. Users can join this group and also post comments on the group page called a wall. They can also interact through discussion threads. To perfectly utilize this platform, one has to use their social media plan and review all their posts to identify what works for your intended goals.

TWITTER

Twitter is a way to keep your followers up to date with current information about your creative business or brand.

Importantly, it lets followers communicate with you too.

For example, musicians use Twitter to converse with their fans, recommend new release songs and retweet interesting tweets from music buffs and experts.

Twitter offers you a chance to liven up your image.

Tweeting about your team and your brand’s personality gives followers a sense of your creative business as more than just a supplier of products or services. For example, galleries can use quirky language and humour to share links to interesting articles, promote events, comment on awards and announce new exhibitions via Twitter.

YOUTUBE

YouTube lets you show your products or services in action.

This is particularly useful for brands with limited physical distribution channels, including those who mostly sell over the internet. Brands that use YouTube to allow customers to see their products in action before they buy include painters, fashion brands and theatre productions.

Brands that have a following or fan base can use YouTube as a tool to share and engage with customers. Examples include specialty curio retailers and book shops that share product launches, event footage, video blogs and customer footage via video.

YouTube is a chance to add colour and movement to your brand image. For example, a dancer can not only post footage of dance videos, events and video tutorials, they can also share video footage from the point of origin of a dance move and interviews with the people they have worked with.

PINTEREST

According to Mashable, Pinterest receives an average of 1.36 million visitors each day, 68 percent of whom are female. While Pinterest’s traffic has declined in recent months, it still presents a huge opportunity for brands to expand their connection with their audience. To harness Pinterest’s referral power, first make sure your content is pinnable. You can test how well your content transfers to Pinterest by installing a “Pin It” button to your bookmark toolbar and using it to pin images from your own site. You can also install a “Pin It” button directly on your site.

Many brands are using Pinterest as a place to gather ideas and inspiration. Some people use the site to research everything from food styling to colour palates and video production techniques. You can use Pinterest to generate new product ideas, identify trends and even zero in on opportunities.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn opens the doors for networking and a flood of potential clients. Keep your brand page up to date with relevant information and be a resource to your connections and followers. Branding yourself as the subject expert on your services will help them think of you when they need you.

LinkedIn is a great place to showcase your brands products & services and gain trust amongst prospective customers and fans. One feature that helps is the “Recommendations” feature. The more recommendations you have from past customers and clients, the more of an opportunity you have to generate more leads and sales.

SNAPCHAT

Snapchat is a social media platform by which users communicate through chat and time-limited media. Many businesses are jumping on board with the app, finding new and creative ways to use Snapchat for marketing. Yet there are still some businesses and marketers who are not quite there—be they skeptical, unclear about, or just not interested in Snapchat. Like any social media platform, Snapchat isn’t for every business. However, there are several benefits to marketing through Snapchat if it is in fact the right fit. This post will cover those benefits so that you can decide whether it’s a tool you want to add to your marketing repertoire.

Creating a social media strategy for your business by developing a plan, you create a critical foundation on which the rest of your social media efforts are based.

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STEP SEVEN: Sales & Advertising

HOW TO GET SALES? The objective of all businesses is sales, that means businesses need customers who will make a purchase and continue to do repeat purchases. The same applies to your creative start-up business, your audience needs to convert to sales, then the question is. How to get sales?

Advertising can help, but don’t just spend money, the key to advertising successfully is to generate promising leads in exchange for the money you spend. To do so, it helps to offer a message that not only hits on your target audience, 22 Kwantuthu Arts Magazine Creative StartUp Guide

but also showcases the value you can offer them. That is good advertising some people spend more money to acquire a single customer at a far greater value than they used and the client does not convert to a frequent buyer.

So to make wise decisions is key, especially when you are starting. You have to find the right platform to get your message to your target market, that will generate leads to get going.

Here are some cost effective ways to get leads that can convert to sales:-

NETWORKING

As you try to get your creative start-up business up and running, determining which networking events to attend and which to skip is hard. Often, business professionals find themselves trying to attend every networking event that is happening.

The usual result is that they don’t wind up getting as much business from their networking efforts as they’d like to. Having a strategy will help eliminate this problem. If you’re not sure who the right contacts are for your venture, go back and take a look at your past client list. What industries were they in? How long had they been in business? Were your clients even businesses to begin with or have you worked mostly with the public? This will help you identify the right events, also important to surround yourself with quality contacts. Very often, the best way to your ideal contact is through another contact. Adding networking to your audience building strategy is very important.

