In my experience of supporting a wide range of artists, arts organisations and new creative enterprises, the most successful are those which have a strong business footing.
Ensuring that your business is set up in a way that supports the activity you want to do, supports creativity and allows it to flourish. Organisations that feel that doing so is putting money beofre the art, often end up spending far more time trying to make ends meet and in difficult conversations with funders or with their own Board, about how they are going to maintain the business in the middle to long term.
Good news then that a new toolkit has been published that offers clear help for new businesses to select the best business model and set themselves up effectively. The Business Survival Toolkit is a service from Creative & Cultural Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the creative industries, in partnership with the Crafts Council, the Cultural Leadership Programme, the Design Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund – so it is robust and well supported. It’s also free – so there’s no reason for putting it off – why not get your board involved or work on it with your colleagues or volunteers?
