During the time frame of September 2022 to May 2023, I spent my Placement year as a part of the Enterprise Placement Year module, which is presented as an alternative placement for self-motivated students to start their own independent business as a self-employed professional.
Some of the key benefits of this alternative pathway involves gaining access to resources and networking connections that are specially picked for self-employment and entrepreneurship, access to mentorships and consultants who can give specific and detailed advice for your individual business, and the freedom to experiment and learn the fundamentals of enterprise and entrepreneurship while having a safety net in the form of the module coordinator and teaching staff of the Enterprise Placement module.
Throughout my time on EPY, I have gained invaluable knowledge and experience through my independent business ventures, and I plan to explain in further detail how exactly I have gotten to where I am now!
Before getting into the development of my business however, I would like to provide a short explanation for the concept of my business and its status and success as of May 2023.
My independent business goes by the name PastelSketches64, and it’s main service involves the creation of bespoke individually specified and crafted pieces of digital artwork for either personal use (such as gifts to family members) or commercial use (promotional work for companies and independent online creators). In the case of commercial use, my work can be used to develop unique and personalised brands to market and advertise to target audiences, especially through online mediums such as social media profiles, posts and videos.
Alongside printing out business cards to give out to prospective investors and potential clients, I also finished setting up a full website in December 2022 that hosts all the information needed to understand what work I create and how to get in contact with me. I would then soon go on to properly open my Illustration and Animation Commissions to the public in January 2023. ( https://pastelsketches64.carrd.co/ )
As of May 2023, I am promoting my business through various online means, such as TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, and have also been advertising my Illustration and Animation Commissions through a newly developing website for sourcing artists for VTubers and Social Media Influencers known as VGen. I have received multiple Illustration Commissions over the course of the last few months, and am a part of two different independent Animation projects as a Storyboard Artist and Animator respectively.
Twitter: @pastelsketch64 || TikTok: @pastelsketches64 || Instagram: @pastelsketches64 VGen Profile: PastelSketches64
My future plans for my business involve the consistent promotion of my skills through understanding Social Media algorithms and searching the web for artistic opportunities that would best be benefitted by my skillset. With the networking and advice I have received from EPY, I have developed a Social Media Marketing Plan which should help to grow and cultivate my online following and further spread my presence online. I also hope to expand my skillset to provide more Commission styles (PNGTuber, Stream Alerts, Stream Overlays, etc.) and expand the formats to which I present the final Commissions with an online shop (Physical prints, Keychains, Stickers, etc.).
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
I first heard of Enterprise Placement Year through a chance interaction in April 2022 with a 3rd Year Animation student presenting their final evaluation to the class and to 2nd Year students like myself at the time. She had used the program to help launch her own online shop and develop her brand as someone who sold custom-made items such as keychains and posters.
As someone who was starting to prepare for my own Placement year in the coming months, hearing that there was an alternative option to just applying to studios and lucking out gave me an immense rush of relief and excitement. I have always been self-reliant when it came to my artistic endeavours, and having previously attempted to open Art Commissions online back in September 2020, I was already starting to form an idea of what I wanted to do as a business venture.
When I first got in contact with the EPY team in late May 2022, I was immediately welcomed with clear explanations of the course module and warm encouragements to do what felt right for me. EPY was still a relatively new module for the University, but had gained more success over the past 2-3 years by that point in time, possibly thanks in large part due to the freedom to work from home during the time of the Pandemic. After a couple weeks of discussion through video calls, I received a confirmation email in early June 2022 inviting me to take part in Enterprise Placement Year.
From here, I was given access to Workshops and Seminars that greatly helped in solidifying the fundamental skills needed to start a business, and to which I wouldn’t have even begun to understand how I should develop my own business without them! Throughout the months, I would jot down notes and engage with the many different presenters of these events to get the most out of each opportunity,
When it came to learning how to converse and deliberate with a client, I could contact Jackie or Seamus by email and receive detailed and thoughtful advice that helped me to understand for myself how to represent my work and brand and advocate for fair pay and treatment through my contract.
Alongside all of this, the EPY staff look out for any monetary aid that could be beneficial to students, including bursaries and competitions that can bring more opportunities to students starting up their businesses. We were all lucky enough to receive a £1,000 bursary to support our new businesses, which I planned to hold on to and use for future developments to my business to offer more services and options to potential clients and audiences (Online Shop, Social Media Marketing, etc.)
