Last week I gave a talk to a group of students about how I set up and run my creative business. The talk was for the University of the Arts London Short Course’s Business Start-Up for Creatives course, run by Central St. Martins.
It was my first time giving a lecture – I was pretty nervous but I found that surrounding my desk with copious notes helped considerably. My tactic was to put notes everywhere I might conceivably look, so I wasn’t always glancing down to the same direction. Luckily I could position all this clutter out of sight of the camera – the joys of online talks. Anyway, I don’t think I fumbled it too much, and the students asked some great questions at the end so it certainly seemed like they paid attention!
A fairly chaotic desk setup. I'd love to say I'm normally neater than this...
It felt really rewarding being able to share my progress and sitting down to write my talk I was a great chance to reflect on the (almost) five years in business. I think sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the operational day-to-day without taking the time to look back. I spoke about how I set up my business – from what prompted me to take the plunge to freelance to the business support I drew on to help me set up. I also covered how I get new clients, how I quote and what the behind-the-scenes admin looks like. Plus, I shared a rather hilarious anecdote about a snail, but if you want to hear that then why not ask me to come and speak for you?
A massive thanks to Alison Branagan for asking me to speak – I really appreciate it.
