Appraisal

For the personal and professional practice module, I undertook research in marketing to understand how I can set up a successful business. To do this, I interviewed two marketing managers who gave me useful tips on branding, stages I need to go through to have a successful business and their honest opinion on starting a business. I also emailed an employee for HMRC to gain a better understanding of what I will be getting myself into once I have set up 'Unleashed Dog Photography'. This taught me about business tax, setting up as a sole trader, keeping records of my business sales, and registering with the construction industry scheme. 

I have demonstrated knowledge relevant to my practice by researching dog photographers within the UK, this gave me an idea of what I should be charging for my services, how I should set up my website, the types of images I should publish on my website and how I wanted to be represented in my branding. I tried to get in contact with dog photographers to gain a personal account of what it is like being a dog photographer but unfortunately only one replied. 

I found it interesting working with a graphic designer because it made me think about how important it is to have contacts that will benefit my business. Even though we did not have much communication regarding the logo, she knew exactly what I wanted and was efficient and reliable. I would want to work with her in the future.

The best experience throughout this module has been volunteering for Aireworth Dogs in Need because this gave me a chance to put my skills into practice. I learnt how important communication is because in my opinion the woman I was dealing with was not professional but this gave me a chance to show how professional I am as a photographer. I had my work credited on their Facebook page and on their website as this was one of my conditions for the use of my images. The best part of the work experience was knowing how much of an impact my images had, as two days later the dog was re-homed. 

My work experience for Mirfield Stags was also an important part to my work because I gained better skills with my camera, that will massively improve shoots in the future. I gained confidence in myself from this work experience and started to network whilst photographing the game. This resulted in getting in contact with two Huddersfield University students undergoing work experience themselves. This made me think about employing someone in the third year of the business plan.

If I could do the module again I would like to email more dog photographers because I thought the replies were lacking in this area. I would have started my business on social media at the start of my module so I could ask Ryan to give me feedback on my audience and discuss cost effective ways to grow my business. I think I would have benefited from gaining clients sooner and I would have done this by printing my business cards off earlier in the module. I wanted to get in touch with accountants to discuss setting up a small business but I ran out of time.