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The Design Trust’s favourite business planning books for creatives

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Do you believe that ‘business planning’ and ‘creatives’ are completely contradictory and can’t be put in one sentence together? I would disagree with you!

I strongly believe that business planning can be a very creative process … mapping out the journey ahead in a visual way … imagining what you want to do, prototyping your business even … and then checking on a regular basis if you are still on track.

Here is my collection of favourite business planning books for creatives. These are books that I own and have used over the years to help design and craft businesses in a creative way to develop and even stretch their big ideas, to set great goals through a variety of techniques, but most importantly to get them into action and turn their ideas into reality.

I have even added a business planning book for creatives that I have written myself … cheeky!

The selection of books covers everything from ‘the big picture’ thinking to ‘in detail’ planning.

All books are available through our affiliate relationship with Amazon, or you can purchase or order them of course from your local book shops, as they really will appreciate it!

‘Business Model Generation’ by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur

Business Model Generation cover by Alexander Osterwalder

Originally published in 2010 through a crowdfunding campaign, Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, has become a classic in the design-thinking community already.

It was one of the first books to really embrace creating a more visual and interconnected business plan. The big idea is around the Business Model Canvas concept, the interlinking parts of each business.

  • Who are your customers?
  • What are your key activities?
  • What value do you add?
  • What communication and sales channels do you use?
  • What relationship do you want with your customers?
  • What revenue streams are you creating?
  • What resources have you got?
  • What key partnerships have you got?
  • What do you spend your money on?

This book asks some very big questions, rather than just giving answers.

By defining each of these parts in detail it allows you to create a better business model. What makes you unique and stand out, and how will your business operate and make money?

The book offers various design thinking techniques and tools that can help to describe, discuss and design a better business of any type: customer insights, ideation, visual thinking, prototyping, storytelling and scenario building.

There is a brilliant in-depth chapter about SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).  SWOT can be a great tool to evaluate your internal and external forces, but many books don’t go deep enough.  This book asks some important questions to help you get deeper into your SWOT.  Very useful indeed to identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Finally, the book goes through the process of evaluating existing and new techniques of different business models, and how the Business Model Canvas can be turned into a more formal business plan.

Business Model Generation has helped me:

  • To work with clients around how their business works, and what doesn’t work.  By looking at the 9 different parts you quickly get a sense of their strengths and weaknesses, and what needs to be developed or communicated better.
  • To review big ideas really quickly. The Canvas breaks the various parts of any business down so you can quickly sketch out opportunities and challenges. It’s really helpful for strategic thinking and to become more playful around strategic decisions, especially when you are developing a new business, product or service; or comparing various income-generation ideas.
  • To understand what business models actually are, and how the internet is changing the way we do business and how we make money.  The ideas in this book were the starting point for developing and testing the business model and income streams for The Design Trust when we first started out.

In 2014 Osterwalder published a more detailed book around the area of clients, marketing and how to create value, called Value Proposition Design. This is a great marketing book if you want to dig deeper into the mindset of your ideal clients, their worries and challenges and how you can create better and more innovative products and services as a result of that knowledge.

‘Design a Better Business’ by Patricia van der Pijl, Justin Lokitz & Lisa Kay Solomon

Design A Better Business is another favourite design-thinking business book of mine, which was strongly influenced by the Business Model Generation. This book really brings together my own experience of how creativity and business thinking can work together through creative tools such as brainstorming, storytelling, and prototyping businesses.

Why don’t more business advisers work together with design companies to create better businesses, and to communicate what they do better? This was a question I had been struggling with for twenty years, and only in the last decade or so have we seen this practice of bringing creatives together with business experts and psychologists through design-thinking.

The book is mainly aimed at business advisers and consultants working with creative businesses, but it could also be really useful for design companies who want to work on a deeper level on understanding their client’s positioning in the market. It’s also a practical starting point for creatives who want to learn more about design thinking techniques and tools.

‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen R. Covey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a classic in the world of professional self-development.

To be fair this isn’t a business planning book for creatives at all. But it uses some great tools to look at your ‘Big Picture’,  to identify your life’s vision or purpose. And especially as so many design and craft businesses are one-person businesses (where you literally are your business) this self-development book can be helpful in planning your future life and business.

I did find the title of the book a bit off-putting, to be honest, and it didn’t sound that relevant to me when I read the book for the first time nearly 20 years ago. However, it really touched me on a deep level when questioning what my purpose and values were in my life and work, what I was really passionate about, and what I really wanted to do with my career and work.  I have re-read and re-used parts of the book again over the years, just as a reminder, both for myself but also for my creative business clients.

I recommend The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People strongly if you:

  • Are looking for the ‘Big Picture’
  • Want to get more focused and add meaning to your life and business
  • Need help with (structural) time management or goal setting
  • Want to identify what makes you really tick, or if you are stuck or feel lost in a job or career that you don’t enjoy.

This book will challenge you to think BIG and long-term: What legacy do you want to leave behind?

