Sneakers and suits ‒ In the framework of the Organza project, an international seminar on coaching creative entrepreneurship was held on November 8 in Arnhem, the Netherlands. The main issue focused on the question to what extent coaching creative entrepreneurship is different from coaching ‘ordinary’ entrepreneurship. Our research at ARCCI has shown that creative people are more entrepreneurial than average, but in many cases don’t define themselves as entrepreneurs. As a consequence many creative professionals do not organise their business in a professional way.
In fact, for many creatives economic gain is not their primary concern. They want to realise something ‘special’ which is culturally recognised. Several speakers at the seminar, such as Joost Heinsius (Cultuur-Ondernemen, the Netherlands), Christoph Backes (Ideenlotsen, Germany) and myself, emphasized the importance of creatives in our current economy. There is no doubt about the fact that we have to respect their primary creative motivation. Furthermore, it was claimed that we have to take care that our approach of coaching does not change good creatives into ‘grey’ entrepreneurs. At the same time, creatives who set up a business need to be supported in finding ways to gain a reasonable income from it. Now, too many of them do not even have a clue to what extent they are making money or not. From our research (for example in the Fashion District Klarendal) it appeared that some sell their products below cost price, which definitely is not a sustainable business model.
We heard interesting experiences from different people with regards to the issue at stake, besides Joost Heinsius and Christoph Backes: Pascal Cools (Flanders DC, Belgium), Bart Huydts (Art Business Center, the Netherlands), Beatriz Blasco-Felipe (CEIN, Spain). Pascal Cools was maybe the most optimistic regarding our question about the difference in training entrepreneurship. In his view, 80% of what you offer in general entrepreneurial coaching programmes can be re-used with creatives. He emphasized, however, that it is important to work with creative entrepreneurs in a group of like-minded people, because in mixed groups these people feel like they are not taken seriously. Most of the programmes we heard about are not expensive, but quite a few speakers stressed that it is important that the creatives should pay at least a part of it themselves, as otherwise there is a risk that they are not really committed. For some programmes they even have to apply with concrete proposals and courses of action.
Several speakers also said that many creatives do not really trust traditional consultants. Here the metaphor of ‘sneakers versus suits’ emerged, a metaphor that would be expanded upon in the course of the seminar. Quite interesting was also Sarah McNicol’s story about the Confetti Media Group in Nottingham (United Kingdom). The group combines five different enterprises in the audiovisual sector, organised in quite a professional way. She was very open in explaining that only two were already profitable and one was just breaking even. One of the businesses is Antenna, a kind of club for creatives, where creative start-ups can also rent virtual or real offices. Although Antenna’s membership fees and rental prices are quite low, for some creatives there appears to be an additional barrier in the sense that they feel that the environment is too neat, which again illustrates the ‘sneakers versus suits’ metaphor.
From our experience and research at ARCCI ‒and not focusing exclusively on Arnhem‒ we think there is maybe a much deeper issue. In many art schools there exists the implicit or even explicit notion that creative talent has to be developed within a cocoon. As a consequence students are stimulated to become almost ‘autistic’, considering only their own supposedly fantastic talent which can only be compromised by interacting with others. So probably more important than coaching entrepreneurship as such, is breaking through this assumption that exists in art education. It is quite essential to teach students that creative talent can only flourish through interaction with the outside world. Maybe I am being too optimistic in saying that sooner or later such an orientation towards the outside world will have to lead to interesting projects for creatives, but it certainly will be a big step in the right direction. Remarkably, when ARCCI’s Ewan Lentjes, who chaired the seminar, asked the audience whether they recognized this phenomenon, representatives from other countries instantly nodded in assent and came with their own examples. The ‘cocooning syndrome’ appears to be strongly rooted in art education all over Europe. So let’s kick at it with our sneakers until it is completely uprooted.
Dany Jacobs, ARCCI
You can download the speakers' presentations by clicking on the links below.
Introduction to Creative Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands
Joost Heinsius, Cultuur-Ondernemen, the Netherlands
Creative entrepreneurship in Bremen related to the German national policy
Christoph Backes, Ideenlotsen Bremen, Germany
The double success criterion in creative industries
Dany Jacobs, ARCCI, the Netherlands
Coaching programmes for start-up entrepreneurs
Bart Huydts, Art Business Centre of ArtEZ, the Netherlands
Pascal Cools, Flanders DC/PLATO, Belgium
Coaching programmes for start-up entrepreneurs
Sarah McNicol, Antenna/Confetti Nottingham, United Kingdom
Beatriz Blasco-Felipe, CEIN S.L./Creative Industries Creative Course, Navarra, Spain
