Welcome!

Aim: Conduct a market survey of the practical, technical and perceived challenges stopping businesses and merchants in the UK accepting Dash.

Problem: There are few merchants in the UK who accept Dash. The lack of merchants accepting Dash is holding back uptake by the UK consumer. Engaging with the 3-4 million businesses in the UK is a difficult task. So how do we reach out to survey them?

Solution: We use business networks. In the UK there are many hundreds of Trade Associations (TAs). These are networks of businesses. TAs are trusted bodies that sit at the heart of business sectors.

Project: as a pilot project we will work with the National Association of Jewellers (NAJ) to;

• Promote Dash and this project to UK gold dealers and jewellers, alerting entrepreneurs and Chief Executives that digital cash, specifically Dash, is heading their way.
• Survey the 2200 NAJ members on their attitude and plans for future use of Dash, and what’s stopping them using it.
• Incentivise completion of the survey by providing a Dash prize to 10 respondents. First prize 5 Dash with 9 runners up getting 2 Dash each.
• Capture data on companies who wish to explore becoming Dash merchants.
• Undertake feasibility studies conducting technical assessments with four companies to understand their existing online sales processes and the size of the task in signing them up as Dash merchants and develop an outline plan for implementation. If we do not have enough viable interest we will offer a free technical seminar to all interested members.
• Report back findings to Dash community and development team, to inform future work

Why this group?

• UK gold dealers are a natural group that should understand Dash as an asset as well as a currency.
• This proposal will increase the number of high net worth individuals aware of Dash.
• In 2014 this industry in the UK was worth £5 billion (manufacturing) and £7.3 billion (retail).
• Increasing consumer confidence in Dash and offering the hesitant consumer tangible assets that can be bought with Dash in the form of gold will be significant. Proving that one of the oldest symbols of value can be bought by one of the newest.

Project Team

• Stuart Bean - stuart.bean@simplyassociations.co.uk
• Stuart Thomlinson - stuart@surveywisdom.com
• Paul Tanner - paul@virtual-techno.com

All discussion of the project will go through the Dash forum - contact details for Stuart Bean @CaptAhab, Stuart Thomlinson @ridingonalion, Paul Tanner @handymannn

Scope of project

As a pilot study this is aimed at the jewellery sector and the 2200 businesses in the NAJ. Subject to evaluation of this pilot project, this could be rolled out through Trade Associations in other sectors.

Project Milestones and Schedule

Phase 1 - August/September 2017

• Produce article on Dash and its opportunities in the sector and highlighting survey to members. Copy deadline 5th September for The Jeweller Magazine - Media pack available here
• Design survey - Questions centered around awareness of cryptocurrencies and their acceptance of Dash as a potential method of payment for their business in the future. Those showing interest will be offered the chance to opt into further market research on this subject or feasibility studies/technical seminar. The survey will be short and engaging. As part of the questionnaire design process we would start a thread on the Dash community forum where members could add their suggestions.

Phase 2 - October 2017

• Publish article in the October edition of The Jeweller Magazine (Trade Press; readership 25,000)
• Deliver online survey for verified 2200 NAJ member companies collecting data on likely uptake of Dash, and incentivise by providing a Dash prize to 10 respondents. First prize 5 Dash with 9 runners up getting 2 Dash each. One survey per member company rolled out after members receive their copies of magazine on 10th October.

Phase 2 - November 2017

• Collate result of survey
• Contact prize winners and assist to set up Dash wallets
• Perform feasibility studies with 4 merchants or deliver free technical seminar

Phase 2 - December 2017

• Sponsor awards at the Annual Benevolent Ball of the National Association of Jewellers on December 7th 2017 (sponsorship of "Website of the Year"- award reserved) . Details of sponsorship package available here

Phase 2 - January 2018

• Publish results of survey and feasibility study/technical seminar on Dash Forum

Budget * costs calculated at £100 per Dash

The project requires payment of awards and article upfront to the NAJ and these are included in the first phase of the project Phase 1 = 103.3 Dash/1 month. We will then submit the proposal for Phase 2 - 41.2 Dash/3 months.
Total for Phase 1 and 2 - 226.9 Dash

