Business Ideas, Tools, Techniques

This website provides information and inspiration – business ideas, tools, techniques – for creative people who want to use smart business thinking to make their businesses and organisations even more successful in the creative industries.

This section lists a number of useful business ideas, tools, techniques and other business methods that can be used by entrepreneurs in the creative, digital and cultural industries.

The most important thing is to select the business ideas, tools and techniques that fit with your values and objectives. Business techniques can be adapted according to your needs and the way you prefer to work. Elsewhere on this website (see links below) you can find inspiring examples from creative enterprises who have used business methods in a smart way, to suit their unique objectives. We shouldn’t be subjected to the conventional assumptions about business, or blindly follow other people’s business practices; quite the opposite: we can be in control of our destiny by using business techniques in accordance with our own values, our particular circumstances, to achieve success on our own terms!

Several free resources can be redistributed online.

Details of online videos, articles, guides, animations and books are listed below.

T-Shirts and Suits. Full details of the book ‘T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity’. Available as a paperback, Audiobook and a free eBook. It has been translated and published in 14 countries so far. Further translations are planned and more enquiries are welcome. See information at foot of page.

Chase One Rabbit. ‘Marketing in Minutes on your Mobile!’ eBook, Audiobook and paperback. ‘Chase One Rabbit: Strategic Marketing for Business Success. 63 Tips, Techniques and Tales for Creative Entrepreneurs’. Also in Spanish and French.

Creative, Digital and Cultural Industries Guide. Advice about marketing, intellectual property, organisational structures and other business matters relevant to creative and digital business and cultural enterprises. Available for free download and re-distribution. See licensing information at foot of page.

Designing Your Creative Business. A Toolkit and Workshop to help creative entrepreneurs design their business to achieve success. Contact David Parrish’s office for enquiries about this and other workshops available.

Create Your Own Business Formula. An article on creative business development, first published as a chapter in a book, now available for free download. Also available in translations in Spanish, Romanian, German, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Thai, Azerbaijani and Belarusian (so far!). Further translations required. This article can be re-distributed. See licensing information at foot of page.

Free Online Courses. Online courses designed for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurs – Marketing and Strategic Planning
Online learning courses available for free worldwide, with a certificate provided at the end of each course.

Blog posts with business ideas, advice and examples for creative enterprises, including ‘What are you selling really?’, ‘Raise your prices!’, ‘Three Top Tips’ and ‘Don’t hide your people’. Articles can be republished with permission. See licensing information at foot of page.

‘Ideas in Action’ articles. More articles illustrating how creative enterprises around the world have used cool business ideas, in the same style as the Ideas in Action sections in the book ‘T-Shirts and Suits’. Articles can be copied and redistributed. See licensing information at foot of page.

Videos with business ideas and information for creative enterprises world-wide. These include ‘How to succeed in creative business’, ‘New Business Models in the Creative Industries’ and David Parrish talking about how Creativity and Business can be combined effectively to achieve success. Videos can be embedded in other websites. See licensing information at foot of page.

Toolbox Naranja. This page offers creative business development resources in Spanish and English for creative entrepreneurs in the Orange Economy in Colombia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Animations about ‘How to Pay the Rent’ and ‘Crowdfunding for Creative Businesses’. Animations can be embedded in other websites. See licensing information at foot of page.

Glossary. A selection of interesting and useful business terms, concepts, techniques and business jargon, explained simply.

Recommended books. Some suggested reading for creative entrepreneurs.


Feedback: Please contact David Parrish’s office with feedback about how these business ideas, tools, techniques and methods work for you – and suggest other great ideas we can share with the international community of creative business people. Further business ideas, tools, techniques and methods will be published on this website.


Licensing Information

All works are protected by copyright but are often licensed for republication through an appropriate Creative Commons licence or written permission granted through David Parrish’s office.

Book ‘T-Shirts and Suits’. All rights reserved. Can be published in translations with permission of the publishers. Contact David Parrish’s office for details of foreign publication rights.

Free eBook. Can be copied, printed and re-distributed in all media, including as a download from other websites or as an electronic resource at training events and conferences, provided it is not changed or sold.

Blog posts. Written permission is usually granted to allow re-publication or translation of blog articles.

‘Ideas in Action’ articles can be copied, printed and re-distributed provided they are not changed or sold. Translations are invited: please contact David Parrish’s office.

Videos can be embedded in other websites or distributed via other media.

Designing Your Creative Business. All rights reserved. Special editions and translations can be arranged by organisations commissioning training workshops from T-Shirts and Suits Ltd.

Create Your Own Business Formula. Article can be copied, printed and redistributed. Further translations are required. Contact David Parrish’s office if you would like to translate this article into other languages.

Creative, Digital and Cultural Industries Guide. Electronic version can be copied and redistributed. For permission to reprint the paperback guide, or to discuss special versions of this guide for your own local market, contact David Parrish’s office.

Animations can be embedded in other websites.

Contact David Parrish’s offices if you would like to translate any of these resources or work together to make these and other resources available more widely.


Ideas, Tools, Techniques

Business ideas, tools, techniques and tales