By Monica Davidson

2026 marks the tenth anniversary of Creative Plus Business, and in those first few wobbly months a decade ago I was on the most epic learning curve I’d had since the start of school. Although I had run businesses before, and been freelance for decades, this was a whole different operation. I was passionate, ambitious, and a little bit clueless. I helped myself manage the fear and loneliness of a brand new business baby with a little bit of learning. 

Happily, working in the arts means, for most of us, a lifetime of learning opportunities. We tackle  new challenges, meet new people and solve new problems almost every day. Formalised learning may not work for all of us, and for many it can be a triggering subject, but I’ve found that regular time out for education-based professional development has always been a good spend of time. 

I’m not talking about an epic multi-year degree, although that can be fabulous if the time is right. I’m talking about small, simple doses of micro-leaning to keep the brain ticking along.

Learning can also correct that feeling that our creative spark is dwindling. Ironically, if you’re experiencing burnout, or if your wellbeing has taken a hit, continuing education can help. If you choose the right learning options for your needs, ongoing education becomes not only the essential maintenance for your creative engine, it becomes transformative. Stagnation is the enemy of creative happiness, and too much repetition for artists is a fast track to boredom. Micro-learning can break that cycle. It injects fresh perspectives into your work, challenges your assumptions, and ultimately reignites your creative curiosity.

There is also a profound sense of wellbeing and pride that comes from mastering something new. Whether it’s finally understanding how TikTok works, practising a new artistic technique, or finessing an aspect of your creative business, accomplishment rebuilds confidence. A learning creative is a happier creative, and happy creatives build resilient businesses.

Low-Cost & Free Professional Development

There are now plenty of free and low-cost options for continued professional education to be discovered online. You can access offerings from some of the best schools in the world through platforms like Coursera or edX, which allow you to audit courses from institutions like Yale, Stanford, or the University of London without spending a cent. You could study the psychology of wellbeing or design thinking over your morning coffee, bringing world-class academic rigour into your small business ecosystem.

Closer to home, the ATO offers a series of free masterclasses on topics like small business or record keeping.  TAFE NSW, Victoria and South Australia offer fee-free courses in a range of topics from a Diploma of Project Management to a Certificate IV in Entrepreneurship and New Business.

Creative Plus Business Webinars, Workshops & Courses

And of course, it’s one of the reasons that Creative Plus Business was started in the first place. To give artists and creatives a place where they develop skills that are tailored to the unique, sometimes chaotic, reality of creative enterprise. While much has changed in a decade, what hasn’t changed is the need for low-cost access to business skills development, financial literacy, marketing knowledge, and more recently subjects like care-based practice and cultural tourism.

Offering things like the free webinars we produce each month (many of which can be viewed long after they first broadcast),helping you keep up-to-date with opportunities through email news like our AdHoc Monthly, and developing affordable masterclasses and on-demand courses are a few of the ways this little social enterprise is working to help you bridge the gap between creative passion and commercial viability. We help make the business side of creativity feel less frightening, which significantly lowers stress levels.

Continuing education is not a luxury, and it doesn’t have to take up a lot of your precious time. It’s an investment in your mental agility, creative inspiration and your professional joy. Carve out the time. Keep learning, keep growing, and watch your happiness – and your creative business – thrive.

Want to get started on the next stage of your creative business development?

Check out these for some new-year-new-skills opportunities:

Creative Plus Business Monthly Online Workshops

Every month we host a 2-hour online workshop that dives into a topic in more detail, and comes with a heap of resources like templates and workbooks, so you can get the most out every one them. In 2026 we’ll host ten, with four brand-new topics to explore. Check out our workshop calendar or our Humanitix page to see what’s on offer until June – yep, the next five workshops are already available!

Creative Start-Up Online Course

We’ve spent Summer giving our Thinkific learning platform a new look so if you haven’t visited in a while it’s worth checking out. Creative Start Up is our most popular course, where you can work your way through the core business basics, get your finance and business planning sorted, and upskill in marketing and branding. It’s only $99 and you have a year to complete it, making it fantastic value as well as a proven way to put your best business foot forward.

Free Monthly Webinars for Creatives & Artists

Our Evening Learning Series is one of the places we put our social enterprise outreach to work. Free one-hour webinars, panels and discussions on topics that we all need more info on (like tax and super) to helping you find new ways to develop audiences and market yourself, be inspired by other creatives in business, and exploring the things affecting us all right now. The first – Social Media is Dead (Old School Marketing) – is coming up in February. Subscribe to our e-news to be the first to know about what’s coming up.