Current and recent projects
Making Creativity Pay - Chesterfield, February and March 2010
Making Creativity Pay is a new course that takes an innovative and dynamic approach to creative business startup. It covers every aspect of self employment from setting up a business, defining a practice, developing products and finding a niche, through to getting everything legally and financially straight. Based on the successful 'Make It Happen' programme that ran for four years at Banks Mill Studios in Derby, David James Ross will help you to learn from the approaches of successful practitioners and businesses.
Delivered in six whole days during February and March 2010, with two different topics in each half-day, attendance can be for the whole six days, a single day, or just a single topic for a morning or afternoon - whatever suits you and your needs best.
The style of delivery is highly participative and upbeat - it won't be chalk and talk. And although you'll need to come up with some of the answers, the programme will ask you all the right questions.
The course is supported by Chesterfield College's ECIF Project and The Greenhouse, and all sessions will be at Tapton House.
Thursday February 4th
9.30-12.30 a.m The Future Starts Here: Exploring self-employment
This session explores creativity, practice, motivation and what people want from self-employment. It will help you identify what barriers you will need to overcome on the way to working for yourself, and identify which parts of the programme are most relevant for you.
1.30-4.30 p.m. To Boldly Go: Setting your mission and finding your niche
The most difficult part of setting up for many creative people is deciding exactly what to do. What are my most marketable strengths? Can my idea be turned into reality? Will people buy my work? What is my best chance of success? In this session we explore the defining of creative practice, setting a business mission, finding a niche and developing products.
Thursday February 11th
9.30-12.30 a.m Tell them about it: Marketing and promoting you and your workNobody will buy your work unless they know about it. But getting people's attention is difficult in a world where they are bombarded with information and choices. This workshop explores the many ways of marketing and how to identify which will be most appropriate for your current situation and resources.
1.30-4.30 p.m Stand and deliver: presenting yourself and your work
Your work may be great, but how you present it and yourself matters too. This session explores modern ways of presenting a ‘portfolio’, preparing for exhibitions and shows, doing presentations and pitches, and presenting yourself in writing.
Thursday February 25th
9.30-12.30 a.m How much is that doggie in the window? Pricing and selling your work
As soon as you begin to consider your work from a commercial perspective, you will be faced by two questions: How much should I charge for it and where can I most effectively sell it? This session explores different ways at arriving at a price and various channels through which work can be sold.
1.30-4.30 p.m. Who stole my cheese? Protecting your intellectual property
If you can come up with an idea or product that people want to buy, it’s a sure thing that there will be somebody, somewhere who is willing to steal it and take some of the financial benefits, if you let them. This session explores what rights you have over the intellectual property assets you create, and how to protect them.
Thursday March 4th
9.30-12.30 a.m. Legal, decent and honest: setting up a creative business the proper way
The legal, financial and administrative aspects of setting up a business rarely appeal strongly to creative people. This session aims to give you the skills and motivation to avoid the forms, legal notices, tax collectors and other sundry officials that will arrive on your doorstep if you don’t take care of these aspects.
1.30-4.30 p.m. Buddy can you spare me a dime? Funding and financing your creative business
Starting up any kind of business takes money. Maybe you already have plenty of that, but probably you don’t. This session will help you to work out how much you are likely to need and how you might go about getting it.
Thursday March 11th March
9.30-12.30 a.m. It started with a chat: The art of creative networking
More business transactions and relationships are initiated by networking and personal contact than any other method. To some people it comes naturally and easy, to others it’s difficult and alien. This workshop looks at the outcomes of networking and the personal and organisational skills required to network effectively and creatively.
1.30-4.30 p.m I’ll do that yesterday: Making effective use of your time
The feeling that there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it is a common one to both creative practitioners and the self employed. Yet time is fixed – it just happens – and the only thing we can really change is what we do with it. This session explores common time-management issues for creative practitioners and the newly self-employed.
