New! Starting a Creative Business

Over eight sessions, this highly-practical course will give you the tools to describe your product or service, understand and delight your customers and build relationships with stakeholders. You will also research the wider market, plan your business operations and finances, develop a marketing plan, and communicate the value of your business idea to investors and funders. At the end of the course, participants will give a presentation of their proposed business plans.

Designed to develop your skills as a cultural entrepreneur, this course is for adult learners with a genuine interest in setting up a business (or large project) in the creative industries. It is also suitable for cultural ‘intrapreneurs’ – people who wish to develop new areas of business for the organisation they work for.

About the trainer
Phoenix Fry has taught arts management, creative leadership and cultural entrepreneurship for over a decade. At Goldsmiths, University of London, he lectured on the MA Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship programme, and led the cross-university programme of cultural entrepreneurship training and coaching.

As a consultant, he co-facilitated 'Transforming Narratives', a year-long leadership training course for arts professionals in Bangladesh, Pakistan and the UK. He also wrote funding applications for London School of Muralism, and ran business transformation workshops for Random Quark creative digital studio.

Phoenix set up his own arts business in 2010 producing film screening events for cultural venues and festivals. He has worked with the London Design Festival at V&A Museum, British Film Institute, Film Africa, British Council, South London Gallery, University of the Arts London, Lewisham Arts Service and the Nollywood Movie Awards. In 2019, he was awarded Arts Council funding for Parade of Friendly Monsters, a participatory art project for Deptford X contemporary arts festival. He moved to Singapore in 2022, and is an adjunct lecturer at LASALLE’s BA(Hons) Arts Management programme.

Note: Course trainers are, on occasion, subject to change with short notice.