Author: Micky Harris

Key sales techniques for creative freelances

Date and Time: March 19 2013, 11.30am to 5.30pm

Venue:
Brewery Theatre (very close to the Tobacco Factory)
291 North Street
Southville
Bristol
BS3 1JP

Tutor: Koullis Kyriacou

Apply Online by Mar 12 2013

Content

While many creative people are unsurprisingly inexperienced and often uncomfortable with ‘selling’ most realise that in such competitive industries, it’s an important area to understand and be pro-active in to help create as many opportunities as possible.

Whatever your aim – perhaps you’re trying to get your foot in the door with an agent, sell a novel, song, script, article or idea, this workshop will help you to:

• Define your USP (unique selling proposition)
• Identify your strengths and weaknesses
• Understand the environment you are working in
• Appreciate the difference between selling yourself and your product/service
• Look at the needs of the client
• Identify your own natural style of selling
• Prepare and practice the delivery of a pitch
• Be prepared to pitch at any time.

Who should attend?

Freelances working in the creative industries who wish to improve their sales pitch with the aim of obtaining new work.

Qualifications

No formal qualifications needed.

Expected Learning Outcomes

This workshop will help you to:

• Clarify what it is you have to sell
• Identify your natural style of selling
• Gain the necessary tools to prepare and deliver a sales pitch appropriate to the prospective client.

How to Apply

To attend this session, fill in the short application form by Mar 12. You will need to register if you have not done so already.

All events have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date. We will let you know if your application has been successful within a couple of days after the deadline.

WHO’S AN FEU TRAINING MEMBER?

Equity, the Musicians’ Union, the National Union of Journalists and the Writers’ Guild are working together in this instance under the banner of ‘The Federation of Entertainment Unions’. This enables us to maximize resources to deliver skills development opportunities common to our multi-union members.

Our aim is to help the career progress of our freelance members through the recession and beyond by providing a range of free and low cost blended-learning opportunities.

Further enquiries:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07990 504 612

Feeling creatively ‘blocked’? Not getting enough done? Stuck in an unproductive rut? Starting to put things off?

Maybe it’s time to stop procrastination and start doing. This session will help you do just that - help you re-focus and get your mojo back!

Dates, times and location

Apply Online by March 5

Content

• Analysing your needs
• Knowing yourself – looking at how you did your best work in the past and what motivates you now
• Re-focusing and get started again
• Prioritising without becoming overwhelmed by tasks
• Unblocking creativity
• Learning to enjoy what you do again
• Working discipline: what is working; what is not and changing it to fit.

Who should attend?

Anyone who feels stuck and is finding that procrastination is holding them back.

Qualifications required

No specific qualifications are required.

Expected Learning Outcomes

An understanding of how to stop procrastinating and move forward in a way that’s most productive and satisfying for you.

Qualifications

No formal qualifications are needed to attend this workshop.

Tutor:  Sue Walker

How to Apply

To attend this session, fill in the short application form Mar 5. You will need to register if you have not done so already.

All events have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date. We will let you know if your application has been successful within a couple of days after the deadline.

Further enquiries:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07990 504 612

This workshop will help you explore how to use all the great skills and talents you have to diversify your career (often to support your core work), increase your choices, efficiency and your earning potential. The workshop is free of charge to our members.

Dates, times and locations

Apply Online by Feb 1 (London) and Feb 10 (Manchester)

Content

While we have a preferred field of work, most freelances quickly realise that there are unavoidable downtimes where the work we want to do is thin on the ground.

This is why it’s useful and sometimes crucial to be able to transfer our skills (and perhaps gain news ones) to create other areas of work that are satisfying and lucrative and may allow us to support our core career in the long term.

By the end of this workshop, you should be able to:

• Recognize the benefits of diversifying your career
• Understand what is involved in running a successful portfolio career
• Assess and identify your previously unrecognized, ignored or under-valued saleable skills
• Have the tools to put your portfolio career together
• Understand how best to take your portfolio to market
• How to manage your portfolio to maximum effect
• Know how to keep it going in the future.

Who should attend

Freelances working in the creative industries who wish to find new ways of using and updating their skills to create more work opportunities.