The 7 Habits to create a more purposeful and meaningful life (and business) are:

  1. Be proactive.  Take the initiative and make decisions based on your values and principles. Are you taking responsibility for your behaviour rather than your mood or circumstances?
  2. Begin with “the end in mind”. Create a clear purpose or mission statement based on the life you want to live, to guide you on a day-to-day basis. This has become one of my favourite time management tools.
  3. Put first things first. Focus on things that matter most, regardless of them being urgent or not. One of the big mistakes most people make is to focus on what others tell you what to do so you get driven by deadlines and chaos.
  4. Think “win-win”. This habit is about seeking mutual benefit for all parties, encouraging conflict resolution, and thinking in terms of abundance in opportunities, wealth and resources.
  5. “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”. When others feel listened to, valued and affirmed, then true communication and relationship building can take place.
  6. Synergise. This is about creating something bigger than 1 + 1.
  7. Sharpen the saw. This habit is about taking the time to renew all aspects of ourselves: physical, social/emotional, mental and spiritual to avoid burnout.

I have used this book many times with my business clients, especially when working on:

  • Developing a long-term vision or mission statement through the 80th birthday exercise.
  • Time management. Anything in your inbox or on your to-do list is either urgent or non-urgent, important or non-important.  So you get 4 possibilities: urgent & non-important, urgent & important, non-urgent & important, non-urgent & non-important.  Covey’s idea is to set time aside to work on the non-urgent & important quadrant (often things to do with systems or the foundations of your business or life), because if you work on this more ‘strategic to do list’ regularly many things on it will become less urgent.
  • Sharpen the saw. Look at all aspects of your life and spend time on activities that give you energy, with people that support you.  Many high achieving creatives or entrepreneurs can feel lonely and stressed.  Spending some time to rejuvenate are essential to continue to be creative and fulfilled.

Want to learn more about the Important versus Urgent matrix? It’s one of the most useful and practical time management tools I use on a regular basis. Watch my 25min Facebook video on the Important vs Urgent exercise here.

‘The Creative Entrepreneur’ by Lisa Sonora Beam

The Creative Entrepreneur by Lisa Sonora Beam

The Creative Entrepreneur is one of the most beautiful business planning books for creatives I have ever seen!

If you are a creative sole trader or freelancer who wants to be guided through the business planning process in a really high quality, visual and unique way, then this is the right business planning book for you!

This book is published to such high standards that it feels at times more like a museum catalogue than a business book is also great if you are struggling with the idea that you actually can make money from something that you are passionate about and really good at. Or if you know what you want to do, but are self-sabotaging your route to success.

Lisa is a visual artist, as well as a business and marketing strategist, and this book is full of very creative examples of all the different planning tools she uses in her training workshops.  Nearly every page has examples with full colour images. Some really stunning visual and imaginary plans and images in here!

The Creative Entrepreneur is a great starting point if the ‘traditional formal written plan’ doesn’t work for you.  The exercises and plans created in this book can’t really be shared with the average bank to get you a loan, but they will really help you to identify what you want to do and how to make it happen.

Lisa works a lot with visual journaling whereby you gather ideas and concepts through doodling or images or just a couple of words.

I like her idea of ‘business planning as a journey’, being able to see your progress over time, getting more and more clear about what you really are about and want to do.  This kind of circular movement (with getting more and more clarity and focus) reflects much more how business planning really is in practice than this idea that you would flash a good business plan out in a week.  Indeed in my experience, it’s more likely that it might take you a while before you really know what your business idea and plan really is.

The Creative Entrepreneur’s main concept is focused around the idea of a mandala and 4 pathways that need to be balanced:

  • Heart & Meaning looks at your passions and dreams, creating a purposeful business
  • Gifts & Flow looks at your unique talents that contribute to ‘flow’
  • Value & Profitability looks at creating a customer-centric business, and how to create and deliver value that people will pay for
  • Tools & Skills looks at developing your business and leadership capabilities to achieve the results you want in the first three pathways.

The Creative Entrepreneur also shows the strategic tools of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and setting SMART objectives – but does this in a uniquely visual and creative way.  Really great to be able to see other creatives’ visual examples too.

I hope this book doesn’t bamboozle you with lovely inspiring images of other people’s careers and businesses or makes you think that your visuals wouldn’t be up to scratch to the standards in this book.  It should give you the courage to turn your vague business ideas into images and then into a highly visual plan, which can be highly productive and insightful.

‘The Right-Brain Business Plan’ by Jennifer Lee

The Right Brain Business Plan cover

This book is ideal if you want a step-by-step guide to creating a formal business plan, but want to start from a more visionary and imaginary way (e.g. use your right brain! The Right Brain Business Plan book goes in-depth into each aspect of running a business, and each aspect of a formal business plan.

It includes the different ‘formal’ business plan elements (executive summary, vision and values, competitor analysis, finance, marketing, management and personnel, operations and action plan) and works with a variety of creative exercises to turn your ideas into a formal business plan.