REFERRALS

Another excellent way to get good customers is landing Referrals. It is not just a cheap way to pick up some sales. The best way to a referral is a satisfied customer, it’s also a way to pick up customers with the highest retention rates.

What’s more, referral customers tend to purchase more over time and in turn become a source of additional referrals. How do you find referrals?

Ask for them from satisfied customers is one way, also offer discounts or a reward for a referral and find ways to continually thank your customer for the referral.

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

Strategic Partnerships are relationships generally that are one-time or short-term commitment, but they can sometimes last for many years. For instance, a web designer and an ad agency might send each other referrals for clients who need added services. As long as there’s continued value to the shared audience, strategic partnership produce streams of referral business, which is ultimately what will benefit you most over time.

GRAB YOUR OPPORTUNITY In conclusion there are many factors that lead one to success in the creative industries and having an established business that generates millions of dollars or being the leading professional in your chosen field. One of the biggest and most important factors is ‘Opportunity’, in being able to see an opportunity and take it. In Zimbabwe we have many examples of business leaders, successful artists and creatives that saw an opportunity in their chosen industries and market gaps that they went on to fulfil them.

Being a professional creative is a never ending cycle. Put your customers first, not the galleries, not the media, not the creative community let them know they are your top priority. Always create good work, continually review your market and marketplace to see where you want to be in the coming months, write down and update your business plan as this will help you meet your goals for the coming year, and never stop making opportunities, building your audience and getting people to see your work. Eventually the work you do will create your connections, and then into sales, and then into repeat customers. It’s not always simple or easy, but it works!

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ONLINE TOOLS SOME RESOURCES FOR CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS Here are a resources you can use to develop a successful creative business;

Diffen

DIY.org

This online tool lets you compare virtually any two things, and then learn a whole lot about them. You may be pondering a simple decision to make about whether to drink dark roast or medium roast coffee. Or you may be contrasting the First and Second World War for history analysis. You may be comparing long-term investment options, or simple grammatical choices for writing a term paper. With Differ, you can compare pretty much anything under the sun (not to mention things beyond the sun).

DIY works exactly as their motto suggests—“Learn anything and be anyone.” This remarkable and extensive site allows kids of all ages to explore skills and skill classes and perform the challenges associated with them. It’s the epitome of the “learn-anytime-andanywhere” spirit that students love so much. DIY is a great and supportive learning community for everyone.

There are literally thousands of reasons why you might want to use Diffen. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn simply by asking questions. Just begin typing whatever comes into your mind in the blanks. Want even better news? If Diffen can’t find the answer, it will search for where to look and find it, if it can.

Each skill class includes lots of lessons to try out. The objective is to earn badges and level up your skills, just like a video game. Feedback is shared through the network, so you get full peer support. All lessons completed are kept in online portfolios so that parent and teachers can keep up with kids’ activities. DIY also offers mentors to help them with their developing skills.

There is also a mobile app available for the iPhone and iPod so kids can take projects on the go!

Website: https://www.diffen.com/

Website: https://DIY.org

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RESOURCES: Online Tools

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

Hootsuite

Buffer

Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. The system’s user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.

Buffer is a software application for the web and mobile, designed to manage accounts in social networks, by providing the means for a user to schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin, as well as analyze their results and engage with their community.

Website:https://hootsuite.com/

Website: https://buffer.com/

MARETING TOOLS

Mailchimp

Revue

MailChimp is a powerful, easy to use email marketing service. MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. It’s like your own personal publishing platform.

Revue is a new tool that creates newsletters within a few clicks. The tool can be used to gather existing content, order it, add some personal words and send out the resulting ready designed newsletter to subscribers. Revue can be used by everyone; from families, starters and start-ups to companies who already have a subscriber database.

MailChimp also offers a variety of plug-ins for other programs. Utilizing an open API, MailChimp encourages other systems and web applications to integrate with its email marketing engine. They currently offer integrations with systems such as PayPal, Google Analytics, Shopify, Magento, Salesforce, and more.

Website: https://mailchimp.com/

A Revue account includes a predesigned landing page with signup form that can be shared to reach out and boost the number of subscribers. Existing subscribers can be imported from several sources including MailChimp.

