For any creative entrepreneur, success comes from creative talent combined with smart business thinking. Sophie Nzinga Sy is successful both creatively and commercially. Because she’s not only a talented fashion designer, but she’s customer focused too. Many businesses claim to be ‘customer-focused’ and it has become a cliché. But what does it mean in reality? …
Category: Ideas in Action
Don’t Sell It; Rent It!
Guilherme Marconi makes money while he sleeps. This Brazilian artist has designed his creative business so that he is truly a creative entrepreneur rather than a creative labourer. It’s his business policy never to sell his intellectual property but always to rent it. By licensing his work for commercial use in this way, his art …
Crowd-Test, Improve, Sell!
Listening pays. Listening to customers leads to extra sales and profits. That’s the experience of fashion designer and consultant Diana Carolina Yanes. Diana is the designer behind the innovative and stylish FlyOn Jacket. With its 14 internal pockets, the FlyOn Jacket can carry as much as a standard carry-on (up to 15.4 lbs / 7 …
How to Find Your Niche as an Artist
As an emerging artist, or a creative startup, it can be stressful in the early days, until you find your niche and you can make a living by doing what you love. Diellza Ilgner is a Malta-based transdisciplinary performance artist working across theatre, multimedia, and audience-engaged art. Her work addresses social themes like migration, disability, …
How to get the Important Things done
How to get the Important Things done, when there just isn’t enough time? It’s too easy to be busy doing all those smaller and more urgent tasks and never find time to do the big important things. Our excuse is that there just isn’t enough time. “We always have time enough, if we will but …
Conversations as Market Research
Conversations are one of the most powerful forms of market research in the creative industries. They are a great way to understand customers’ perspectives. The term ‘Market Research’ makes most people think of big, expensive research exercises conducted by large corporations or government agencies. That’s why I prefer not to use that term at all. …
Strategic Digital Marketing Lecture at OMNES
David delivered a Strategic Digital Marketing lecture for Masters students at OMNES Education in London. Students studying the module “Advanced VR and Immersive Technology” heard David’s perspectives on strategic marketing in the digital industries and innovative technology. David shared his experience of strategic marketing in his own businesses and the successes of his clients whom …
Supporting Future Creative Entrepreneurs
David was the keynote speaker at a conference to celebrate Supporting Future Creative Entrepreneurs. The conference considered the business support perspective and the educational programmes perspective. David’s keynote speech drew on his experience of creative business support programmes, his work with universities around the world, and his case studies featuring creative entrepreneurs. The project lead …
Creative Business Case Study published
A new creative business case study has been published in the ‘Ideas in Action’ series, which features creative entrepreneurs from around the world. This ‘Ideas in Action’ article reports on social entrepreneurs in Lithuania who combined their creative talents with smart business thinking. In this way, they reached a far bigger audience in Lithuania and …
Danny Boyle on Inspiration
In this video Danny Boyle talks about certainty, doubt, inspiration – and why it’s important not to be intimidated by your heroes when working in the creative industries. Danny and I were at school together in Bolton many years ago. Since then he’s had a brilliant career in theatre, TV and film, winning an Oscar …