What is useful about The Right-Brain Business Plan is that after doing the creative exercises and tools, it is only a very small step to actually creating the business plan that your bank manager would be happy to consider.

This business book for creatives shows a wide variety of creative exercises (incl. visual interviews, storytelling, collage) and examples, with great success stories that seem very achievable for most freelancers or sole traders.  At the end of each chapter, there is a very useful recap of activities and a checklist covering what you just learnt.

There is a great chapter about growing your creative business and creating a support network so that you don’t have to do it alone.  This chapter covers a wide range of solutions: creating your ‘helping-hands-wish-list’, creating your job role and job description, who to hire and what to outsource, getting a mentor or coach, forming strategic alliances and partnerships, assembling a board of advisers, finding an accountability buddy.

The last chapter of the book gives practical tips and tools to turn your goals into reality, how to keep the momentum going, and how to keep your business plan alive on a daily basis.

Some of the wording in the book (‘managing the moola’ instead of money) and the style of the hand-made illustrations might put some people off.

‘THE Diary planner’ and Business handbook by Patricia van den Akker of The Design Trust

2024 The Design Trust diary and planner stack of 4

Am I allowed to include our own diary planner in this list too? I think I am!

Every autumn since 2016, I have published a planner journal or diary planner, especially for creative product businesses to help them turn their big ideas into smaller, do-able activities. In the last 5 years we have sold more than 6,000 Dream Plan Do books and diary planners to over 34 countries across the world!

I created these specialist creative diary planners based on my experience of 25 years as a creative business adviser, trainer and coach. In one place you find all the tools that I use with my clients to help them turn their big ideas into do-able actions. Starting with the ‘big picture’ thinking around your long-term goals and your purpose and values, to setting annual goals for your finances, marketing and production. Each quarter you will review what is working and what needs work in your business through creative visual exercises as the Wheel of Life and Wheel of Business and thought-provoking questions. Each quarter you have the opportunity to set a new specific 90-day goal and create an action plan to ensure that you will focus on that project and the actions that quarter. Then each month you will have a monthly overview with your goals and actions, and my recommended actions for that specific months too, making the most of your quiet and busy times in your creative business. And each week I give you an action question too.

At the start of the diary planner you will get my time management tips, and a whole range of creative exercises to work on your business and yourself, your marketing and your finances. With specific tips and exercises to plan ahead and turn your business ideas into reality.

Oh, and the best bit? This beautiful 250+ page dairy planner for creatives comes with a 6 hour online training (for free!) with really useful training to plan your big ideas and projects, your finances and marketing.

Check out our diary planners on our website here. They are normally available for pre-launch in mid September and then again from early November – February.

What are your favourite business planning books for creatives?  Have you read or used any of the books above? We would love to hear your comments and suggestions below in the comments box.

Where can I get funding for my creative business or project? Our recommended list of funding for creative businesses

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Dear Design Doctor

I have just graduated and want money to start my own creative business. I am in debt and need funding for my creative business to get it off the ground. Have you got a list of funders and funding for creative businesses like mine?

The Design Doctor for this real life question is Patricia van den Akker, Director of The Design Trust:

Patricia van den Akker Director of The Design Trust

“This is one of the most popular questions that I get asked. The quick answer to your question is:

There is very little funding for creative businesses available in the form of cash.

There seems to be a bit of a myth that there is funding available to set up your own creative business or projects. Please read another Design Trust blog post Busting the Myth of Funding that covers that topic.

There is definitely no funding available to cover your debt. I think you might need to look at your money management, start budgeting your income and expenditure more precisely and potentially get in touch with your local Citizens Advice Bureau to tackle your debt situation as soon as possible.

Please sort your debt situation out as soon as possible and take responsibility to improve your financial situation. I know it’s hard, but it’s crucial if you want to make a living as a creative. Having financial worries is really tough and will stop you from being able to be as creative as you would like to be. And … if you have a record of debt then no funder will supply you with money as it’s too big a risk for them to take on.

If you need money quickly, I strongly suggest that you look at your marketing and develop your business ideas into a real business, rather than waste a lot of time to try and get funding (which is often far more long-term).

The reality is that most small (creative) business funding that has been available in the past ten years or so has been used to provide free business advice or training. There have been very few opportunities for getting actual cash that you can use as you wish.

General ‘pots of money’ are not available, but instead, it comes in the form of subsidised advice or support and for specific purposes.

