Organisations that support creative entrepreneurs often provide business training as part of their programmes.

But choosing the right training is not simply a matter of selecting a workshop title from a list.

Creative entrepreneurs have different businesses, different ambitions and different definitions of success. A designer building an international brand, a filmmaker developing intellectual property, an independent artist wanting to earn a better living and a digital agency planning to employ twenty people may all need very different things.

Good business training should therefore begin with the people taking part and the outcomes the organisation wants to achieve.

Here are some questions to consider when choosing business training for creative entrepreneurs.

1. Start with the Outcomes — Not the Workshop Title

Before deciding whether you need a workshop about marketing, finance, pricing or business strategy, ask a more fundamental question:
What do we want participants to think about, understand or do differently as a result of the training?

Perhaps creative entrepreneurs need to become more confident about pricing.

Maybe they need to understand their finances and cash flow better.

Perhaps they are trying to identify new customers, develop international markets, make better use of their intellectual property or decide how their businesses should grow.

Sometimes the most useful outcome is broader: helping participants step back from the day-to-day demands of their businesses and make better strategic decisions about what to do next.

Once the desired outcomes are clear, it becomes much easier to decide what the training should actually contain.

2. Recognise That Creative Businesses Are Different

Many general principles of business apply equally to creative enterprises.
But creative businesses also have some distinctive characteristics.

Their most valuable assets may be ideas, designs, copyright, brands and other intellectual property. Income can be irregular and project-based.

The founder’s own creativity may be central to the enterprise. Products and services are often highly differentiated, making pricing difficult.

Creative entrepreneurs may also have particularly close relationships between their businesses, their identities and the kind of lives they want to lead.

This means generic business training designed for conventional small businesses cannot always simply be transferred into the creative industries unchanged.

Look for training that combines sound business thinking with an understanding of how creative enterprises actually work.

3. Don’t Assume Every Entrepreneur Wants the Same Kind of Success

Business support sometimes starts with an unspoken assumption:
Every successful business should become bigger.

But growth can mean many different things.

One creative entrepreneur might want to employ twenty people. Another might want to remain independent while increasing prices and working with fewer, better customers.

Someone else might want to export, license intellectual property, develop new products or create recurring sources of income.

Another entrepreneur may decide that greater freedom, more creative satisfaction or a better balance between work and the rest of life matters more than increasing turnover.

None of these choices is automatically right or wrong.

Good business training should help creative entrepreneurs understand their options, challenge their assumptions and make informed decisions about what success means for them.

Sometimes one of the most valuable business decisions is deciding what not to do.

4. Choose a Trainer Who Understands Both Creativity and Business

Creative entrepreneurs don’t need business advice that treats creativity as an inconvenient complication.

Nor do they need enthusiastic discussion about creativity without rigorous business thinking.

The most useful training connects the two.

A good creative business trainer should be comfortable discussing subjects such as business strategy, competitive advantage, marketing, pricing, financial management, intellectual property and business models — while understanding the realities of creative work.

Ask about the trainer’s experience.

Have they worked directly with creative entrepreneurs?

Do they understand different parts of the creative industries?

Can they use relevant examples rather than relying entirely on generic business case studies?

Can they explain business concepts clearly without unnecessary jargon?
And perhaps most importantly: can they help participants apply business thinking without telling them that there is only one correct way to run a creative business?

5. Look for Conversation — Not Just Lectures

Business training should involve more than transferring information from the trainer’s presentation slides into participants’ notebooks.

Creative entrepreneurs already have knowledge, experiences, problems and ideas of their own.

Good workshops create opportunities to connect business concepts with those real experiences.

That can involve short explanations from the trainer, practical examples, stories, questions, exercises, discussion and conversations between participants.

But “interactive” training needs to be handled intelligently.

Not everybody enjoys being unexpectedly singled out in front of a room or pressured to reveal details about their business.

The best workshops create an atmosphere in which people feel comfortable asking questions, sharing experiences and even disagreeing — without participation becoming compulsory performance.

Conversation, not lectures.
Participation, not pressure.

6. Think About Group Size and Workshop Format

There is no perfect number of participants for every workshop.
Relatively small groups make it easier to have genuine conversations, explore individual questions and allow participants to learn from one another.

Larger groups can work too, but the format needs to change.

A workshop for 15 or 20 creative entrepreneurs can involve much more discussion than a session for 40 or 50 people.

The length of the workshop matters as well.

A half-day session may be useful for introducing a particular subject. A full day creates more time for exercises, discussion and applying ideas. Two days or more allow several related subjects to be explored in greater depth.

Don’t simply ask:
“How many people can the trainer accommodate?”
Ask:
“What kind of experience do we want participants to have?”

7. Expect Tailoring — But Not Reinventing Everything from Scratch

Tailoring is important.

A workshop for independent designers in Finland shouldn’t automatically be identical to one for cultural organisations in Slovakia or creative entrepreneurs in Botswana.

The local context, participants, business sectors, experience levels and objectives may all be different.

But tailoring doesn’t necessarily mean inventing an entirely new course every time.

An experienced trainer should have a substantial repertoire of proven business tools, workshop material, exercises, stories, examples and case studies.

