{"id":1323,"date":"2009-06-25T12:02:11","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T12:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localenterprise.wordpress.com\/?p=789"},"modified":"2009-06-25T12:02:11","modified_gmt":"2009-06-25T12:02:11","slug":"how-bizaar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2009\/06\/25\/how-bizaar\/","title":{"rendered":"How Bizaar!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the name of a new initiative introduced by the Sharing the Success<\/a> team as part of the Leeds LEGI endeavours to produce a more enterprising culture.\u00a0 Notwithstanding the awful pun it may prove to be an interesting and potentially useful scheme.\u00a0 ‘Bazaar’ is a Persian word meaning a ‘permanent <\/strong>market area’.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see just how permanent this stall is.<\/p>\n

‘How Bizaar’ invites people to test trade their products or services on a market stall in the very wonderful Leeds Kirkgate Market, rent free for 12 weeks.\u00a0 They get additional business support and the usual bells and whistles you would expect from publicly funded business support programmes.\u00a0 According to publicity the stall is open to anyone (surely there should be some geographical criteria related to super output areas), and existing market traders are free to use it to test out opportunities to diversify.<\/p>\n

Presumably if the test trade period goes well entrepreneurs will be helped to establish their business on a more permanent footing, either in the market or elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Leeds market is a hot bed of enterprise.\u00a0 Mostly very well managed stalls shifting serious units.\u00a0 They have to be, as the footfall is enormous and stalls are not cheap.\u00a0 Some have been run by family’s for decades.\u00a0 It is a very competitive environment in which to trade.\u00a0 If you have the right products at the right price you can do well.\u00a0 Leeds market is primarily a food market with some electrical and houseware stalls.\u00a0 Customers of the market are usually looking to make pragmatic purchases at low cost.<\/p>\n

So imagine you run one of these stalls in the market working hard to make a living.\u00a0 And imagine that ‘the council’ takes over a stall nearby and makes it available to people to sell their products, alongside yours, without paying any rent.\u00a0 The council also pays the salary of full time workers to staff the stand.<\/p>\n

The optimist in me would say great!\u00a0 More traders and more publicity means more footfall which means more business for all.\u00a0 The financial manager in me would be screaming ‘Just what I need – competition that is being subsidised by the organisation that collects my rent’.<\/p>\n

But let’s stand back a bit and ask ourselves about the kind of entrepreneur who will benefit from this service.\u00a0 Clearly they must already have a product or service that they are ready to merchandise.\u00a0 ie they are quite a long way down the enterprise journey.\u00a0 It might give a leg up to those who are already enterprising.<\/p>\n

The footfall at the market must represent the right demographic for the products and services that you are test trading.\u00a0 Putting the right product in the wrong marketplace because of the ‘allure of free’ could be disastrous.<\/p>\n

They must be able to effectively compete – within three months – in one of the most competitive markets in the country.\u00a0 Many of the market stands have evolved a product range and merchandising layouts over years to optimise sales.\u00a0 Will a kind of ‘jamboree bag’ stall with high turnover of goods and services be able to compete?\u00a0 Most of the people that I know who use the market go to buy specific things from specific stalls.\u00a0 It is not a destination for window shoppers or impulse buyers.<\/p>\n

You must be able to handle some quite sophisticated calculations to get any useful data from your test trading period.\u00a0 Is business building or not?\u00a0 Is my reputation spreading?\u00a0 What costs are currently being externalised – rent, power, wages, marketing?\u00a0 To what extent is success or failure down to this location?\u00a0 To publicity generated by LEGI? If I move premises will the customer base I have found at the market come with me?\u00a0 In short what will my test trading experience really tell me about the viability of my business idea.<\/p>\n

My biggest concern though is that it will provide yet more assistance to those who are already enterprising.\u00a0 And in the long run making it easy for people to start a business does them few favours.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see how the project unfolds and I wish it well.<\/p>\n

KioskKiosk<\/a> is a similar market stall concept being tested in London.\u00a0 The kiosk and concept was developed by Wayne Hemingway and looks visually strong.\u00a0 Let’s hope that the design ethic at How Bizaar manages to compete.<\/p>\n

New Sugar<\/a> is another really interesting web based response to the challenge of giving newbie entrepreneurs (in this case designers) a platform to showcase their talent.<\/p>\n