Our recommended list of resources and actual funders for creative businesses and projects are:

  • The www.gov.uk website has general information about support to help you grow your small business, including a Finance Finder with some current national and regional funding opportunities.
  • The Crafts Council has limited it’s funding significantly in the last few years due to government cuts and does no longer provide business support or grants. Check out their website for details about opportunities & resources.
  • QEST (the Queen Elisabeth Scholarship Trust) provides one of the best training grants and developmnet support, but only for the very best of designer makers who want grants to develop their skills or travel abroad to learn from masters.
  • Cockpit Arts, London’s main designer maker incubation space very regularly offers awards sponsored by organisations or businesses to offer free or highly subsidised studio space, often with creative business development support.
  • The Arts Council of England offers various funding opportunities for creatives and organisations as well as the Develop Your Creative Practice programme which supports individuals who are cultural and creative practitioners and want to take time to focus on their creative development.
  • Creative Scotland’s Regular Funding Network. The aim of Regular Funding is to provide three-year funding support for a range of organisations that make a vital contribution to the current health and future development of the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland.
  • The Heritage Crafts Association invites craft practitioners and organisations to apply for small grants to fund projects that support and promote endangered crafts. There is a maximum of £2,000 available for each project and they work with you to develop and support your work.
  • The Department for International Trade features opportunities to export, to show at international trade shows at a reduced rate, and to get funding and practical support for exporting. Unfortunately most export support is only available if your turnover is above £100K.
  • The British Library & IP Centre provides very useful online training (often for free) and business support workshops at their premises in Central London. Very useful around intellectual property and copyright. They also run grants & growth programmes for larger businesses.
  • Enterprise Nation is a membership organisation for entrepreneurs, with a wide range of free online training, meet ups & events, as well as grants.
  • If you are interested in creating a creative social enterprise then check out the UnLtd programme and the School for Social Entrepreneurs.
  • For disabled artists, there are some funding options through the Unlimited Awards and Shape Arts.

More recently the government has started some new initiatives where you get so-called Start-Up Loans, which are soft loans. So this is not a financial gift, but these are loans that you need to pay back over time with a relatively low interest rate, and they come with additional business support as well. For example:

  • Start Up Loan for businesses in the UK who have been trading for less than 24 months.
  • Creative Industry Finance for cultural organisations and businesses in design and fashion who want to improve their business plans and want specific financial advice to grow their business.
  • The Prince’s Trust Enterprise Programme supports unemployed young people aged 18-30 to work out if their business ideas are viable and whether self-employment is right for them.

The reality with most other funding is that it very often is only available to charities or existing organisations. If you are an individual, with a limited track record, you will be very unlikely to be considered for these types of funding.

Recommended list of additional resources for funding for creative businesses and projects

There are various good resources available with up to date information about funding for creative businesses. Sign up for their newsletter and social media to get the latest information. The Design Trust regularly publishes opportunities for funding for creative businesses on our Facebook page, so do join us there too.

  • Artquest, run by the University of the Arts, has got a very good range of creative funding and awards, especially for visual artists – search under ‘funding’ or ‘grants’
  • The Artist’s Information Company, formerly known as Artist Newsletter, has got one of the best listings for awards and grants (although you need to become a member to access certain information)
  • Craft Scotland has a good listing for grants and awards in Scotland, where there are in general more grants available than in England.
  • The UK Government’s website with funding and support for businesses who want to grow.
  • The Grant Finder website is a generic website with available funding in the UK.
  • Directory of Social Change is a great website with lots of specialist publications, guides, and workshops to help you fundraise.
  • grantsforindividuals.org.uk for people in need

Alternative financial income?

Although there isn’t ‘a pot of gold’ waiting for you,  there are plenty of ways to get discounted or free business services.

You might also look into alternative ways of financing your business such as credit unions if you are looking for relatively small amounts of money.

One of the most interesting ways to raise finance recently has become crowdfunding. It can be great if you are looking for extra funds to attend a trade show or organise an exhibition, to publish your own book (some great examples of illustrators and designers who have done that), and also to create a small batch produced product (ceramicists, product designers, and furniture designers have done really well in this area). There are various crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. 

The Design Trust are big fans of crowdfunding as a great opportunity to get money in, but also as a practical market research exercise to see who is interested in what you do. We have run two successful crowdfunding campaigns to raise funding for our Dream Plan Do journals in the past, raising over £18,000 in one day! You can read here a great interview with textiles artist Angie Parker on her experience with crowdfunding through the MADE.com lab project.

If you are looking for funding for equipment, then I suggest that you look at other ways of getting the equipment you need, as funding for this is very hard to get. Look at leasing your equipment (e.g. laptop) from the supplier whereby you rent the equipment and pay a monthly payment with interest. You won’t own the equipment, but very often any technical issues and updates are included. Alternatively look at buying second hand (although make sure that warranties are valid!), look at renting a studio that includes some of your equipment already (e.g. colleges are very often useful for that too), or check out a sharing site such as Ecomodo.

Did you find this blog post with our recommended funding for creative businesses useful? Then do ‘like’ it and share it with others on social media too.

Did we miss any additional funding for creative businesses and projects that you would like to share with others? Please let us know in the comments box below or do tag us on social media.

“Should I have more than one brand?”

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Dear Design Doctor

I am a ceramicist and love making large, expensive art pieces, but unfortunately, they don’t sell very well (yet). I am working on my profile but it takes time. I have approached galleries and hope to show at CAF, but in the meantime, I have had to create a collection of more affordable vessels, bowls, and vases, which is selling much better.