The skill lies in selecting, adapting and combining the most appropriate elements for a particular group.

Think of it less like writing a completely new textbook for every workshop and more like working with a very large box of Lego.

The pieces are proven.
The combination is tailored.

8. Consider Combining Group Training with Individual Advice

Group workshops and individual business advice achieve different things.
A workshop allows participants to explore ideas together, learn from other entrepreneurs and discover that many of their challenges are shared.

Individual meetings allow a completely different conversation.

An entrepreneur may want to discuss prices, finances, customers, intellectual property, partnerships or a difficult strategic decision that they would prefer not to discuss in front of the group.

Combining the two can be particularly effective.

Participants first develop a shared vocabulary and understanding through the workshop, then use confidential one-to-one sessions to apply the ideas to their particular circumstances.

9. Think Beyond the Workshop

If you are bringing an experienced trainer to work with your creative community, the workshop doesn’t necessarily have to be the only activity.

Depending on your objectives, a visit might also include:
• confidential one-to-one business advice
• visits to creative businesses and studios
• an open presentation or Q&A for the wider creative community
• conversations with the organisation’s management team
• meetings with partner organisations
• media interviews
• books or other resources for participants
• informal networking or social events
• online follow-up sessions after the visit

None of these should be added merely to make a project bigger.

But sometimes a little additional time around the formal workshop creates disproportionate value.

It can also allow the trainer to understand the local creative community better — and sometimes useful opportunities emerge that nobody could have put into the original brief.

10. Decide When Face-to-Face or Online Training Works Best

Online training has obvious advantages.

It eliminates travel, can bring together participants in different locations and makes short follow-up sessions relatively easy to organise.

For some purposes, it is exactly the right format.

Face-to-face training offers different advantages.

Conversations can flow more naturally. Participants interact with one another differently. Informal discussions happen during coffee breaks and after sessions. Individual meetings and business visits can be incorporated more easily.

The choice therefore shouldn’t simply be:
– Which is cheaper?
It should be:
– Which format will produce the most useful experience and outcomes for this particular group?

Hybrid approaches can also work well — for example, online preparation followed by face-to-face workshops and subsequent online mentoring or follow-up.

11. Make the Most of an International Trainer’s Visit

If an organisation is bringing a trainer from another country, particularly over a long distance, it is worth considering whether several organisations or activities could share the opportunity.

A creative hub might collaborate with a university, government agency, accelerator or another organisation supporting creative enterprises.

Several cities or regions might organise a series of workshops.

A training visit might incorporate a public presentation, meetings with local businesses or conversations with organisations developing the creative economy.

This isn’t simply about extracting more hours from the trainer.

It can create connections between different parts of the creative ecosystem and make the visit more valuable for everyone involved.

Sometimes the best question isn’t:
“How much does a workshop cost?”
It is:
“How can we make the most of having this person here?”

12. Measure What Matters

Participant feedback forms can be useful.

But a room full of people saying they enjoyed a workshop doesn’t necessarily mean the training achieved its purpose.

Think about what success actually means.
– Did participants become clearer about their business strategies?
– Did they change their prices?
– Did they identify better target customers?
– Did they understand their finances more confidently?
– Did they identify intellectual property they could license?
– Did they explore an international market?
– Did they decide to stop pursuing an unsuitable opportunity?
– Did businesses grow or create jobs where those were the objectives?

Some outcomes can be measured quickly. Others emerge months later.

And not every positive outcome involves doing more.

A creative entrepreneur who makes a well-informed decision not to expand, not to take investment, not to pursue every customer or not to launch a particular product may have made an extremely valuable business decision.

The objective of good business training is not activity for activity’s sake.
It is better decision-making.

What Should Good Creative Business Training Ultimately Achieve?

Business training shouldn’t try to turn creative entrepreneurs into accountants, management consultants or miniature versions of somebody else’s successful company.

It should give them useful concepts, tools, perspectives and confidence that they can apply to their own circumstances.

The trainer can introduce options.

The trainer can ask difficult questions.

The trainer can share techniques, examples and experiences from other businesses and other countries.

But ultimately, the entrepreneur has to make the decisions.

Good creative business training should help creative entrepreneurs make better decisions about the businesses they want to build — on their own terms.

David Parrish’s Creative Business Workshops

David Parrish has designed and delivered business training for creative entrepreneurs internationally, working with creative hubs, government agencies, NGOs, universities, accelerators and other organisations supporting the creative industries.

Find out more about David’s Creative Business Training Workshops.

His workshops cover subjects including business strategy, strategic marketing, financial management, pricing, intellectual property, business models, international business and creative entrepreneurship.

Explore David’s Creative Business Workshop Topics.

Workshops can stand alone or form part of a wider visit involving individual advice, presentations, business visits and other activities tailored to a creative community.

See examples of David’s Training Projects and Clients.

Planning Business Training for Creative Entrepreneurs?

If your organisation is planning business training for creative entrepreneurs, the best starting point isn’t necessarily choosing a workshop title.

Start with the participants.

Start with your objectives.

Then decide what combination of subjects, format and activities would be most useful.

David is happy to have an initial conversation about what your organisation wants to achieve and how the training could be designed around your creative community.

Contact David to discuss business training for creative entrepreneurs.