Category: Free Workshops

To help you develop your business in good times and bad, we’ve launched a series of FREE one-day workshops throughout the UK. Look out for emails from your unions and from FEU Training. Workshop details below.

Finance for Freelances – 28 January, Bristol

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Free workshop for members

Essential for every freelance, this workshop will help you improve your financial management from how to work out your tax to cash flow forecasting.

The date and time:
28 January, 10.30-4.30

The venue:
Bristol Old Vic
King Street
Bristol
BS1 4ED

Tutor: David Thomas

Apply online by 18 January

Workshop content

Full of tips, discussion and practical exercises, this workshop will help you understand, organise and plan your finances more successfully. You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and will receive handouts and links to useful spreadsheets and templates. It includes:

  • Making the most of your money
  • Types of freelancing
  • How tax works and how it works for you
  • Getting organised to manage your finances
  • VAT: important issues for freelances
  • Improving the process of getting paid
  • Planning for success
  • How not to run out of cash.

Who should attend

Freelances who wish to improve the way in which they handle their finances. No financial training or experience is assumed.

Expected learning outcomes

The workshop aims to provide you with a better understanding of how to plan and organise your finances. You will more clearly understand the importance of good record keeping and how to maintain cash flow along with issues surrounding tax and national insurance.

POLITE REQUEST: if you are successful in obtaining a place on this workshop and, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to attend, please let us know asap because we have others on the waiting list who we can allocate your place to. If you do not let us know this will disadvantage another member. Also, we may lose the funds that enable us to provide these workshops to all members including yourself.

NOTE: if we were to postpone or cancel this workshop due to unforeseen circumstances (this has happened only twice in five years due to tutor illness and a tube strike), we will be unable to reimburse any costs such as pre-booked travel expenses. If this were to happen in the future, we will email and telephone you as soon as we know that there is a cancellation and attempt to re-schedule the workshop asap.

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries
e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726

 

Tools for goal setting – 22 Jan, London

Posted on

Free workshop for members

The date and time: 22 January, 10.30-4.30

The venue:
Equity
Guild House
Upper St Martin’s Lane
London
WC2H 9EG

Apply Online by 11 Jan

Achieve your dreams in 2015

Start the New Year with clear goals that will help you improve your creative performance and career success in the short and long term.

Having goals in our lives sets a direction and helps us make the decisions on what to focus our efforts on. Some find it hard to create goals at all, while others have no problem setting goals, but are unable to motivate themselves to achieve them.

There can be all sorts of reasons for this, for example, your goals may not actually be your goals, but other people’s that you have (consciously or unconsciously) adopted, or perhaps securing the dream job means you’ll have to travel extensively and you are worried that this will have a negative impact on your family life.

This workshop aims to give you tools to process all your aims, now and in the future, so you can create clear, achievable, compelling goals, which are compatible with and do not conflict with any other areas of your life.

Workshop Content

This course will:

  • help you define clear, achievable goals which are within your control
  • provide a model to allow you to check your goals to ensure that you really want them, and that achieving them will not result in you losing something else that is important to you
  • give you an opportunity to amend or re-configure your goal to make it fully desirable to you
  • identify what might obstruct your goal, and what you can do about it
  • understand what the purpose of your goal is to you and become fully aligned to it - making it a compelling goal
  • learn tools to tackle difficulties
  • identify your first steps.

Who should attend?

Freelances working in the creative industries who want to improve their goal setting and goal achievement capabilities.

Expected learning outcomes

You can expect to leave this workshop with a set of tools you can use on any of your goals to reshape them so they are compatible with all aspects of your life, and therefore compelling for you to achieve.

Join us and take the first steps to making your current goals your future reality!

Tutor: Muriel McClymont

POLITE REQUEST: if you are successful in obtaining a place on this workshop and, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to attend, please let us know asap because we have others on the waiting list who we can allocate your place to. If you do not let us know this will disadvantage another member. Also, we may lose the funds that enable us to provide these workshops to all members including yourself.