But should I create more than one brand to avoid confusion? I really don’t want my luxury collectors to see my more commercial, lower-priced range. What would you do?

Crafts Magazine March April 2017 cover

Patricia van den Akker, Director of The Design Trust, answered this question as The Design Doctor in Crafts Magazine March/April 2017 on page 32, where it was called ‘Spinning two plates at once’. Although this article is now a few years old, we think it’s still very relevant, as many creatives struggle with this question.

“Considering having more than one brand is a common dilemma for many craftspeople.

The simple answer is that if your client groups, positioning, pricing, and materials are similar then it’s best to stick to one creative brand or business. Then you are really able to focus on what you want to be known for, develop your niche and particular talent, and you will understand your ideal clients better, which will make it easier to attract them and sell to them.

But it isn’t always that easy of course!

There might be a (big) difference in ‘purpose’ and price level between your pieces and the type of clients who can afford that.

Other creatives work with very different materials or themes, and their work doesn’t look like it comes from the same person. One of my previous clients creates very socially engaged, large pieces of fine art under her own name, that don’t sell very well. She ‘subsidises’ this part of her work with a range of highly commercial giftware products that sell very well on Not On The High Street. She presents these under a brand name, as she doesn’t want some of her friends to know how commercial she is!

The challenge obviously is that if you want to create and maintain more than one brand then you will have double the work!

In fact you would be running two businesses in terms of marketing, maintaining your website and database, attracting traffic, your social media networks etc.

For many creatives running one business is already a juggle, and with two brands that becomes even more complicated. It’s up to you to decide if that’s worth it and if you are able to manage both.

Therefore I would dig a little deeper to really understand why you want to create these two different ranges.

You say it’s about the price level and increased potential of sales.

But is having more than one brand also about other motivations?

What does having more than one brand offer you, as opposed to choosing a more focused approach?

Do you want the freedom to create for a broader audience and make lots of different types of pieces, from art pieces to functional work?

Is your default position to sell at the top end and to galleries, as that’s what most graduates consider ‘success’, or is this something that you really want to do?

What do YOU want to create?

What impact do you want your work to have?

Who do YOU really love to create for?

Where do you want to see your work shown in a couple of years’ time? And have you got the marketing skills, confidence, and patience to make it work – whatever option you would go for?

Lots of deep questions there for you to work on to help you make the right decision on the direction of your ceramic career.

How can you make a clearer distinction between the two brands?

For example could you …

  • Get more selective about which ceramics you show to whom and when.
  • Show your high-end art pieces at shows like CAF, and your lower range at a good Christmas craft show.
  • Present your functional range mainly to shops and galleries, and the higher end to collectors and the top of the market.
  • Create a separate ‘shop’ category on your website with prices, and a ‘commissions’ category that explains your process more and ‘price on application’.

Also within your collections, you can still have a range of price levels, to encourage up-selling and showing diversity:

  • Individual ceramics are now often sold in small groups. Your display of smaller and larger pieces, in combination with some “wow pieces”, can make all the difference. Really show off your talent and ambition in your work and presentation, to build your profile (and the higher price tag!), to attract clients and to get collectors coming back again and again – both at the lower and at the higher end.
  • Also be aware that functional pieces have a lower value than most ‘art’ pieces, and you can play with this notion of “what is art?” and “what is functional?” beautifully in ceramics.

Get creative! Not just with your ceramic products but how and where you present them, your marketing, photography and social media.

But make sure that you keep a distinction between the two sides of your work as you will end up in the middle of the market, which is a very tough place to be right now. It’s full of struggling ceramicists, who are often too expensive and competing with the High Street on one end, but too lowly priced for serious collectors and the top galleries.

Do your maths (how many ceramics at what price level do you need to sell each year?) and then position yourself correctly.

Whatever direction you choose … work out what will work best for you and your clients.

What do YOU want to be known for?

WHO do you want to work for and with?

Choose wisely and with the longer term in mind. Continue to connect with ‘your’ clients with consistent and the right kind of work and marketing to build your reputation and business, step-by-step.”

Have you considered having more than one brand? Why? Did this article help you find a solution to your challenge? We would love to hear from you in the comments box below.

“How much stock to take to a craft fair?”

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Dear Design Doctor

I’m doing my first major event and I’m wondering how much stock to take to a craft fair? It’s not just about storage problems, but mostly about how much I should make in advance. Plus I don’t want to take too much home again either! Any help greatly appreciated.

The Design Doctor for this real life question is Patricia van den Akker, Director of The Design Trust:

‘This is a very popular question and I have seen some creative business advisers share ‘formulas’ to calculate how much stock to take to a craft fair, but to be honest this is a kind of ‘How long is a piece of string?’ question. The answer will depend on …

  • How much stock you have got
  • Your sale and order predictions
  • Your profile and brand recognition
  • How much marketing you will do and to whom
  • How many visitors and buyers there will be, and if they buy or browse
  • What kind of fair it is e.g. trade or consumer
  • How much space you have got
  • The price level of your stock
  • How you want to position yourself: giftware or luxury?
  • The quality and desirability of your work
  • When the show takes place
  • The weather (!)