Thursday March 18th
9.30-12.30 a.m. Click here to get started: Making the web work for you
Almost all businesses have a presence on the web these days, but this can range from a single page not much more than a business card, through to a full e-commerce site that provides the main sales outlet. This session explores what sort of web presence is best for your business and how you can go about getting it.
1.30-4.30 p.m. Are we nearly there yet? Launching your creative business
Most of the work in putting a man on the moon happened before lift-off; so it is with self-employment – most of the work is preparation before you launch your venture onto the world. This session explores putting together the elements of a successful start up, including the development of a business plan.
Pricing In A Cold Climate
The Legacy Chesterfield Hotel, Malkin Street, Chestefield, S41 7UA,
Thursday 28th January 2010, 6pm for a 6.30pm start
FREE
Imagine you are a lot at an auction. What reserve would you put on yourself? How much do you think you would fetch? How would anyone decide how much you are worth? Who decides how much anything is worth?
Well, hopefully you won’t find yourself up for auction any time soon, but these are very real questions when it comes to business. How do you go about setting a price for your product or service?
As if this weren’t complicated enough already, the current economic climate has forced all businesses to reconsider their pricing. In an economic downturn, does it make business sense to reduce your prices? Or should you stand firm, confident that you have them right?
If you would like to attend please RSVP to paul.hough@creativegreenhouse.org.uk. For more information about the Creative Greenhouse please see www.creativegreenhouse.org.uk
What A Difference A Day Makes: A Course in Confidence for Creatives, February-March 2010, Derby, part of the Ingenuity Programme
This pilot course, which will run on six Fridays in February and March 2010, is now full. A further run is planned for Autumn 2010. Contact me for availability of places.
Make It Happen Fast - November 2009 - FREE to unemployed graduates and those at risk of redundancy
Do you want to run a creative business but don’t know where to start? Make It Happen Fast is an accelerated version of a successful programme that takes an innovative and dynamic approach to creative business startup. Based on four years’ work with Banks Mill Studios, David James Ross will help you to learn from the approaches of successful practitioners.
Delivered as four standalone workshops supported by online resources, Make It Happen Fast will be run during November 2009 at Friargate Studios, Ford Street, Derby, DE1 1EE. Places are limited, so please book via Banks Mill Studios – info@banksmill.org.uk or tel. 01332 594170. Due to support from the ECIF project, places can be offered free to graduates and professionals in the east midlands who are unemployed or at risk of redundancy - please declare your status when booking.
Making The Offer: defining and communicating what you do.
Tuesday 3rd November 9.30 am – 4 pm
Creative individuals are diverse thinkers, able to operate in a range of media and contexts. As a business, this leaves them vulnerable to a lack of clarity in what they offer to potential customers. This workshop uses a series of interactive exercises to develop a clearer picture of what exactly will be offered. Topics include: the value of creative practice; setting a mission; developing products and services, and understanding selling.
Finding The Connections: reaching customers and markets
Tuesday 10th November 9.30 am – 4 pm
Without customers, any business must fail. But creative practitioners rarely give enough consideration to customers and sales at the start of their business development. This workshop uses a series of interactive exercises to discover potential customers and various ways to market to them, including online methods.
Closing the deal: creating a win-win for you and your customers
Tuesday 17th November 9.30 am – 4 pm
Creative people are rarely excited by the legalities of business; yet the details of the deal often make or break whether creatives can establish a sustainable business. This workshop explores the key issues of intellectual property, pricing and contracting through the use of interactive exercises which challenge you to make your own decisions and organise your own practice.
Building the foundations: resources and systems to support your business
Tuesday 24th November 9.30 am – 4 pm
Running a creative business requires many resources: time, finance and a place to work for a start. This workshop uses a series of interactive exercises to help you plan what you will need to do in order to access these resources and make use of them effectively.
