Take what you need
Sometimes one practical idea can make a big difference.
These resources are mainly for creative entrepreneurs and people building businesses and organisations in the creative industries. They’re also useful for trainers, educators and organisations that support them.
Over the years I’ve developed books, guides, business tools, videos and courses to help creative entrepreneurs become more successful — creatively and commercially.
I’ve made many of them freely available here because I want the ideas to be useful. You don’t need to register, give me your email address or buy anything. Just explore the resources and use whatever helps.
Some began as books or articles. Others grew out of workshops and projects I’ve delivered with creative entrepreneurs around the world.
Take what you need.
T-Shirts and Suits — the complete eBook, free
T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity is my guide to combining creative passion with smart business thinking.
The complete eBook is free.
Why give the whole book away?
I sometimes joke in my speeches that people must be wondering why a businessman is giving things away for nothing. Perhaps I’m not as stupid as I look.
I actually do it for two very different reasons.
First, it’s my gift to the world — if that doesn’t sound too corny. I genuinely want creative entrepreneurs everywhere to have access to the ideas, whether or not we ever meet.
Secondly, T-Shirts and Suits is also my manifesto, my brochure and my advertising. If you read the book, you’ll understand a great deal about how I think about creativity and business.
Those two reasons aren’t contradictory. Giving something useful away can be both generous and smart business.
Download the complete eBook:
Explore more information about T-Shirts and Suits
Practical guides and business tools
These resources are designed to be used, not merely read.
Designing Your Creative Business
Designing Your Creative Business (DYCB) helps creative entrepreneurs think about what success means to them, identify their strengths and competitive advantage, choose the right customers and develop a business that works on their own terms.
I originally developed DYCB for creative entrepreneurs attending my workshops. It’s a practical toolkit — something to write on, scribble over and use to think things through.
The toolkit has subsequently travelled with me. It was translated into Spanish and used in an extended DYCB workshop with creative entrepreneurs in Bilbao.
Download the free Designing Your Creative Business toolkit
Create Your Own Business Formula
Every successful business has its own formula.
My Business Formula approach helps creative entrepreneurs bring together their distinctive strengths and the right customers to create a business strategy that makes sense for them.
Read or download Create Your Own Business Formula
An idea that travelled
One of the things I enjoy most is seeing ideas travel further than I ever expected.
After attending one of my workshops for creative entrepreneurs in Bandung, Indonesia, Jodie Jane Lumanauw translated Create Your Own Business Formula into Indonesian.
Following several collaborations supporting creative entrepreneurs in Brazil, my colleague — and now dear friend — Fábio Fonseca translated it into Portuguese. The Portuguese edition was published digitally for free distribution in partnership with Instituto Iniciativa Cultural.
Read in English | Indonesian | Portuguese | Other Translations
Creative, Cultural and Digital Industries Guide
A practical guide to the business side of the creative industries, covering subjects including strategy, customers, marketing, intellectual property, finance, organisational structures and working with people.
I wrote the guide for people building businesses and organisations in the creative and cultural industries, so it concentrates on practical decisions rather than business theory for its own sake.
Read or download the free guide
Watch and learn
Not everybody wants to learn from a book or PDF.
I’ve also made videos, masterclasses and online learning materials available for people who prefer to watch, listen and work through ideas at their own pace.
How to Be a Successful Creative Entrepreneur
A practical masterclass bringing together some of my key ideas about creative entrepreneurship and building a successful creative business.
Strategic Planning and Marketing
I developed these online courses as part of my work with the EU-Eastern Partnership Culture and Creativity Programme, which supported cultural and creative professionals across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
They provide practical introductions to strategic planning and marketing for people working in the creative and cultural sectors.
More online courses and toolkits
I’ve developed other practical learning materials covering subjects including business design, diversification and precision marketing.
I’m gradually making these directly and freely accessible too.
Explore Online Courses & Toolkits
More ideas to explore
Ideas in Action
Business ideas become much more interesting when you see what real creative entrepreneurs actually do with them.
Ideas in Action brings together examples and stories from creative businesses, showing different approaches to entrepreneurship, strategy and making creativity work commercially.
Articles
I’ve written extensively about creative entrepreneurship, strategic marketing, business models, international business and the creative industries.
Videos
Talks, interviews, business advice and practical ideas from my work with creative entrepreneurs and organisations internationally.
For organisations supporting creative entrepreneurs
If you run a creative hub, university programme, accelerator, government initiative, NGO or other organisation supporting creative entrepreneurs, please feel free to share links to these resources with the people you work with.
Many of the resources on this page grew out of exactly that kind of work.
And sometimes a downloadable guide or recorded course isn’t enough.
If you’d like me to work directly with your creative entrepreneurs, I design and deliver practical, interactive creative entrepreneurship workshops internationally. The content can be adapted to your participants, your location and what you’re trying to achieve.
Explore Creative Business Training Workshops
One idea might be enough
You certainly don’t need to read, watch or download everything here.
Sometimes one useful idea, one question or one different way of looking at a business can make a surprisingly big difference.
So have a look around.
Take what you need.