Tag: viral marketing

Too much advice !

Although I’m a business adviser, I rarely give direct advice to the creative entrepreneurs I’m helping. Instead, I help them to reach their own conclusions by asking questions, providing information and guiding them towards the kind of success they seek to achieve. There’s no shortage of advice. Often my clients come to me with an …

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Art is not what you see…

“Art is not what you see, it’s what you make others see” – Edgar Degas, French artist (1834-1917) I agree with this statement, which switches things around nicely, so that instead of thinking only about our own point of view as the creator, we also look at things from the point of view of the …

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Raising finance the AEV way in the cultural sector

Steve Messam is a talented artist – and a shrewd creative entrepreneur. Steve was approached by Cumbria Tourism in the UK to create an art installation to help publicise the launch of their campaign for cultural tourism. The budget offered was modest, so Steve put together a business case for a bigger budget. He knew …

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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, …

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Three Top Business Tips for Creatives

I was asked to give “three top business tips” to creative entrepreneurs in an interview about how to successfully blend creativity and business. Ellie Stevenson interviewed me, along with Nick Williams of ‘Inspired Entrepreneur’, for an article published on ArtsHub UK. Here’s an extract: Can you give us three top tips for running your own …

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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 …

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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, …

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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 …

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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 …

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… 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 …

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