The Creative Entrepreneur - Start Up Wednesday

Anamaria Wills - Cultural and Creative Consultant, Facilitator and Mentor

• Twitter - talking to people.
• Legal & Regulation.
• Run your practice like a business.
• Work in a studio - first year out - learn about illustration - how it works.
• East-street arts - Karen.

Setting up a business

What is good about it

• Your own terms.
• Money.
• Personal satisfaction.
• Control.
• Area for growth.
• Meet lots of other people.
• Flexible.
• Recognition.

What is scary

• Failure.
• Job security.
• Promoting yourself.
• Money!

Be employed - do jobs - money.

People who are working to get work - experience.

• Collaboration!
• Make sure the presentation of the work is professional.
• Do your homework - research into potential clients.
• The maker owns the intellectual property to their work - only if you send it over - employee.
• Designer - artist - copyright

Knowing Yourself

• Recognition - produce finished work!
• Love of the work, not the money.
• Tend to underestimate the time - got to be a good enough standard.
• Make sure the audience is relevant.
• Take informed risks - putting publicity in the right place.
• A clear sense of values and beliefs underpinning creative and business decisions.
• Particularly in difficult or challenging circumstances - use of English, spell properly.
• Recognise external threads and opportunities.

Commercial Aptitude

• Keep up to date with latest developments.
• Seeks out best practice.
• Identifies and seizes opportunities not obvious to others - wise up on latest technology, trends, etc.

Project Management

• Planning and managing to turn ideas into reality.
• Managing initial links between people, ideas and information at all stages in the project life cycle.
• How to negotiate, how to communicate with and act and reach agreements - win win situations.

Risk Taking

• Operates from hope of success rather than from fear of failure.
• Persists in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks.
• Sees setbacks as due to manageable circumstance rather than as a personal flaw.

You will experience failure - lessons - identify where things could have been done differently.

Assess choices responsibly - weighs outcomes against values and responsibilities.

Customer Sensitivity

• Builds long term relationships of trust.
• Generates expectation of high level of customer service.
• Regularly exceeds customer expectation.

Networking

• Understands networking is a key business activity.
• Networks provide access to information, expertise, collaboration and sales.

Artist Network.

Innovation

• Uses imagination to develop new ideas and insights.

Leadership

• Become used to setting the standards.