Dimensions Art and Design

Business Plan

Key Aims

To ensure that Dimensions Art and Design Project is and will continue to be managed by members of the Dimensions Disability Initiative project.

To utilise the knowledge, skills, talent and expertise of members within the project.

To remove barriers to those who wish to be involved and value both individual and team contributions.

To ensure that the product is of a consistently high standard.

To publicise and market Darlington Association on Disability within the community in line with the mission statement of Darlington Association on Disability.

To continue to monitor evaluate and develop the project in line with the philosophy of Dimensions Disability Initiative.

Job roles and responsibilities

In order to ensure the efficiency and quality of the project, members will take on specific roles and responsibilities, for example:-

Health and Safety representative - will ensure that risk assessments, e.g. Control of Substances Hazardous to Health and Visual Display Units, are in place and are reviewed at regular intervals.

Buyer - will source appropriate materials and suppliers who offer ‘value for money’. The buyer will ensure that catalogues and other resources are available to members. Costs and profit margins will be monitored regularly.

Artists / Designers - will ensure that the product is produced to the highest standard and is on time for delivery to the customer.

Quality Controller - will ensure that all materials and products are of excellent quality and that goods are of the highest standard before sale. Time management will also be monitored by the Quality Controller.

Sales representatives - will ensure that the completed product is delivered to customers (if appropriate), and that ongoing contacts are maintained and contracts are both secured and honoured.

Finance representative - will ensure that all incoming and outgoing finance is recorded and records are accurately kept up- to-date.

Publicity and Marketing representative - will build up a network of contacts and ensure quality publicity materials, e.g. samples and portfolios are updated regularly.

All members of the project will be responsible for the professionalism and positive image of Dimension's Art and Design which will be developed in line with the Social Model of Disability.

Training

Most of the Dimensions Art and Design core group attended a twelve week Business Training Course.

Aim of the training was: To develop enterprise skills to enable establishment of Community Enterprise Business

Training covered:

Week 1: Confidence Building, Team Building, Strengths and weaknesses and Communication and listening skills.

Week 2: Feasibility study.

Week 3: Business planning.

Week 4: Identify roles and responsibilities, Name of business.

Week 5: Constitution and legal issues.

Week 6: Publicity and marketing.

Week 7: Meetings and Administration.

Week 8: Finance.

Week 9: Health and safety.

Week 10: Monitoring and evaluation.

Week 11: Telephone skills.

Week 12: Conclusions.

The Product

Initially, our product is to be hand made greeting cards. We plan to expand our product list to include other items once the business and customer base is established. Shown below are photographic examples of some of our cards, please click on each photo for an enlarged image.

Marketing

Our customers will initially be the projects run by Darlington Association on Disability - e.g. Dimension Disability Initiative, DASH, Direct Payments, Carers Support Group and Shopmobility.

We have already been approached by members of these projects showing interest in our products.

We intend to make samples of our products to show to our customers. These will give an idea of the quality and standard of work. We will make our customers aware, however, that we cannot guarantee that any two products will be identical - that is the nature and beauty of hand made products, each one is unique.

Market research has identified that our product is not readily available locally.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths - Eagerness, experience and enthusiasm of core group and enjoyment of making quality products.

Weaknesses - Communication needs to be improved.

Opportunities - Definite niche in the market.

Threat - Demand for the product exceeding capacity to deliver.

We will endeavour to:-

Build on and maximise our strengths.

Overcome our weaknesses.

Take hold of our opportunities.

Minimise our threats.

Sales Analysis 2006

Dimension's Art and Design continues to maintain a business approach. Hand made cards have been designed produced and sold throughout the year.

A contract has been secured with Darlington Football Club (D.F.C.) to successfully design produce and deliver 200 Valentine Cards in a very short timescale. This order was completed on time and to our usual high standard. The cards were subsequently presented to guests at a D.F.C. promotional dinner.

It is envisaged that future contracts of this nature will be sought.

We recognise that we need to be committed and work as a team in order to maintain our reputation as a successful, reliable and unique project.

Contact details:

Dimensions Art and Design
Darlington Association on Disability
Dimensions Disability Initiative
West Lodge
West Crescent
Darlington
County Durham
DL3 7PS
Tel: 01325 254840
Minicom: 01325 243007
Fax: 01325 254841
E-mail: dimensions@darlingtondisability.org
Website: www.darlingtondisability.org