Of course, if you bring too much stock to a craft fair then it can be a waste of time and money, and you might even break some of that work. Having to drag all leftover stock back to your car after the event when you are tired, perhaps up long stairs after a quiet show, can be pretty depressing …

But if you bring too little stock or the wrong stock then you might regret it and blame yourself for not making the right choices.

Loco Glass with the Gloucestershire Guild at The Gardens Gallery Show
Loco Glass with the Gloucestershire Guild at The Gardens Gallery Show

These 5 practical tips will help you decide how much stock to take to a craft fair:

Tip 1: Use your common sense & ask for advice

Don’t be afraid to talk to the organisers or more experienced exhibitors at the show what kind of sales you can expect and what last year’s bestsellers were at the show. Ask for specific advice about how much stock to take based on their experience of that particular show.

Think about what kind of products would really sell at that particular show. For example in the run up to Christmas, you can expect more sales of giftable items up to £70 for example, whilst people would be quite happy to wait or commission you if they come to an Open Studio event in the spring or summer.

Tip 2: Is it a trade or consumer show?

If it is a trade show then you only need to take one item of each as buyers will order from you and you will deliver later. Trade buyers normally expect delivery of orders within 2 – 4 weeks so make sure that you have some stock already available.

If they put in a very big order then you can negotiate longer lead times. If the trade show takes place in June and the orders are for Christmas then delivery in September would be expected. Want to find out more how to deal with larger trade orders? Read this blog post.

If it is a consumer show then most people would expect to be able to purchase on the spot or to pick purchases up on the last day of the show. For larger or more expensive items you can arrange delivery and even hang pieces if required (that’s a good way to build a relationship with your client and to provide excellent customer care! You might be surprised how many people are unable to hang a picture properly …)

Tip 3: Where do you position yourself in the market?

If you are selling higher-end craft or design products then a fairly minimal stand with only a few items that are well-lit, often works well. Do make sure it’s in line with your brand and add a bit of personality! Luxury stands and displays often use either white or dark colours, and look like a gallery or museum display.

A very common exhibition mistake I see is makers of high-end crafts who have got far too many pieces on display.

If you want to sell luxury goods then you need to focus on selecting only a couple of your very best pieces, and then display and light them very well.

And yes, you do need to be confident to pull this of!

If you sell higher-end aim to create a ‘scarcity’ mentality amongst your clientele.

Another ‘selling trick’ is to use ‘red dots’ to show that pieces have already sold. High profile exhibitors often have a waiting list of clients who are happy to wait to get their specially commissioned pieces.

REAL LIFE STORY: When I was part of the organising team of Chelsea Crafts Fair (back in the 1990’s!) some of the best-known ceramicists used the ‘red dot’ technique. And a well-known silver smith used to bring only 5 or 6 pieces and when they had sold he would arrange meetings with potential clients by appointment in his studio or their house a couple of weeks after the event. It worked really well for him to have a ‘waiting list’ because his clients would then want his work even more!

On the other end of the spectrum, some makers show loads of work. This can work really well if you are selling at a lower, giftware price level when it is common to show a lot of work in shops too.

However, most established successful exhibitors have got just enough stock but create well designed displays of pieces that work well together. They keep some stock ‘behind under wraps’ to share with visitors later during the event.

A very common mistake that new exhibitors make is thinking they need much more stock than they actually do.

You might make a lot of work in advance, but then become selective with what you actually show and how you show it.

If you show all the work that you have produced then it very often comes across as a little chaotic. Also, it’s very common that at the start of your career you are still developing your style and niche, and therefore your work might be more eclectic. Create collections with similarities in style and colour, and display them separately.

Otherwise, it’s really hard for potential clients to see what you are about, what your style or story is, and what you want to be known for.

Really think about the first impression you want to give to visitors, how you will stand out and be memorable at events that are visually very busy. Get creative with your display!

Tip 4: Use your space creatively but effectively.

To attract your ideal clients to your stand add colour or fix beautiful, large images on your walls. Showing image of what inspires you can be very attractive too, especially for jewellers who make very small items and need something eye-catching to draw their ideal clients in. I regularly work with Scottish designers who share images of their local landscape or nature, which attracts the right kind of client and then start a memorable conversation.

Putting relevant pieces together as a collection and lighting them well is really effective. Think about what else you need on your stand, for example, storage for stationery or cash, or a stool to sit on. Use different surfaces to put items on, and use the walls effectively. You can read my article about what to bring to a craft fair here.

Have some extra stock available on your stand or easily accessible. You can always replenish while the show is on. In fact, many exhibitors like to improve on (or fiddle with?) their display in the quieter moments of a show.

Tip 5: And it is not necessarily a bad thing if you run out of stock.