Phase 1 - August
Produce article - 14.4 Dash
Sponsor Award (payment to NAJ £3000) - for award and admin - 32.4 Dash
Publish article (payment to NAJ £2250) - 22.5 Dash
Design online survey - 24 Dash
Reimburse Proposal Submission Cost (includes 5 burnt Dash in previous attempt to submit this proposal which failed due to technical error) - 10 Dash
Phase 1 total = 103.3 Dash/1 month

Phase 2 - October - December
Online survey admin / rollout -16.8 Dash
Contact 5 winners and assist to set up wallets and transfer Dash prizes - admin and prizes -
30 Dash
Feasibility study - 4 merchants or free technical seminar -19.2 Dash
Collate and publish results of survey - 21.6 Dash
Awards event - preparation, attendance, travel, accommodation - 36 Dash
Phase 2 total = 41.2 Dash / 3 months

What will success look like?

• Increased awareness of Dash within this specific business community and its Trade Association
• Clear understanding of the barriers to adoption of Dash by this sector
• Identified group of businesses who would like to become Dash Merchants

Risks

External dependencies - Trade Associations may not be interested (Medium)
Mitigation - By sponsoring award and publishing article in Trade Press we ensure access to member community to carry out survey. Pre-project early engagement has helped ensure buy-in. The National Association of Jewellers are supportive of the project and have allowed us to reserve award sponsorship. Stuart Bean has extensive networks with Trade Associations (see https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-bean-275ba84/). Survey Wisdom is very experienced in this field and will manage engagement through the design and roll out of survey. Offering incentivisation to selection of respondents being given Dash will encourage participation.
Revised risk - Low

Merchants might be nervous about costs, security, value fluctuations etc (Medium)
Engaging with a few merchants to discuss implementation in detail will provide comfort on these issues. We can deliver a free technical seminar on Dash, if there is lack of take up for feasibility study, in the first instance.
Revised risk - Low

Project team fail to deliver individual components of project (Medium)
The project members are all experienced individuals and have also worked together previously. Stuart Bean will have overall oversight of project. He and Stuart Thomlinson have worked together including successfully delivering Voices of British Business - a survey commissioned by Stuart Bean, delivered by Stuart Thomlinson at Survey Wisdom, sponsored by Government . Paul Tanner has previously worked with Stuart Bean at the Trade Association Forum delivering an early online payment solution for the TAF website.
Revised risk - Low

Progress reporting: The project team will report progress of delivery of milestones against timetable on the Dash forum

Why us?
Stuart Bean has extensive experience in lobbying and marketing, having had a 20-year career working at the Confederation of British Industry. He has wide ranging contacts and expertise in events, lobbying and working with UK Business leaders, including FTSE 100 CEOs. Stuart previously worked for a UK Political Party. More recently he has run his own business as part of a UK National Franchise (www.barkingmad.uk.com) which he is currently selling, and has set up a new business - Simply Associations Ltd - to include work with UK Trade Associations. Stuart has a MSc in Global Politics and Political Economy from Birkbeck College, University of London. He has been involved with Darkcoin/Dash since April 2014.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-bean-275ba84/
keybase.io/captahab

Stuart Thomlinson is owner of Survey Wisdom - an IT consultancy specialising in Market Research. Stuart has 20 years experience of designing and implementing market research surveys, and analysing the results. He provides consultancy to clients in many sectors including luxury automotive marques, tobacco / vaping , pharma , government and trade associations.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-thomlinson-7371b011/
Keybase.io/ridingonalion

Paul Tanner is an experienced engineer and project manager. Paul has held management positions in several tech startups and developed numerous electronic and software products. He works on a diverse range of IT projects in the roles of CTO, project manager, developer and architect. Paul's recent projects have been focused on practical implementation of the "Internet of Things". These have included two consumer energy portals, an assisted living care-in-the-home system, an assistive street and an energy-optimised smart house. He has also been an advisor and beta tester for a smart heating product. In support of these projects Paul has been testing IoT products, integrating them into online solutions and liaising with hardware/ firmware suppliers on compliance, security and availability. Paul is a graduate of MIT with a BS in Electrical Engineering.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paultanner/
keybase.io/handymannn

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