Week 6: Investigating investment
Introduction
Last week, your focus was on marketing and promotion. This week, you’ll start to look at how you can finance your business idea. Many freelance businesses are low cost, take minimal investment to set up, and are often funded by the freelancers themselves. However, there will be ideas that require investment from others, whether that is in the form of grants from public bodies or more commercial investment options.
Watch this video of our creative freelancers talking about how they’ve dealt with the financial aspects of their businesses, including successfully applying for funding.
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1
Transcript: Video 1
TERRI BROWN:
I think my top tip for any creative independent person when it comes to money is, it is important. I know it's so easy to just go, ah, it'll work itself out, but you do need to keep track of what's coming in and what's going out because it is so very easy for it to slip away from underneath you and you'll find there is far too much month left at the end of the money.
GARIMA KHAWAN:
You have to have fun with money. You can't be-- I know it sounds easier, but I think that the more you hold on, the more you're scared of it, the more it's harder to make, you know? [LAUGHS]
MATT KATZ:
As soon as you can afford to and if you are and you do have what kind of amounts to a full time job as being a freelancer, then get a bookkeeper and get a reasonable accountant because being a bookkeeper and an accountant isn't what you do, being creative is. And getting other people to do that is the best thing.
CASSIE LEEDHAM:
I don't mind doing that side of it, it's not the best part. But it's part of life isn't it's part of earning money, [LAUGHS] which ultimately you do have to do.
JESSICA ROWE:
We've been very fortunate to have Arts Council Funding. So they were there for the very first show. So we had some money to produce that, which was really fantastic and then we got a lot of-- and we still do get a lot of in-kind support from the University.
CASSIE LEEDHAM:
Asking for funding is a strange thing. And I think if I didn't know other people that had done it, I don't think I would have done it. But knowing other people that have done it, it made me realise that that's what the money is there for, it's literally put aside for people to invest in the arts and to create things. And the money's there, it's going to be awarded to somebody. So why shouldn't I try and do that.
And especially if I'm doing a project-- now that I've got a project that feels more like it's community focused and it's engaging other people. It's giving people a voice and things that feel important. Now, I feel like I can ask and I can get funded for something.
REBECCA HARLING:
If you are scared of the process, then you're not going to ask. And if you don't ask, then how do you know that you were going to get the funding or not. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, doesn't it?
JESSICA ROWE:
I found with funding it's about what you can give back to the community.
REBECCA HARLING:
Every piece of funding that I have applied for in my 15 years of business ownership has been approved. I have never been turned down for funding. Because if you can demonstrate why you need that money, whether that's funding through grant funding or whether that's access to finance through investment or a bank loan. If you can show that through your business planning and they can see what it is you are trying to achieve, then it makes it very difficult for them to say no if it's well-considered, well thought through and well planned, then the money will come.
JESSICA ROWE:
It's not about going, oh, this is the show that we're going to do and it will be great. It's about going-- this is what we can bring to your area. This is how the people, the audience will engage with us, this is what the plans are so we could return in a year and do the same thing again.
CASSIE LEEDHAM:
When I started the creative collective, we had an arts, no it was a National Lottery Grant. And that gave us the money to set up this little studio in Coventry at the Canal Basin. So that was really good to have that.
JESSICA ROWE:
Arts Council in particular set out a rule, a set of kind of beliefs they go by for the year. So it might be digital technology. It could be community engagement. It could be all those things. And you kind of have to hit those nails on the head. We've asked Arts Council in order to receive funding, but it does make you think differently about how to produce your work.
So instead of just creating a performance for family audiences, you might go, oh, we might, to engage further with our audience, we might do some workshops. We might do after schools. We might perform in schools. So it gets you thinking more about your product and how it affects your audience.
Video 1
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By the end of this week you should be able to:
- estimate the costs involved in setting up your project or idea
- assess whether your project or idea might be eligible for external finance
- research the different options that could financially support your project or idea
- describe the key elements of a successful funding application.
How much investment might you need, and what might you need it for? You’ll consider these questions next.