Qualifications

No formal qualifications are needed to attend this workshop.

Tutors: Muriel McClymont and Sue Walker

How to Apply

To attend this session, fill in the short application form Feb 1 (London) and Feb 10 (Manchester). You will need to register if you have not done so already.

All events have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date. We will let you know if your application has been successful within a couple of days after the deadline.

Further enquiries:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07990 504 612

Rejection is inevitable – feeling bad about it is not!

Even though it’s par for the course, one of the hardest things to handle for any creative freelance is rejection. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself that it’s not personal, it can feel personal.

This session will give you useful strategies and tips to help you transform the experience of rejection into something that helps and supports your career instead of being one of its greatest hazards! It will give you the opportunity to network with like-minded creative freelances and share each other’s experiences too.

Date and Time:  January 31 2013, 2.00pm to 4.30pm

Venue:
Musicians’ Union
60-62 Clapham Road
SW9 0JJ

Tutor: Muriel McClymont

Apply Online by Jan 23 2013

Session content

This workshop includes:

• what makes rejection feel so tough
• how to handle rejection better
• how to identify and extract all of the benefits of rejection
• strategies to shift the focus back to the future
• strategies to develop a thicker skin
• ideas for being nicer to ourselves.

Who should attend

Those freelances who want to pick up strategies and tips in how to deal with rejection.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the session, you will:

• understand the part you play in your response to rejection
• be aware of what your choices are
• see rejection as an opportunity for useful feedback
• have some strategies and ideas to help you deal with the emotional impact of rejection
• discover that you are not alone!

How to Apply

To attend this session, fill in the short application form by Jan 23. You will need to register if you have not done so already.

All events have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date. We will let you know if your application has been successful within a couple of days after the deadline.

WHO’S AN FEU TRAINING MEMBER?

Equity, the Musicians’ Union, the National Union of Journalists and the Writers’ Guild are working together in this instance under the banner of ‘The Federation of Entertainment Unions’. This enables us to maximize resources to deliver skills development opportunities common to our multi-union members.

Our aim is to help the career progress of our freelance members through the recession and beyond by providing a range of free and low cost blended-learning opportunities.

Further enquiries:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07990 504 612

Key sales techniques for creative freelances

Date and Time: January 30 2013, 10.30am to 4.30pm

Venue:
Equity
Upper St Martin’s Lane
WC2H 9EG

Tutor: Koullis Kyriacou

Apply Online by Jan 23 2013

Content

While many creative people are unsurprisingly inexperienced and often uncomfortable with ‘selling’ most realise that in such competitive industries, it’s an important area to understand and be pro-active in to help create as many opportunities as possible.

Whatever your aim – perhaps you’re trying to get your foot in the door with an agent, sell a novel, song, script, article or idea, this workshop will help you to:

• Define your USP (unique selling proposition)
• Identify your strengths and weaknesses
• Understand the environment you are working in
• Appreciate the difference between selling yourself and your product/service
• Look at the needs of the client
• Identify your own natural style of selling
• Prepare and practice the delivery of a pitch
• Be prepared to pitch at any time.

Who should attend?

Freelances working in the creative industries who wish to improve their sales pitch with the aim of obtaining new work.

Qualifications

No formal qualifications needed.

Expected Learning Outcomes

This workshop will help you to:

• Clarify what it is you have to sell
• Identify your natural style of selling
• Gain the necessary tools to prepare and deliver a sales pitch appropriate to the prospective client.

How to Apply

To attend this session, fill in the short application form by Jan 23. You will need to register if you have not done so already.

All events have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date. We will let you know if your application has been successful within a couple of days after the deadline.

WHO’S AN FEU TRAINING MEMBER?

Equity, the Musicians’ Union, the National Union of Journalists and the Writers’ Guild are working together in this instance under the banner of ‘The Federation of Entertainment Unions’. This enables us to maximize resources to deliver skills development opportunities common to our multi-union members.

Our aim is to help the career progress of our freelance members through the recession and beyond by providing a range of free and low cost blended-learning opportunities.

Further enquiries:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07990 504 612

Come and join us for a bite to eat followed by a short session on Dec 6 that will give you some ideas on how to avoid getting too isolated in your freelance work.