Having loads of ‘red dots’ on your stand is pretty good (having loads of ‘gaps with nothing in them’ isn’t that great so rearrange your display).

It depends on how you follow up with your client if you can turn their interest into a sale or commission.

Ask your clients what they are looking for and suggest another piece instead.

Get it out of storage especially for them (it will make them feel really cared for!).

Or share your website and suggest some pieces there. If they purchase on the spot you can offer them free postage & packaging as a special offer.

The reality is … you will never get this stock Dilemma entirely right.

Even established exhibitors get it ‘wrong’ sometimes.

But if you do your research in advance, you respond with alternatives, follow up where necessary and learn from your ‘mistakes‘ for future shows, then you will get closer and closer to predicting what your clients want. And how much stock to take to a craft fair next time!

All the best with your first show. Happy selling, and happy learning!’

Are you an experienced exhibitor? How do you predict how much stock you take to a craft fair? Share your comments or suggestions below in the comment box.

“Why do shops and galleries charge so much commission?”

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Dear Design Doctor

‘I’m an embroidery designer. I’ve been a freelancer working in fashion and interiors for about 15 years, I have recently started to create and sell my own designs and work. I sell to a London shop who puts their 250% mark up, which makes my work very expensive. And if I sell online on my own site do I have to sell at their retail prices?’

This question is answered by Patricia van den Akker, the Director of The Design Trust:

‘You are not the only creative wondering why shops and galleries charge so much commission! This is a very popular question and many (especially) new creatives often struggle with this.

To be honest a mark up or commission of 250% or 2.5 is very standard for galleries and retailers, and not that expensive after all. Some retailers might charge less (200%) while others a bit more (300%).

What does this mean? If you sell something to a retailer then they will add their commission rate to calculate the retail price. For example if you sell a shop buyer an embroidered cushion at £80 then they will charge anywhere between £160,- and £240,- for that cushion in their shop. Most likely they will sell your cushion for £195, and yes this means that you will also need to sell it around that price on your own website or at an event.

If you want to find out more about the different price terms and how these calculations work then click here for a practical blog post.

If you want to find out how to calculate your own cost price, and from that the trade/wholesale price and retail price then click here.

So why do shops and galleries charge so much commission?

This commission rate has been in place for a long time and is not something that you can really change because it is based on what retailers need to charge to cover their own cost. The reality is that if they sell something in their shop for say £100, then they have to pay the following:

  • roughly 45% goes to you the creative supplier
  • 20% or £20 goes to the VAT man in tax
  • 15% goes to business rates and rent/mortgage
  • 15% goes to staff costs
  • which means less than 5% profit!

So, no: shops and galleries aren’t raking it in! They do need to add this commission to make sure that they cover their high (overhead) costs!

What to do if you are too expensive to sell to shops and galleries?

Don’t make the mistake to undercut your potential stockists and sell your products at a rate far below that they have to charge to cover their costs! It’s the quickest way to being thrown out by your gallery or shop. Read this gallery’s perspective of what happened when a jeweller undercut her.

It is actually one of the major challenges for many new creatives to start selling wholesale because of this impact of the retailer’s markup. My advice often is that as a new maker you’ll need to focus in the first 2-3 years mostly on selling direct to consumers rather than to retailers. Build your profile and credibility, create a brand, and focus on selling at hand-picked events that are right for you and build an online presence, driving traffic to your website through regular emails and social media. Learn at a smaller scale with consumers first before going to potential stockists. And yes, that might be harder work but it will pay off.

You might consider selling to some shops that would give you increased profile for a lower profit margin for yourself, or you might consider selling only certain products for wholesale to begin with – if this makes financial sense and you use this as an investment in the future. But this is not a long term option!

Or you might consider creating and selling a collection specifically for wholesale, with these price levels in mind before you start designing.

And as you are working in textiles you also might want to consider approaching interior designers as trade clients. They often work with embroidery designers like you but they would charge a lower commission rate than a retailer has to charge. If you build up a good reputation and approach them directly you can really increase your trade orders!

Don’t despair – Your time will come, and you will learn potentially loads from the feedback you get from consumers!

Avoid these common newbie retail pricing mistakes

It is crucial that you understand how these retailer’s margins and wholesale price calculations work.

If you don’t then you will simply not be able to sell to retailers, and also it will really show that you don’t understand how business is done, which will damage your potential reputation and credibility.

Recently I noticed a new designer who I had been working with at Top Drawer, the giftware & jewellery trade show, who had a price list with a wholesale price of £60 and a RRP of £90. Any retailer would have known straight away that she didn’t know how these margins work, and would not have bought from her. Very damaging for her reputation.

Be aware that you can’t dictate what the retailer will charge.

Once they have bought from you, they can do whatever they like with it (more or less). You can provide them with a Recommended Retail Price list (RRP) but they can charge far more or far less (e.g. in a sale period) if they want to.

It might mean that there is a slight difference between the retail prices that consumers will pay between a shop in Sheffield and one in Penzance, but that doesn’t matter. Also, if your retailer would purchase a larger order then they might want to get a discount on their trade order too.