NOTE: if we were to postpone or cancel this workshop due to unforeseen circumstances (this has happened only twice in five years due to tutor illness and a tube strike), we will be unable to reimburse any costs such as pre-booked travel expenses. If this were to happen in the future, we will email and telephone you as soon as we know that there is a cancellation and attempt to re-schedule the workshop asap.

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries
e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726

Social media for beginners – 16 Jan 2015, London

Posted on

Free workshop for members

Date and time
16 Jan 2015, 10.30-4.30

Venue
The Musicians’ Union
60-62 Clapham Road
London
SW9 OJJ

Apply online by Jan 6

Workshop content

Using social media effectively can help you get better and more work as well as to engage with like minded professionals. This workshop looks at how you get started and how to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter as a valuable business tool rather than a means of sharing photos of your cat!

Who should attend?

This course is for people who've not started on social media (Facebook and Twitter particularly) or who have signed up but done little else or don’t really see the point of it. We look at:

  • what is meant by social media
  • differences between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others
  • what it can do for you
  • how to get set up
  • how to construct a profile
  • how to be time-efficient
  • tips and tricks.

Note: This workshop includes tutor demonstration, instruction and group interaction. You will not be expected to go online at the session but you will need to follow up post session to implement what you have learnt.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will:

  • have a better understanding of how to use social media to support your work
  • have greater knowledge of popular social media platforms and which ones would work best for you
  • be able to plan in social media activities to suit your work and time limitations
  • Be more confident and able at communicating through social media to meet your objectives.

Tutor: David Thomas

POLITE REQUEST: if you are successful in obtaining a place on this workshop and, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to attend, please let us know asap because we have others on the waiting list who we can allocate your place to. If you do not let us know this will disadvantage another member. Also, we may lose the funds that enable us to provide these workshops to all members including yourself.

NOTE: if we were to postpone or cancel this workshop due to unforeseen circumstances (this has happened only twice in five years due to tutor illness and a tube strike), we will be unable to reimburse any costs such as pre-booked travel expenses. If this were to happen in the future, we will email and telephone you as soon as we know that there is a cancellation and attempt to re-schedule the workshop asap.

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries

e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726

Social media for beginners – 4 December, London

Posted on

Free workshop for members

Date and time
4 December; 10.30-4.30

Venue
The Musicians’ Union
60-62
Clapham Road
London
SW9 OJJ

Apply online by 25 November

Workshop content

Using social media effectively can help you get better and more work as well as to engage with like minded professionals. This workshop looks at how you get started and how to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter as a valuable business tool rather than a means of sharing photos of your cat!

Who should attend?

This course is for people who've not started on social media (Facebook and Twitter particularly) or who have signed up but done little else or don’t really see the point of it. We look at:

  • what is meant by social media
  • differences between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others
  • what it can do for you
  • how to get set up
  • how to construct a profile
  • how to be time-efficient
  • tips and tricks.

Note: This workshop includes tutor demonstration, instruction and group interaction. You will not be expected to go online at the session but you will need to follow up post session to implement what you have learnt.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will:

  • have a better understanding of how to use social media to support your work
  • have greater knowledge of popular social media platforms and which ones would work best for you
  • be able to plan in social media activities to suit your work and time limitations
  • Be more confident and able at communicating through social media to meet your objectives.

Tutor: David Thomas

POLITE REQUEST: if you are successful in obtaining a place on this workshop and, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to attend, please let us know asap because we have others on the waiting list who we can allocate your place to. If you do not let us know this will disadvantage another member. Also, we may lose the funds that enable us to provide these workshops to all members including yourself.

NOTE: if we were to postpone or cancel this workshop due to unforeseen circumstances (this has happened only twice in five years due to tutor illness and a tube strike), we will be unable to reimburse any costs such as pre-booked travel expenses. If this were to happen in the future, we will email and telephone you as soon as we know that there is a cancellation and attempt to re-schedule the workshop asap.

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries

e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726

Dealing with Setbacks – how the tough keep going! – 3 December, Bristol

Posted on

Free workshop for members

Time
11am - 3pm

Venue
Bristol Old Vic
King Street
Bristol
BS1 4ED

When the going gets tough, the tough get going! But how do they keep going? This is the million-dollar question that we are going to consider at this short session.

