THERE is some truth in the image of the archetypal artist — architect, fashion
designer or musican — bursting with creativity but lacking the
business acumen to turn ideas into money-making deals.
“If you are very creative you just want to create, but when you are running a
business you can’t,” says Billy Grant who, together with his
colleague Rob Stuart, left his job at Telstar Records to set up his own
record label 2point9.
The most difficult thing for Grant is time management; the shock of going from
a defined role in a large company to having to do everything. But with the
help of a creative business course he is mastering management, including
strategy. “Initially you think let’s just do it, let’s make a load of
records and get them out there. You don’t sit back or let go enough to plan
long-term,” Grant says.
And although Grant and Stuart are outsourcing more work as their company
expands, Grant says: “It is very very important to understand the business
side so that you can make decisions for yourself.”
“The creative industries as a whole are an extremely exciting sector of the UK
economy. However, the problem with many of these individual industries is
that they are tiny concerns, just a couple of people, particularly in design
and architecture. The reason for this is a lack of management skills and
understanding about business,” says Greg Orme, chief executive of the Centre
for Creative Business.
“It comes down to a combination of reasons, including cultural resistance to
so-called suits and a distrust of hard-headed business,” he says. But the
reality is that being in profit gives artists the freedom to be more
creative, not less.
“It is not selling out to be successful. We have a belief in this country that
creativity and knowing how to count don’t go together. But I know that they
can,” he says.
Barbara Towney, a professor of management and director of the Institute for
Capitalising on Creativity, says: “It is a two-way street: business people
can be just as resistant to creatives as creatives are to business. The
biggest hurdle that creatives have to overcome is gaining venture capital,
with many funders being risk averse.”
There are two ways to successfully combine creativity and commercial acumen:
the first is to pair creative and commercial people; the second is to teach
creative people how to embrace commercialism. Both can work well.
Anna Dina, a fashion designer who is preparing to launch her business next
month, is practising both. She is an avid consumer of business courses and
isn’t shy about asking mentors for advice.
Her sister has helped her to get her head around the financial side of
business. “The hardest thing for me is understanding the paperwork and red
tape.” Dina also has two business mentors. “I’m trying to learn as much as I
possibly can,” she says.
ART HOUSE
CREATIVE business isn’t a contradiction in terms. Artistic types are often
innovative risk-takers with pots of entrepreneurial ideas. Some just need a
helping hand with all that dull business stuff. You know, making money.
In this series we’re talking to entrepreneurs and experts to find out what
makes business successful. This week we got arty with the Centre for
Creative Business — a joint venture between London Business School and
University of the Arts London www.ccbusiness.org and the Scottish umbrella
group Institute for Capitalising on Creativity www.capitalisingoncreativity.ac.uk
both of which run business courses for creatives. We also spoke to
entrepreneurs Billy Grant at 2point9 www.2point9.com
and Anna Dina www.annadina.com
