FEATURED ARTICLE
Planning on Empty
By Monica Davidson The words ‘strategic planning’ are the last you want to hear if you're a freelance creative or running a small arts business, and everything feels like it’s being held together with gaffer tape and dwindling hope. Costs are up, clients don’t want to pay, funding is bleak and just surviving the week can feel like an Olympic sport. You don’t want to plan, you want to crawl back into bed with a glass of wine and pull the doona over your head. And yet, now is the perfect time for a strategy, as long as it’s the right kind. I’m not talking about a traditional, stuffy corporate business plan with a five-year vision and a SWOT analysis nobody will ever look at again. I’m...
SEARCH BY CATEGORY
Finance
Marketing
Business Basics
Wellbeing
OR SEARCH BY KEYWORD:
RECENT POSTS
DIY Strategic Planning
by Monica Davidson With state and federal governments preparing to distribute grant money for 2025, many creatives and cultural orgs are creating (or updating) their strategic plans. Some are...
Tough Times Tips
by Monica Davidson Times are tough. Are you OK? The current economic climate in Australia is challenging for creatives, even if we don’t have mortgages or are lucky enough to not have big grocery...
The Saboteur Within
By Monica Davidson We all do it. I did it last week. I’ll probably do it again before the week is over. On Monday I didn’t send an email I was supposed to send, even though it could have led to...
The Value of Values
by Monica Davidson Running a creative business, whether you’re an early stage freelancer or a more experienced arts company, means exploring amazing and diverse options both within and without. Your...
Multi-Hat Marketing
by Monica Davidson Wearing multiple professional ‘hats’ is the reality of most creative people’s lives. According to the latest Artist as Workers report from Creative Australia, more than 80% of...
Over The Rainbow
By Robbi James Why Pride Month Matters, and what you can do this time of year to show your colours. It will surprise no one that Creative Plus Business is a loudly proud workplace (and community)....
Creative’s Guide to Recruitment
Find, retain, and attract freelance collaborators By Monica Davidson Finding people to collaborate with can be a real challenge when freelancing. Sure, there’s always the little black book of...
Creating Care-Fully
By Charley Allanah Artists often talk about our work as a social service; a public good; with value beyond dollars. But are we genuinely making art in a way that merits such a claim? Work grounded...
Be Fit for Funding
By Monica Davidson Funding rounds are being announced and submission deadlines are starting to pile up. If applying for grants and other types of funding are key to your financial survival as a...
The Habit of Goals
By Monica Davidson The start of the year is a traditional time to set some goals, announce our intentions, decide on our resolutions, and set ourselves up for failure. Harsh, perhaps, but we’ve all...
5 Ways to Reflect and Reset for the New Year
By Lillie Brown The end of the year is a fertile time to pause, breathe, and take stock of the last 12 months before visioning for 2024 and beyond. It’s easy to get swept up in the busyness of...
Trading the Real for the Dream
By Grace Davidson-Lynch Here’s a question that most frustrated artists have asked themselves - When is the best time to start my creative freelancing journey? It was 2019, and I’d been working in...