Even though we know setbacks are a normal part of freelance life - through no fault of our own, we don't always get that role, gig or commission we desperately want; the best of plans can go awry and we sometimes don't get the rewards we think we deserve - it can sometimes be difficult to bounce back.

This session will give you some useful strategies and tips to help you deal with setbacks in a more constructive way so that you remain buoyant and keep moving forward towards your goals.

Apply online by 23 November

Workshop content

This workshop includes:

  • Developing resilience
  • Not taking rejection personally
  • Strategies for handling setbacks
  • Identifying the positives from setbacks
  • Learning to consider setbacks in a larger context.

Who should attend?

Anyone who wants to pick up ideas and strategies to deal with inevitable setbacks in the most constructive way.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will:

  • Have tools and ideas to help develop your resilience
  • Recognise your role and choice in how you react to setbacks
  • Understand how to take something positive from the ‘bad’ stuff
  • Discover that you are not alone!

Tutor: Muriel McClymont 

POLITE REQUEST: if you are successful in obtaining a place on this workshop and, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to attend, please let us know asap because we have others on the waiting list who we can allocate your place to. If you do not let us know this will disadvantage another member. Also, we may lose the funds that enable us to provide these workshops to all members including yourself.

NOTE: if we were to postpone or cancel this workshop due to unforeseen circumstances (this has happened only twice in five years due to tutor illness and a tube strike), we will be unable to reimburse any costs such as pre-booked travel expenses. If this were to happen in the future, we will email and telephone you as soon as we know that there is a cancellation and attempt to re-schedule the workshop asap.

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries

e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726

Business Motivation for Creatives – 28 Nov, London

Posted on

Free workshop for members

The date and time: 28 November, 10.30am to 4.30pm

Venue
Musicians’ Union
60-62 Clapham Road
London
SW9 OJJ

You’re probably highly motivated when it comes to doing the core creative work that you love. However, you may be much less keen on the business side of freelancing, e.g., sourcing new clients and pitching ideas, which is vital in helping to create satisfying work opportunities and manage your working lives efficiently. This workshop will help you tap into and channel your creativity so that you can better tackle the essential tasks that you usually put off or avoid.

Apply online by 18 November

Workshop Content

This workshop will help you improve your productivity and efficiency.

We will demonstrate how you can change the way you see some of your business tasks and embrace them as not just essential and necessary but as fun and motivating! This workshop includes how to:

  • prioritise your work
  • motivate yourself to do the bits you currently don’t like
  • manage your time
  • use your creative talent to improve your business skills
  • understand and tap into your own motivation strategies.

This workshop will be a mix of tutor input and exercises to help you achieve the balance you would like.

Who should attend?

Freelances who want to improve how they approach and complete the business tasks that support their creative work.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will:

  • identify your own effective motivational strategies and know you can use these on your business activities
  • know how to use your creativity to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the business side of your career
  • re-define ‘difficult’ or ‘unappealing’ tasks so that they motivate and support you
  • recognise how your creative talents and business skills are both essential, and support each other when more integrated.

Tutor: Muriel McClymont

POLITE REQUEST: if you are successful in obtaining a place on this workshop and, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to attend, please let us know asap because we have others on the waiting list who we can allocate your place to. If you do not let us know this will disadvantage another member. Also, we may lose the funds that enable us to provide these workshops to all members including yourself.

NOTE: if we were to postpone or cancel this workshop due to unforeseen circumstances (this has happened only twice in five years due to tutor illness and a tube strike), we will be unable to reimburse any costs such as pre-booked travel expenses. If this were to happen in the future, we will email and telephone you as soon as we know that there is a cancellation and attempt to re-schedule the workshop asap.

