Training for New Entrepreneurs in the Creative Industries
The University of Greenwich is running a summer course on how to start a business in the creative industries.
People working in art, media, design, performance and related fields who are trying to establish a business, or plan to start one, will learn the essential steps to a successful enterprise in Creative Startup at the Greenwich campus.
The course runs on Wednesday evenings over six weeks with two Saturday sessions, starting on Saturday 23 June. Julia Alvarez, who runs the art gallery ‘Bearspace’ in Deptford High Street, has gone on to open a second gallery and seen sales increase tenfold after attending the course last year. “The course certainly helped springboard my enterprise, BEARSPACE, and gave me confidence to pursue the art gallery as a business as well as a creative venture,” she says.
The eight sessions include workshops, mentoring and lectures covering topics like “Understand the difference between a good idea, and a good idea with an effective business model” and “How to research the feasibility of your idea”. Finance, tax, marketing, intellectual property and other management aspects are covered by a team of people who have worked in the creative industries.
Course leader Sinead MacManus says: “Creative industries make up the fastest growing sector of the economy but often people have concentrated on their art or craft and not on their business skills. This course, Creative Startup, is just one part of our ‘Upstart’ programme to help creative entrepreneurs. The University of Greenwich also runs a more in-depth postgraduate course, Creative Commerce, which includes a mentoring programme. Workshops, networking and training events are also run under the Upstart banner.”
To sign up for Creative Startup visit: www.gre.ac.uk/upstart or email: upstart@gre.ac.uk
Notes for editors:
- Upstart is a training, consultancy, mentoring and networking initiative for entrepreneurs, freelancers and companies in the creative sector. It is run by the School of Humanities at the University of Greenwich.
- London is the UK’s creative capital with 40% of all jobs in the UK’s creative industries; already generating more than £20 billion annually, the Greater London Authority (GLA) hopes it will be a £30 billion business by 2012, outstripping the city’s financial sector.
For further information or images please contact:
Hester Brown
Press Officer for the University of Greenwich
Tel: 020 8331 7663