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
I know through both recent market research and extensive personal experience in online communities that Artists are always in high demand to help bring passionate visions to life, but that many people find difficulty in actually sourcing said artists and resort to posting on social media to specific fandoms or communities, and many artists find difficulty in promoting their work to their target audiences at the right place and time. I would need to take these issues into account as I was developing and promoting my business, and would have to continue with active research for any marketing opportunities.
Throughout the months, I attended various workshops and conversed with multiple mentors and consultants, which were all supremely beneficial to the development and success of my business. In particular, I gained the most useful knowledge from the “Social Media for Start Up Businesses” workshop led by Catherine Henderson for LEDcom and the “TikTok for Business! Making it work in 2023!” workshop led by Penny Walker for Unpreneur.
These workshops taught me about the algorithms of both Instagram and TikTok respectively, and gave many pointers on how to market your business to the types of audiences that use these particular social media platforms. Social Media is a deeply saturated marketplace, and so it takes a lot of trail and error
At the beginning of 2023, I was contacted by Deirdre Fitzpatrick of the Belfast Enterprise Academy to set up a mentorship with them, which would help network me with individuals with specialised skills to advise me with my business and help grow profits throughout the coming months. With this connection, I was able to consult with Francesca Morelli of VAVA Influence to get advice on promotional work through TikTok and Meike White to help in developing my business plan and chart out my financials and potential profits for the next 2 years.
With each workshop and seminar that I attended, I used each opportunity to jot down thorough notes to help me to further develop my business in multiple ways. Alongside social media marketing, I also attended workshops for the fundamentals of financing for businesses and maintaining healthy mindsets during self-employment.
One of the biggest events I was able to attend was the RENDR Festival, which was a large 2-day event focused on “exploring the space between creativity and technology” by inviting multiple industry professionals from film, gaming, animation and more to speak to audiences about their own experiences within their respective industries.
With my background in art and animation, I was mainly interested in the animation studios that would be attending the festival, such as Cartoon Saloon, JAM Media and Blue Zoo. I also decided to check out some of the video game related talks featured at the festival, including Hypixel Studios, Enter Yes and One Pixel Brush.
And while my notes can speak for themselves in all the knowledge that I accrued during this event, I would also like to give special mention to the one-on-one conversation I was able to share with Chris Thursten of Hypixel Studios. Alongside providing helpful advice for getting into the industry, I was also able to discuss a long-running online animated project that I have been a part of for over 2 years now, and how their talk on developing as an indie company was particularly inspirational to me in that regard.
Since opening my commissions to the public in January 2023, I have slowly been able to gain clients through the use of consistent promotion on my socials and tapping into more niche fandom markets online to capitalise on popular and current trends.
For example, I gained 3 potential commission inquiries from passionate fans of a currently popular mobile game, which was soon launching a sequel game with a new art style that many fans were interested in commissioning artists to recreate for their own original characters. I was able to put my work out there at just the right time to work with these clients, which was an unbelievably huge boost to both my productivity and my business sales.
No amount of prior preparation could truly prepare me for the one-on-one interactions with my clients, where I intended to present a friendly and approachable persona who could be held to accountability by making my processes clear and understandable and keeping them in the know of my progress with weekly updates with Work in Progress images. These were invaluable experiences for me to help better develop my social skills with clients
One of the biggest opportunities and developments that occurred for my business was during April 2023, when I came across a small growing website and community known as VGen, which intended to be a one stop shop for VTubers, Streamers and Content Creators to easily source, verify and contact Artists to collaborate and create custom unique artwork for their projects. Fascinated by the monumental gaps that this service was intending to fill for both Artists and Clients, I applied to be a part of their Private Artist Beta to try things out and hopefully cultivate my business’ brand to a wider market audience.
I was then accepted into their program in late April 2023, where alongside selling my commissions through their website, I gained access to their Discord server, which provided many opportunities to network with other artists on the growing platform and allowed creatives to congregate to promote their works and seek advice from like-minded individuals. I personally hold a lot of faith in this project taking off and really changing the game for online commission work, and eagerly anticipate the positive impacts it will have on my own business!
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Reflecting back on all that has happened during these last lot of months, I can’t help but marvel at the position I am in now with my business. I couldn’t ever imagine making it to this point on my own, as the services that Enterprise Placement Year has provided me have been a crucial part in shaping the success of my business, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the whole EPY team.
I can’t wait to continue working on my business in the near future and really testing the skills and knowledge I’ve cultivated throughout this year-long process. I am very optimistic about the future of my business, and I hope that by this time next year, I’ll have been able to ideally double my profits and gained much more online and offline exposure than I currently have now.
(2037 Words)