Date and Time: Dec 6 2012, 1pm to 4pm

Venue:
Equity
Upper St Martin’s Lane
WC2H 9EG

Tutor: Sue Walker

Apply Online by Nov 28 2012

Content

1pm-2pm: a light lunch will be served free of charge to participants through which you can chat to your peers including the FEU Training team and other creative freelances.

2pm-4.30pm: in a relaxed environment, we’ll look at methods of combating isolation including:

• Looking at the up and downsides of isolation
• Looking at your sort of work and what’s most productive for you
• Ideas to help you keep in contact with your industry and potential clients.

How to Apply

To attend this session, fill in the short application form by Nov 28. You will need to register if you have not done so already.

All events have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date. We will let you know if your application has been successful within a week after this date.

WHO’S AN FEU TRAINING MEMBER?

Equity, the Musicians’ Union, the National Union of Journalists and the Writers’ Guild are working together in this instance under the banner of ‘The Federation of Entertainment Unions’. This enables us to maximize resources to deliver skills development opportunities common to our multi-union members.

Our aim is to help the career progress of our freelance members through the recession and beyond by providing a range of free and low cost blended-learning opportunities.

Further enquiries:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07990 504 612

Come and join us for a networking lunch followed by a confidence booster session (1pm to 4.30pm) in which life coach Muriel McClymont will provide some valuable tools that you can use to build your confidence and get into a positive frame of mind.

Date and Time: Nov 27 2012 - 1pm - 4pm

Venue:
Equity
Upper St Martin’s Lane
WC2H 9EG

Tutor: Muriel McClymont

Apply Online by Nov 22 2012

Content

1pm-2pm: a light lunch will be served free of charge to participants through which you can chat to your peers including the FEU Training team and other creative freelances.

2pm-4.30pm: in a relaxed environment, we’ll look at methods of developing confidence including:

• What confidence feels and looks like to you
• Key attributes of confident people
• How you can develop your confidence in the short and longer term.

Remember, you’re not alone. We all lack confidence sometimes for various reasons and when you work in the creative world it’s par for the course that our confidence will take a knock on occasion. This session aims to give you some key tools to help you develop confidence and remain confident through life’s vicissitudes.

How to Apply

To attend our confidence booster session, fill in the short application form by Nov 22. You will need to register on the site if you have not done so already so have your union membership number to hand.

All events have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date of Nov 22. We will let you know if your application has been successful by Nov 23.

WHO’S AN FEU TRAINING MEMBER?

Equity, the Musicians’ Union, the National Union of Journalists and the Writers’ Guild are working together in this instance under the banner of ‘The Federation of Entertainment Unions’. This enables us to maximize resources to deliver skills development opportunities common to our multi-union members.

Our aim is to help the career progress of our freelance members through the recession and beyond by providing a range of free and low cost blended-learning opportunities.

Further enquiries:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07990 504 612

Free Nov/Dec 2012 workshops for members

Dates and Locations:

Tutor: Stuart Worthington

11.30 - 5.30                                                  10.30 - 4.30

Apply Online

Content

The end of the financial year (Jan 31, 2013) will be upon those of us who are self-employed soon. This workshop will help you get to grips with key financial issues and to ensure that you don’t waste your hard-earned cash through ignorance. It includes:

Budgeting and money management

• Personal and business financial issues
• Short and long-term aims and objectives
• Covering overheads
• Project direct/variable costs
• Survival budgeting
• Break-even analysis
• Practical trading and cash flow forecasting
• Profit and loss calculation
• Pricing and costing
• Agent and agency commissions, credit and debt control.

Legal Entities and Business Vehicles

• Evaluating and explaining business status such as employment, self-employment and owner-management
• Key Contract differentials for performers and stage management
• The pros and cons
• Income streams
• Trading names
• "IR35"/agency tax status issues
• Other liabilities.

Working with HMRC

• Business registration
• Tax explained, including Capital Gains Tax, Income and Corporation taxes plus VAT
• Allowable business expenses
• Personal, investment and capital allowances, tax credits, pension premiums, vehicle benefits and mileage allowances
• National Insurance Contributions: Classes (1,2,3 and 4) and main social security benefits
• Tax returns, bands, rates and dates: how to calculate, minimise and when to make payments.

