Category: Free Workshops

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

Free workshop for members
Getting known to the right people

The date and time: Oct 12th, 10.30am to 4.30pm

The venue:

Equity
Upper St Martin’s Lane
WC2H 9EG

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, SWOT & other useful matrices to use)
• 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 Sept 27 2012

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, fill in the short application form by Sept 27. 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 Sept 27. We will let you know if your application has been successful by Oct 1st.

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

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

The date and time: Oct 11, 10.30am to 4.30pm

The venue:

Musicians’ Union
60-62 Clapham Road
SW9 0JJ

Tutor: Muriel McClymont

Apply Online

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!

Apply Online by Sept 25 2012

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, fill in the short application form by Sept 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 Sept 25. We will let you know if your application has been successful by Sept 27.

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

Free workshop for members
How to leave a good impression in the digital world

The date and time: Oct 9, 11.30am to 5.30pm

The venue:

Crescent Theatre
Sheepcote Street
Birmingham
B16 8AE

Whether through digital media or face-to-face, networking is important to raise your profile and market your work successfully.

Tutor: David Thomas

Apply Online

Workshop Content

This workshop falls into two parts:

1. Why networking works and why effective digital networking is so 
important.
2. How we fit networking into our daily work schedule.

Areas covered in the workshop include:

• Networking refresher - what it is and why it works
• Identifying what you’re selling and how it helps others
• Your key messages
• Understanding your digital footprint
• Social media for work - polishing your online profile
• LinkedIn - including groups and recommendations
• Google + circles
• Tools for managing multiple social networks (without wasting time)
• Your next steps
• Participants will devise a personal action plan with practical measures to improve their online and face-to-face networking.

Who should attend?

Freelances who wish to find better ways to network both digitally and face-to-face. No technical knowledge will be assumed. The aim is to help freelances understand how networking works and hone their message. It does not require participants to be online during the training.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand how face-to-face and digital networking interact
• Draw up a plan for engaging with others face to face and on a range of social networks
• Understand how to use time-saving tools to maintain digital engagement
• Know where to get advice and help on the above.

Apply Online by Sept 24 2012

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, fill in the short application form by Sept 24. 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 Sept 24. We will let you know if your application has been successful by Sept 26.

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

Free workshop for members
How to present yourself more effectively to get that next job

The date and time: Sept 28, 2012 10.30am to 5.00pm

The venue:

Musicians’ Union
60-62 Clapham Road
London
SW9 0JJ
T: 020 7840 5506

Effective interview and presentation skills - whether at a formal interview or a chance meeting where there might be work at the end of it – are essential. Some find the thought of self-presentation terrifying! Others find it easier. Whatever you feel, you can always do better.

Apply Online

Workshop Content

This one-day workshop is designed to give practical advice and support to help you improve how you demonstrate your many skills and abilities to a potential employer, through both what you say and how you say it. It covers:

• How to prepare effectively
• How to get your message across
• How to respond to difficult questions or challenging scenarios
• How to match your skills to the opportunity
• How to positively use your voice and body language
• How to confidently present yourself and your experience

We offer lots of practice, advice and mock interviews/meetings (you define the situation that will be most helpful to you). You will receive constructive feedback, and get the chance to test-drive new responses to your dreaded questions or scenarios.

Who should attend?

Anyone who needs to present themselves effectively with the aim of making the most of every face-to-face opportunity to get more work.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will:

• have gained a clearer understanding of how you come across in person and how to improve this
• have practiced and received constructive feedback on the effectiveness of your interview or presentation technique
• understand what you need to do to maximise the impact you make
• know how to prepare for an interview so that you feel informed, confident and as relaxed as possible
• be better prepared for challenging questions or scenarios – and know how you can use them to your advantage
• have an action plan for your next steps.

Apply Online by Sept 14 2012

To apply for a place on this free, one-day workshop, fill in the short application form by Sept 12. 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 Sept 12. We will let you know if your application has been successful by Sept 14.

Tutors: Sue Walker and Muriel McClymont

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