BUSINESS: Creative & Cultural Skills launch Business Survival Toolkit

Last month, Creative & Cultural Skills, the sector skills council for the creative industries launched its new Business Survival Toolkit, a free, on-line, step-by-step guide to help people in the creative industries survive and prosper during the hard times ahead. The Business Survival Toolkit is a partnership project with the Cultural Leadership Programme, Crafts Council, Design Council and Heritage Lottery Fund.

The toolkit offers hands-on-tools to help people working in the sector whether self-employed, running a small creative team, or managing a cultural organisation of two hundred and is hosted by the updated Creative Choices site. Launched in May 2009, Creative Choices now has 40,000 visitors a month. The site is a free online service offering the tools, knowledge and networks necessary to develop a career in the creative and cultural industries. 

Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council which is one of the project partners says: "We hope that this practical tool will enable creative practitioners to steer a safe path through uncertain times by helping them develop business skills that will successfully complement their creative ones."

The Business Survival Toolkit is divided into four key stages, which are designed to help creative businesses plan, adapt and grow:

1. Where are you now? Self-evaluation, strengths and weaknesses and assessing business models.
2. Where are you going? Considers options for the future, long term planning, future opportunities and potential threats.
3. What do you need to do to get there? Helps to shape business strategy, planning the next stage, building a practical business case and management.
4. Making it happen. Putting plans into action. Having assessed the business, examined future opportunities, and created in-depth strategy these tools will help run an efficient and focused creative business better placed for the future upturn.

Catherine Large, joint Chief Executive at Creative & Cultural Skills, says: “We are committed to ensuring that people in the creative and cultural industries have the practical skills and know how to keep going and progress during these times of economic uncertainty and change. The launch of the Business Survival Toolkit along with the improved Creative Choices website offers a unique resource to support the sector so it can adapt and grow in the future.”