by David Parrish
First published November 2005 by Merseyside ACME
Reprinted November 2006 with new foreword by Shaun Woodward MP, Minister for Creative Industries.
ISBN 9780953825448. Paperback £15.00 (UK)
The book provides both inspiration and practical advice for all those involved in running or setting up a creative business.
David Parrish draws on his own experience of running creative businesses and the insights he has gained from helping hundreds of people in creative enterprises. He combines his own perspectives with research from successful businesses to offer sound advice and some new ideas to help creative enterprises to develop and grow.
Written in an engaging and common-sense style, the book provides useful advice about managing creative enterprises, using established techniques and some new ideas. It’s a book which can be read straight through – or dipped into for specific ideas and help – or both. There’s something for everyone involved in the business of creativity, whether established enterprises or those about to start up.
The best creative businesses integrate creativity with good business practice, hence the need to mix the approaches of both T-Shirts and Suits into a workable business formula. This book demonstrates through its ideas and examples how the apparently different approaches of the worlds of T-Shirts and Suits can come together to create successful enterprises.
“The business of creativity is the art of turning recognition into reward, and the science of turning intellectual property into income streams.”
– from T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity
Designed in a readable and user-friendly way, the book covers marketing, intellectual property, competition, assessing feasibility, finance and company structures. It also helps the reader to clarify their own ambitions and values in relation to their creativity.
The book’s themes are illustrated by snapshots of how creative enterprises are successfully using the ideas presented in the book.
In short, this book makes a practical contribution to the development of successful enterprises in the creative sector.