Make It Happen Fast is supported by the University of Derby’s ECIF project, a set of activities to help individuals and businesses through the economic downturn, and Banks Mill Studios, a business incubator in Derby that specialises in support for creative industries businesses.
No time to be creative?
Tuesday June 30th 5 – 7 pm, Auditorium 4, Markeaton Street Campus, University of Derby, Markeaton Street, DE22 3AW
Given the economic downturn, is this a bad time to start a creative or graduate business? Should we all retreat and wait for things to get better? Or if we do decide to go ahead what sort of support is available?
At this event, David James Ross will argue that the current economic situation is more complex than a blanket downturn, and that it offers opportunities as well as threats. The need to support business through the downturn has been recognised by government, so current initiatives for the creative industries and business startup in the East Midlands will be outlined.
This free event is part of the Ingenuity Programme, a set of activities to help businesses access the wealth of knowledge and resources of universities. Banks Mill Studios is a business incubator in Derby that specialises in support for creative industries businesses. David James Ross, a trainer and mentor working with graduate and creative businesses, will be delivering Make It Happen Fast, a creative business startup programme, with Banks Mill during September 2009.
Although this event is free, places are limited, so please book via Banks Mill Studios – info@banksmill.org.uk or tel. 01332 594170.
Steps to Success with Dance4
Wednesday 10th June 2009, 10.30am-1pm, The New Art Exchange, Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham, NG7 6BE.
In the second of two professional development workshops for dancers and dance-related professions for Dance4, we'll focus on our current situation, action and support - what we are doing well and less well, what we need to do next, and who can help us. A number of sources of further support will also be introduced.
You Can't Photograph Here
Tuesday 31 March 2009, 6.30 - 8.30pm at QUAD, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS
Concerns about terrorism and child protection have left artists confused about exactly when it is appropriate to use photography within their educational work and wider practice. This workshop will explain both the law relating to photography in public places and best practice when working within organisational settings.
Steps to Success with Dance4
Wednesday 21st January 2009, 10.30am-1pm, The New Art Exchange, Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham, NG7 6BE.
In the first of two professional development workshops for dancers and dance-related professions for Dance4, this session concentrates on goals, identity and connection - what we want, what we are about, and how we connect professionally to others. Approaches to success will also be explored.
Making The Web Work For You - Ingenuity programme
Wednesday 14th January 2009 The ID Centre, London Road, Derby DE24 8UP 9.30-4.30
As part of the Ingenuity Programme, this workshop will cover:
- Integrating a website with your business, in particular your sales activity and cycle.
- The process of getting a website up and running.
- Advice on hiring a developer.
- Promoting your website.
- Connecting to customers through interactivity and new media.
SPEED by Enterprise Inc
From January 2009 I'll be a business mentor for SPEED by Enterprise Inc, an undergraduate business development programme at the University of Derby.
Stoke Youth Service Podcasting Project
In January, February and March 2009 I'm working with a small group of young people and youth workers on a project, initiated by Hub Agency, to develop content for Stoke Youth Service's Uth website.
Content development - CHEA
North Notts and North Derbyshire are undergoing impressive regeneration at the moment but have a big problem with low rates of participation in Higher Education. During autumn 2008 and spring 2009, I'm working with I4L and CHEA to develop materials as part of a project to help address this.
Can we be familiar strangers? Rethinking the language of customer relationships through social networks
NLabs Social Networks Conference Thursday 19th & Friday 20th June 2008 De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
Some businesses have clients and others have customers - do you know the difference, beyond that clients seem to have more money? Bands call their customers fans, and football clubs call their customers supporters. In online social networks our potential customers - or our leads, prospects, browsers - can become friends with us, but are they really friends, or are they 'familiar strangers'? In this interactive workshop, you'll explore different kinds of business relationships in social networks.
The Monthly Fix
The Monthly Fix is a regular event for creative businesses aimed at overcoming obstacles to success and solving current problems. Developed with Banks Mill as a follow-on to Make It Happen!, the Monthly fix ran throughout 2007 and 2008 at Friar Gate Studios.