Business Administration

• Books and record-keeping – what, why and for how long.
• The 80/20 rule
• Staying in control of your business
• Maximising the potential of valuable support.

Who should attend

• Those freelances working in the creative industries who wish to get a better insight into how to manage their finances effectively.

Learning outcomes

• A clearer understanding of what financial issues you need to cover when working for yourself
• A clearer understanding of how to use management information to achieve your objectives.

HOW TO APPLY:

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop fill in the short application form by Nov 17. You will need to register on the site if you have not done so already so have your union membership number to hand.

All workshops have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date of Nov 17. We will let you know if your application has been successful by Nov 19.

WHO’S AN FEU TRAINING MEMBER?

The National Union of Journalists, Equity, the Musicians’ Union and the Writers’ Guild are working together in this instance under the banner of ‘The Federation of Entertainment Unions’. This enables us to maximize resources to deliver skills development opportunities common to our multi-union members.

Our aim is to help the career progress of our freelance members through the recession and beyond by providing a range of free and low cost blended-learning opportunities.

More info:

Tel: 07914 937 243
Email: [email protected]

Free workshop for members

Dates, locations and venues

Tutor: Louise Grainger

Apply Online

Workshop Content

To build a successful freelance career in the long term, you need to put considerable effort into marketing yourself and your work.

You need to get yourself and what you do known, as well as present what you do in the best possible light. This course will help you do just that and includes:

• What is marketing?
• Brand versus product
• Identifying your market
• Identifying your competition (including research techniques such as SWOT [Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats] and other useful matrices)
• Key messages and unique selling points and how to communicate these
• Key marketing tools and activities
• Action plan.

Who should attend?

Freelances working in the creative industries who wish to improve their marketing skills.

Qualifications

No formal qualifications are required, just a desire to learn new ways of building your reputation and career success.

Expected learning outcomes

• A better understanding of marketing and why it is important
• Knowledge of key marketing tools, activities and skills, including how to promote yourself and your work
• A better understanding of how to identify, target and communicate with potential clients.

Apply Online by October 25 2012

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, fill in the short application form by Oct 25. You will need to register if you have not done so already.

All workshops have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date of Oct 25. We will let you know if your application has been successful by Oct 29.

Further enquiries
E: [email protected]
T: 07990 504 612

Free workshop for members
Using social media to support freelance work

The date and time: Oct 19th, 10.30am to 4.30pm

The venue:

Dance City
Temple Street
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE1 4BR

Tutor: Nathalie McDermott

Apply Online

Workshop Content

This workshop is for social media beginners who want to get a clearer idea on how to use it to help their freelance career – whether it’s to market and promote work or create beneficial two-way communication. With around 40 attendees, it is not a hands-on workshop and you will not be using a computer.

The workshop includes:

• Why social media is important to freelances as a communication tool

• The ways in which social media can be used to help freelances influence their audience, e.g., marketing and promotion

• Getting started – what to use and how?

• The basics of Twitter and Facebook (demonstration)

• Producing effective content

• Finding the right tone

• Developing a social media presence and useful following

• Managing your time

• Setting expectations.

Who should attend?

Any creative freelance who wants to learn how to use social media as an effective tool to support and advance their freelance career. If you’re a beginner or want to use social media more efficiently and effectively, this is the workshop for you.

Qualifications

No formal qualifications are necessary. However, participants will need a basic awareness of online communication. It would help if you set up a Twitter and Facebook account (if you don’t have one) and have a play before you come to the course.

Learning outcomes

A clearer understanding of how:

• social media can be used to support your work
• to use social media effectively for your chosen purposes
• to manage your social media time efficiently.

Apply Online by Oct 5 2012

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, fill in the short application form by Oct 5. You will need to register if you have not done so already.

All workshops have been over-subscribed to date so successful applicants will be chosen randomly after the cut-off date of Oct 5. We will let you know if your application has been successful by Oct 7.

Further enquiries
E: [email protected]
T: 07990 504 612