The Design Trust Online Business School & Shop will open in Spring 2013!
We are currently working with some great affiliate partners to give you a range of hand-picked products, services and tools that we personally recommend and will help you run your business better:
- The Design Trust Guide to Start & Run a Successful Craft Business: our up to date guide and workbook that will help you step-by-step to set up your own business confidently. You can get more information and download this 62-page e-book by clicking on the link.
- The Design Trust Get Clients Now! programme for designers and makers: an intensive 5-week coaching programme that will give you the knowledge you need to get new clients, and that will give you lots of individual and group support to get you into action! You will create your own marketing plan, and then will implement this to give your business a real marketing boost. You can get more information and register for the online workshops or the full coaching programme here.
- A 6-months multi-media group coaching programme for makers about all aspects of marketing with friendly marketing experts Polly and Clare from Handmade Horizons. Handmade Horizons is an online multi-media course that focuses on teaching women how to promote and sell their handmade products online and to get their business onto the next level. This course is delivered by two passionate marketing experts Polly Dugdale & Claire Hughes who deliver the course through a combination of videos, worksheets and live online training calls.This course is as much about learning how to get started with online marketing as it is about building your confidence, motivation and network with the handmade community.For an extensive review of the Handmade Horizons course click here.
- Twitter Brilliance a self-study online course by Alicia Cowan to help you spend less time on Twitter but with far better results! Through a series of practical step-by-step videos, work and action sheets, plus monthly coaching calls and a forum you will learn how to use Twitter to really get your business connected, drive traffic to your site and connect with the major players in your field.
- The Creative Money Manual: a self-study e-course to help you tackle your money and finance challenges and to make you more confident around money
- Specialist bookkeeping software & support for creatives from My Cake
- Create your own gorgeous online boutique with specialist and super user friendly software – be fully in control of the design and content for your own web shop with all the nitty gritty details sorted for you. Have an e-boutique up and running in an afternoon and start selling online!
- Book of the Month: kindly provided by A&C Black/Bloomsbury publishers who will offer a 20% discount on a monthly creative and or business publication for The Design Trust Business Club members. The Design Trust will write an independent book review every month.
Hand-picked creative business books
A wide range of highly recommended business books selected and reviewed by The Design Trust, such as:
- The crafter’s guide to taking great photos by Heidi Adnum: one of our absolute favourite books for inspiration and technical tips!
- Blogging for creatives by Robin Houghton: a great resource book full of inspiration and technical advice if you are thinking about creating or commissioning a new website or blog.
- The Design Trust’s 5 favourite books on business planning for creatives: a selection of our favourites
- The essential guide to business for artists & designers by Alison Branagan: one of the most thorough business, finance and legal books for creatives
- A pocket business guide for artists & designers by Alison Branagan: 100 creative business questions with 100 answers
- Creative Inc by designers Meg Mateo Ilasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho: a beautifully designed and practical business book for a wide range of creative freelancers
- Design Create Sell by Alison Lewy of Fashion Angel: ideal for fashion and accessories designers
- Fashion Designer’s Resource Book by young fashion designer Samata Angel for young people thinking about a career in fashion or who want to start their own fashion label
- Setting up a jewellery business by jeweller Angie Boothroyd: a great business book for new and established jewellers
- Get Clients Now! by C.J.Hayden: one of our favourite marketing books
- How to sell to retailers by Clare Rayner: if you want to sell to larger retailers such as John Lewis or Liberty’s
- Breakthrough! Overcome creative block & spark your imagination by Alex Cornell if you need to kick start your creativity when you feel blocked
- Batch by Andrew Tanner: a great coffee table book with inspirational pictures and quotes from designers across the world
- Contemporary Tableware by Linda Bloomfield: a beautiful book full of inspirational images and an introduction into design and production methods for various tableware products
Our Design Trust Business Club member will get special discounts on many of the products and services above.
The Design Trust is really pleased to be working with a few selected affiliate partners who provide specialist services, products and tools. We try each one out before we recommend them, and only work with companies that we like, trust and personally recommend.
As a social enterprise The Design Trust needs to generate its own income, as we do not get any funding. We prefer to have an ad-free website and to work with and build special relationships with selected affiliate partners.
As an affiliate partner we get a commission on every sale (at no extra cost to you, in fact if you are a Business Club member you will often get a discount through us!). Rest assured we are not driven by the commission rate – but by quality products and services from businesses we like and trust, that we have personally tested and are happy to recommend to help sole traders and freelancers to run and grow their design and craft business better.
If you purchase from The Design Trust Online School & Shop you help us to provide more and better advice to help you start, run and grow your own design and craft business!
Thank you so much for buying from us.