Make It Happen!
The latest Make It Happen! ran throughout June 2008. Make It Happen! is a programme of workshops to help artists, makers, designers and all types of creative practitioners succeed in self-employment, delivered for Banks Mill Studios. Originally offered in 2005, Make It Happen! 
recently completed its seventh run. Signup is via Banks Mill Website. Although not by any means the only support programme for creative startup, Make It Happen! uses a unique approach, drawing from insights of NLP and personal development as well as more traditional business education. Much of the style of Make It Happen! has been carried over into a follow-on initiative, The Monthly Fix - see above.
Banks Mill Masterclass: Licensing Your Intellectual Property
Wednesday 4th June 10am to 1pm Friar Gate Studios, Ford Street, Derby, DE1 1EE
Managing intellectual property is often the key to success in creative business and licensing your intellectual property can bring much bigger long-term rewards than selling it. In this workshop you'll learn all the steps necessary to license what you create.
Topics include:
What do you have that can be licensed?
Securing your Intellectual Property Rights
Copyright, Patent and other licences
Negotiating a license agreement
Recent developments, including Creative Commons Licensing
A Breath of Fresh Air
Wednesday 14 May 2008 1.30 to 3.30 pm The Hive, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham, NG1 4BU
This workshop will give you a valuable opportunity to take some time out, stand back and get a fresh perspective on your business whatever stage you’re at.
With the help of a creative business coach, you will identify the aspects of your business that are doing well and those which are not and create a plan to move forward on the challenging issues during this interactive session.
Banks Mill Masterclass: Get Your Blog Up and Running
Wednesday May 7th 2008 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Network House, Nuns Street, Derby, DE1 3LP
You've decided that blogging is important for your business - so what next? This workshop will concentrate on the practicalities of getting your blog up and running. By the end of the session you'll not only know what you and your business want from a blog, but how and where to go about getting it.
Topics will include:
Blog objectives - what's in it for you and your customers?
Choosing a blogging platform and getting set up
Integrating with your website and business
Write right for blogging
Attracting readers to your blog
Online Business Workshops
I delivered a series of workshops on IT and online business for Leicester City Council's Incubating Graduate Business project during March, April and May 2008.
Activate was a programme that ran during 2006-7 to support artists in the East Midlands to work within education. I wrote part of the course outlines and toolkit for Arts Training Central, who were responsible for the overall management of the programme, 
and delivered the business support element of the programme in Derbyshire for Q Arts (now QUAD) , in Leicestershire for Mantle Community Arts, in Northamptonshire for Arts In Education, in Nottinghamshire for City Arts and in Lincolnshire for The Firebird Trust. Many of the participants are now successfully providing workshop and educational activities both directly to schools and through organisations such as Creative Partnerships.
I was impressed by the amount of creative activity when I worked in Mansfield, first delivering How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? A Pricing Workshop For Creatives at Sherwood Forest Centre, then Where's The Booty at the Making It! Discovery Centre , both for The Greenhouse.
Content I wrote for AGCAS is now available as Creat Your Own Career: self-employment and enterprise for artists and performers, a publication about self-employment for creative graduates, available in universities throughout the UK.
Conference and seminar work includes a keynote speech to the Derby Talent Conference and facilitation of a seminar at Derby's Critical Meet. 
I presented a couple of workshops at the Creative Industries Fair and Conference 2007: How Not To Be An Art Teacher - an exploration of creative and flexible opportunities for creative practitioners in education, and Your Creative Personality: How What You Are Like Contributes To Your Success - an interactive workshop on personality, creativity and career development. For the 2008 conference, I ran workshops on the legal aspects of business startup and pricing of creative work.
In 2006 I authored Do Something Different, a set of learning materials for career changers, for the Career Development Centre, which is now available and being used in a variety of settings.
