How do you raise finance for a feature film? (Or any other creative enterprise, for that matter.) It’s an expensive business, but some creative entrepreneurs think imaginatively about raising money, including raising small amounts from lots of people. Like ‘crowd-sourcing’, ‘crowd financing’ allows many people to participate in a small way to have a great …
Category: Recent Posts
The Business of Culture
For many people, the words ‘business’ and ‘culture’ don’t sit comfortably side by side. Some people assume that culture has to be non-commercial to be valid, and therefore to apply commercial thinking to cultural endeavour is to pervert it. But even charities and ‘non-for-profit’ organisations in the arts and cultural sector need to be business-like, …
Creative Business Guide
A useful and readable ‘Creative, Cultural and Digital Industries Guide’ has been published by Business Link West Midlands It is available in hardcopy from Business Link West Midlands and downloadable as a free eBook in PDF format below. This creative business guide was written by David Parrish, author of the book ‘T-Shirts and Suits: A …
Are You Busy?
“Are you busy?” is often a conversation opener between creative people in business. The implication is that you should be busy; if you’re not busy, then something is wrong. So it seems that the ‘correct’ answer is “Yes, very busy!” But wait a minute ! Busy doing what ? It’s easy to be busy, busy, …
Winning in Hard Times
How will creative businesses cope in the economic downturn? That’s a question that I have been asked many times recently, both in the UK and overseas. In response, I make the following points: Though the general economic situation is difficult, the recession will not affect all businesses equally. It is not inevitable that all businesses …
The LEGO Crowd
Lewis Pinault from Lego Serious Play addressed the Creative Clusters Conference in Glasgow – and I had fun making a duck (see photo). Lego Serious Play helps businesses think creatively using Lego in group settings to discuss business issues. For example entrepreneurs can express their shared vision for the business by first creating a model …
Business Growth: Does Size Matter?
Part of my job as a business adviser in the creative sector is to ask questions – sometimes awkward or unexpected questions. So when entrepreneurs ask my advice about how to grow their businesses, my first questions are: “Why do you want to grow?” and: “What do you want to grow?” Why grow? There is …
… and what we didn’t do
The most focused creative enterprises are clear about where they want to go and have a clear vision of the future and exactly what ‘Success’ means. In a ‘Designing Your Creative Business’ workshop for creative entrepreneurs in Taipei, sponsored by the British Council in Taiwan and the Taiwan Design Centre, I suggested a technique to …
Viral marketing – MUTO video
Thanks to Danielly Netto from Newcastle University Business School, who’s researching business models in the creative industries, for including this viral video in her presentation. This is a video from artist BLU showing the awesome MUTO ‘animated graffiti’ work in Buenos Aires. Published on the internet using a Creative Commons licence, it’s already had about …
Don’t be a ‘Poor Pioneer’: create Barriers to Entry
I often advise creative entrepreneurs who have innovative products or services. Sometimes it’s a completely new idea and they are planning to open up a new market for it. Someone asked me whether I’m ever tempted to ‘steal’ the ideas people tell me about when I’m advising them. My answer was firmly No, for two …