“Creatives Are Adept at Burying Their Dead” This was a quote from Patrick McKenna, Ingenious Media, at a recent talk at Goldsmiths University Institute of Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship on Risk. He was discussing risk, the need to take risk and the outcome of risk. Sometimes (or often) the outcome of risk is failure. What […]
101 Ways to Cut Down Your Spending
We’ve been talking about money for about 6 weeks now – how to track it, why it’s important, how much you need, etc. If you’ve been starting to look closely at your own finances, you’re probably discovering you could do with some creative ways to stretch your money further. Never fear. We heed your call […]
10 Ways to Remain a ‘Starving Artist’
1. Give it away for free You’re probably sick of it, right? I mean you’ve spent hours/days/weeks/months slaving over it. Perhaps it’s been a struggle to bring this piece of art to life – looking at it might remind you of the sleepless nights or the painful doubts it caused you. So just get rid […]
Recap: How to manage a creative career – it’s possible to do this for a living!
Making art is not the same thing as making a living. Many creative people struggle with this. But there are ways of managing a creative career to keep yourself fed, happy, solvent and fulfilled without having to ‘sell out.’ It largely comes down to planning. A sustainable, long-term creative career is one that is planned. […]
Working Hours -vs- Billable Hours
Question: What’s the difference between a hobby and a business? Answer: Billable hours! This is a crucial thing to begin to understand if you really want to earn a living from your creative pursuit. I’m quite certain that you love to do what you do, whether that’s paint, sculpt, knit, sing or dance. You can […]
Budgeting for Creative Survival
There are many great things I took away from my MA in Creative Entrepreneurship from UEA (http://www.uea.ac.uk/hum/mace/courses/ma-creative-entrepreneurship). The course leader, Ian Chance, is a charming man with a lifetime worth of experience in the field. He’s also wickedly funny. One of the things he taught us was to have our cabbages budget. As well as […]