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries
e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726

Get the best deal: how to pitch for work and get paid properly – 27 Nov, London

Posted on

TUC’s Young Workers’ MontAs part of the TUC’s Young Workers’ Month, this FEU workshop is aimed at younger members (aged 30 and under)

The date and time: 27 Nov, 10.30-3.00pm

Lunch included

The venue:
Equity
Guild House
Upper St Martin’s Lane
London
WC2H 9EG

Apply Online by 25 Nov

Content

10.30am-1.30pm

This session will help you learn the basics of pitching your work and negotiating fair rates of pay. This workshop includes:

  • Identifying the most likely sources of work
  • Preparing and planning your pitch
  • Delivering your pitch
  • Preparing to negotiate
  • Getting into the right frame of mind
  • Knowing your negotiation limits
  • How your union can help

The session will include practical exercises to provide participants with the opportunity to try out what you learn in a safe environment.

1.30-3.00pm

Lunch will be provided along with the opportunity to find out more about how your union and the FEU partnership is working to support your career progress. You’ll get a chance to ask questions and find more about the help, information and training available to you.

Who should attend

Young members (aged 30 and below) who would like to find out more about pitching and presenting and how their union can further support their work in the entertainment industries.

Expected learning outcomes

As a taster session, you will gain a better understanding of:

  • The basic principles of pitching your work
  • The basic principles of effective negotiation
  • You’ll also learn more about your how your union is working to support you and where to get further information.

Tutor: Frances Dredge

Free learning opportunities for you!

As a member of Equity, the MU, the NUJ or the Writers’ Guild, you are entitled to free access of our digital learning centre to find a range of facilities to help you launch and maintain your creative career. This includes quick tips on key business skills, Q & As, WordPress tutorials, a training blog and a range of ecourses such as:

  • Business skills for freelances
  • Building your brand
  • Building your web presence
  • Diversifying your portfolio
  • Finance for freelances
  • Introduction to social media
  • Marketing for freelances
  • Overcoming freelance challenges
  • Stress busting for freelances.

POLITE REQUEST: if you are successful in obtaining a place on this workshop and, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to attend, please let us know asap because we have others on the waiting list who we can allocate your place to. If you do not let us know this will disadvantage another member. Also, we may lose the funds that enable us to provide these workshops to all members including yourself.

NOTE: if we were to postpone or cancel this workshop due to unforeseen circumstances (this has happened only twice in five years due to tutor illness and a tube strike), we will be unable to reimburse any costs such as pre-booked travel expenses. If this were to happen in the future, we will email and telephone you as soon as we know that there is a cancellation and attempt to re-schedule the workshop asap.

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries
e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726

Tools for goal setting – 21 Nov, Colchester

Posted on

Free workshop for members
“Goals are dreams with deadlines.”

The date and time: 21 Nov, 10.30-4.30pm

The venue:
Mercury Theatre
Balkerne Gardens
Colchester
C01 1PT

Apply Online by 18 Nov

Having goals in our lives sets a direction and helps us make the decisions on what to focus our efforts on.

Some find it hard to create goals at all, while others have no problem setting goals, but are unable to motivate themselves to achieve them.

There can be all sorts of reasons for this, for example, your goals may not actually be your goals, but other people’s that you have (consciously or unconsciously) adopted, or perhaps securing the dream job means you’ll have to travel extensively and you are worried that this will have a negative impact on your family life.

This workshop aims to give you tools to process all your aims, now and in the future, so you can create clear, achievable, compelling goals, which are compatible with and do not conflict with any other areas of your life.

Workshop Content

This course will:

  • help you define clear, achievable goals which are within your control
  • provide a model to allow you to check your goals to ensure that you really want them, and that achieving them will not result in you losing something else that is important to you
  • give you an opportunity to amend or re-configure your goal to make it fully desirable to you
  • identify what might obstruct your goal, and what you can do about it
  • understand what the purpose of your goal is to you and become fully aligned to it - making it a compelling goal
  • learn tools to tackle difficulties
  • identify your first steps.

Who should attend?

Freelances working in the creative industries who want to improve their goal setting and goal achievement capabilities.

Expected learning outcomes

You can expect to leave this workshop with a set of tools you can use on any of your goals to reshape them so they are compatible with all aspects of your life, and therefore compelling for you to achieve.