Website:https://www.getrevue.co/

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RESOURCES: Associations & Organisations

ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANISATIONS Zimbabwe Musicians Rights Association

British Council Harare

British Council Bulawayo

No.1 Aspen Flats, 80 Mendel Rd, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe

2nd Floor West, Zimdef House, 102 Fort Street, Bulawayo

16 Cork Road, Belgravia, Harare

Contact Details Telephone: +2638644 119 650 / +2634336185 Email: info@zimura.co.zw Website: www.zimura.co.zw

Contact Details Telephone: +263 29 275815/6 Email: general.enquiries@ britishcouncil.org.zw

Contact Details Telephone number: +263 24 2701 658 – 62 / +263 24 2701 419 Email: general.enquiries@ britishcouncil.org.zw Website: https://www.britishcouncil. co.zw/

Culture Fund

Alliance Française de Harare

Alliance Française de Bulawayo

51 Harvey Brown Avenue, Milton Park, Harare, Zimbabwe

328 Herbert Chitepo Avenue Harare, Zimbabwe

61 Heyman Road, Suburbs Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Contact Details Telephone number: +263 4 794211/ 794617/ 794530 Email: info@culturefund.co.zw Website: https://www.culturefund.org. zw/

Contact Details Telephone number: (+263) (242) 704 795 or (+242) 704 801 Cell phone: 0732 122 399 Email: info@afharare.co.zw Website: www.afzim.org/harare/

Contact Details Telephone number: (+263) (029) 2250 245 Whatsapp: (+ 263) 0 785 505 821 E-mail: contact.bulawayo@afzim.org Website: www.afzim.org/ Bulawayo

Alliance Française Plan annexe de International Victoria Falls HIVOS Zimbabwe Zimbabwe 518 Reynard Road, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

20 Phillips Avenue Belgravia, Harare, Zimbabwe

Contact Details Telephone number: (+263) 8677 168 853 Whatsapp: (+263) 0 774 850 049 E-mail: annexvicfalls.bulawayo@ afzim.org

Contact Details Telephone number: + 263 (2)4 2250463 | (2)4 2706125 | + 263 (2)4 2706704 Fax: + 263 (2)4 2791 981 E-mail: sa-hub@hivos.org Website: https://southern-africa.hivos. org/

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7 Lezard Avenue, Milton Park, Harare, Zimbabwe Private Bag HG 7232, Highlands, Harare, Zimbabwe Contact Details Cell phone: 0772 124 124-6 E-mail: zimbabwe.co@planinternational.org Website: https://plan-international. org/zimbabwe

Nhimbe Trust

National Arts Council of Zimbabwe

Address: 84 Fort Street, Between L. Takawira and 6 Avenue, Canberra Building, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce 5th Floor Zambia House, 48 Kwame Nkrumah,Harare, Zimbabwe

Contact Details Telephone number: +263 (0) 9 60002 | +263 (0) 9 60019 FAX: +263 (0) 9 60019 Email: info@nhimbe.org Website: www.nhimbe.org

Contact Details Telephone number: +263 4 770244 | +236 42935530-1 website: http://www.zncc.co.zw

National Gallery of Zimbabwe

Department of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property

Harare Physical Address: 20 Julius Nyerere Way Harare,Zimbabwe Postal Address P.O.Box CY 848 Causeway, Harare, Zimbabwe Contact Details Telephone number: +263 - 4 - 704 666 / 7 Email:info@nationalgallery.co.zw or ngz.harare@gmail.com Website: www.nationalgallery.co.zw Bulawayo Physical address: Corner 75 Main St / Leopold Takawira Ave. Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Postal Address: P.O Box 1993, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Bulawayo Office Tredgold building 2nd fl room 222 Fort Street/leopold Takawira Street Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Contact Details Postal address: Box 214 Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Contact numbers: 09] 61601-2 Fax: 889047 website: http://www.dcip.gov.zw/ Harare Office Century House , East, 38 Nelson Mandela Avenue, Harare, Zimbabwe

Contact Details Telephone number: +263-9-70721 or +263-9-71305 Fax: +263-9-63343 Email: sabona@mweb.co.zw website: www.nationalgallerybyo.com

Contact Details Telephone number:+263 4 777373, 775545-6 Fax: +263 4 777372 website: http://www.dcip.gov.zw/

Mutare Physical Address: 122 Upper 3rd Street, Corner 11th Avenue Kopje House, Mutare, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce

Postal Address 122 Upper 3rd Street Kopje House, Mutare, Zimbabwe Contact Details Telephone number: +263-020-61000 Fax: +263-020-62426 Email:ngz.mutare@yahoo.com website: www.nationalgallery.co.zw/ mutare

RESOURCES: Associations & Organisations

5th Floor Zambia House, 48 Kwame Nkrumah, Harare, Zimbabwe Contact Details Telephone number: +263 4 770244 | +236 42935530-1 website: http://www.zncc.co.zw Creative StartUp Guide Kwantuthu Arts Magazine

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