Join us and take the first steps to making your current goals your future reality!

Tutor: Muriel McClymont

POLITE REQUEST: if you are successful in obtaining a place on this workshop and, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to attend, please let us know asap because we have others on the waiting list who we can allocate your place to. If you do not let us know this will disadvantage another member. Also, we may lose the funds that enable us to provide these workshops to all members including yourself.

NOTE: if we were to postpone or cancel this workshop due to unforeseen circumstances (this has happened only twice in five years due to tutor illness and a tube strike), we will be unable to reimburse any costs such as pre-booked travel expenses. If this were to happen in the future, we will email and telephone you as soon as we know that there is a cancellation and attempt to re-schedule the workshop asap.

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries
e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726

Finance for Freelances – 14 November, London

Posted on

Free workshop for members

Essential for every freelance, this workshop will help you improve your financial management from how to work out your tax to cash flow forecasting.

The date and time:
14 November, 10.30-4.30

The venue:
Equity
Guild House
Upper St Martin’s Lane
WC2H 9EG

Tutor: David Thomas

Apply online by 3 November 2014

Workshop content

Full of tips, discussion and practical exercises, this workshop will help you understand, organise and plan your finances more successfully. You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and will receive handouts and links to useful spreadsheets and templates. It includes:

  • Making the most of your money
  • Types of freelancing
  • How tax works and how it works for you
  • Getting organised to manage your finances
  • VAT: important issues for freelances
  • Improving the process of getting paid
  • Planning for success
  • How not to run out of cash.

Who should attend

Freelances who wish to improve the way in which they handle their finances. No financial training or experience is assumed.

Expected learning outcomes

The workshop aims to provide you with a better understanding of how to plan and organise your finances. You will more clearly understand the importance of good record keeping and how to maintain cash flow along with issues surrounding tax and national insurance.

POLITE REQUEST: if you are successful in obtaining a place on this workshop and, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to attend, please let us know asap because we have others on the waiting list who we can allocate your place to. If you do not let us know this will disadvantage another member. Also, we may lose the funds that enable us to provide these workshops to all members including yourself.

NOTE: if we were to postpone or cancel this workshop due to unforeseen circumstances (this has happened only twice in five years due to tutor illness and a tube strike), we will be unable to reimburse any costs such as pre-booked travel expenses. If this were to happen in the future, we will email and telephone you as soon as we know that there is a cancellation and attempt to re-schedule the workshop asap.

 

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries
e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726

 

Creative Productivity – 23 Oct, Birmingham

Posted on

Free workshop for members

The date and time:
23rd Oct, 10.30am-4.30pm

The venue:
Musicians’ Union
2 Sovereign Court
Graham Street
Birmingham
B13JR

Tutor: William Gallagher

Improve your time management, remove distractions and zoom through the chores of being freelance. Turn your To Do list into something you enjoy – and do – instead of just dread. Become the one everybody turns to because you never forget anything and you always deliver.

This workshop will help you understand how you work and what you can do to make better use of your limited time, become more productive and feel in control.

Apply online by 15th Oct 2014

Workshop content

This workshop will help you understand how you work and what you can do to make better use of your limited time, become more productive and feel in control.

Filled with practical advice and time saving tips, the workshop covers:

  • Multitasking – how it can be bad for creatives and what you can do about it
  • Priorities – the difference between urgent and important
  • To Do lists – turning them from something you hate and avoid into something useful
  • How preparation can make you more efficient
  • Computers – time-saving tools that will make your life easier.

Who should attend

Those who are not getting enough done in their working week and are feeling that their work is controlling them rather than vice versa.

Expected learning outcomes

  • A better understanding of how to manage your time and become more productive
  • A better understanding of how to balance your creative and business work
  • Knowledge of how to quickly dispense with chores so more of your time is spent on your talent
  • Specific computer knowledge about what tools will help you and how to use them.

Apply online

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, please fill in the short application form below. You will need to login or register if you have not done so already so have your Union number to hand.

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 of this date.

Further enquiries
e: [email protected]
t: 07580 348726