One of my clients got in touch with me in a bit of a panic because one of her stockists was selling her ceramics at a markup of 300% and she wondered if she had to increase her retail prices too? I checked with her that she had followed the principle of the 2.5 markup and she had. So indeed clever consumers could buy directly from her website, which would be cheaper than from this larger online retailer!

However, I did say to her that as this trade client was obviously being able to sell at this higher price level (as they were buying from her regularly!) it might actually be a sign for her to increase her prices too!

Don’t get cross with retailers about these margins.

The rate of 2.5 or 250% is standard across all creative retail businesses. Retailers have far higher costs than you have and need this to cover their costs!

I fairly regularly see people getting cross on social media about these rates. It might get you a few supportive comments from your friends, but most retailers and professional designers and makers will realise that you don’t know how business works. Not recommended for your credibility.

Having said that, you can always negotiate!

Especially if your are selling on a Sale or Return basis, or if you item is relatively expensive, then you can negotiate a lower commission rate.

Also, see what you actually will get in return for your commission rate. Some galleries or shops are great to increase your profile. And if a gallery or independent retailer is doing a great job in promoting you as a designer, maybe putting on a special display with your work, including you in newsletters or even organising a Private View or solo exhibition then the commission will often be worth it! Discuss with them what to expect in sales and marketing, and how you can work together.

Selling on the High Street is a challenge right now as we all know. Work together with your stockists and retailers, you need to be a team. Get feedback regularly, show them how to display your work at their best, educate them on your way of working and your interests, so that they can tell their customers.’

Did you wonder why shops and galleries charge so much commission? Has this blog post explained the situation to you and have you found a practical way forward for your own situation? If this blog post helped you then please share it with others who might find it useful too. If you have got further questions then post them in the comments box.

Confused about cost price, wholesale price, retail price? Price terminology easily explained for creatives

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Do you struggle to understand the difference between cost price, wholesale price, retail price, consumer price, trade price, …?

You are not the only creative struggling with pricing terminology!

In this practical blog post, Patricia van den Akker (The Design Trust’s Director) explains what the cost price, wholesale price, retail price, and consumer price actually mean, how to calculate them and how they work.

These are the different price terms that trade buyers refer to and it is essential that you as a creative know exactly which price term to use, otherwise your professionalism and credibility will take a big hit!

The cost price

This is your own calculation of how much it costs you to actually produce one of your (craft) products or art pieces.

This is the first step in identifying the costs that you need to cover and to help you price your creative products.

The cost price will cover your time x hourly rate, your material, and marketing costs, but also overheads such as studio rent, telephone, and transport.

If you are a designer maker or other creative professional and you want to learn how to calculate your cost price in 7 easy steps, then click here.

Keep your cost price confidential. Do not share with others (including your retailers or competitors!) It’s nobody’s business how much you want to earn or what your annual costs or overheads are.

Trade or wholesale price

This is the price you charge to trade buyers (e.g galleries or shop owners) so that they can sell your creative products in their shop or gallery.

You calculate your trade or wholesale price based on your cost price. As a guideline, this is around 2 x your cost price, but your actual trade or wholesale price depends on:

  • If your cost price is relatively high (more than £100 per item) then you decrease this percentage. For example, if your cost price is £150, then your trade/wholesale price would be around £250.
  • If you are very new then you will probably take more time to create products you can sell, therefore you can’t double your cost price as it would be too much. But be aware that this will cut into your income!
  • If you sell most of your stock then you can increase your percentage. Doubling your cost price to get to your trade price will help you to cover for the amount of unsold stock so that you still reach a decent turnover. If you are selling most of your stock then that might be a sign that you are actually too cheap (!) and also by increasing your prices you can actually earn more money or you can produce less but still earn the same amount.
  • If you only sell to consumers (and not to trade at all) then you can increase this profit percentage too, because this is your ‘final price’ that you sell online or at events to consumers for. There won’t be any additional commission added by a retailer and therefore your price point might be lower than other creatives who sell wholesale (see below).

Remember that calculating your trade or wholesale price is up to you, and that you can decide what profit margin to use.

Share your trade price or wholesale price with your retailers only, e.g. publish a trade price list in a wholesale catalogue or you send one out to a gallery or shop. Do NOT share this list with the general public or with the media (they might accidentally publish the wrong price!)

(Recommended) Retail price

This is the price that a consumer pays, and which is displayed on your website or on an event’s price list. This is the same or approximate price that retailers charge to consumers.

The retail price is normally around 2 to 3 x the trade or wholesale price, depending on the mark up of the retailer.

It’s best practice to charge around 2.5 and this has been the case for many decades.

So, for example, if your cost price is £20, then your trade/wholesale price is £40 (what you sell it for to a stockist, see above), then your recommended retail price is between £80 and £120 (what a consumer pays online or in a shop).

Do you think that these markups by retailers are excessive?

Please note that the retailer really needs this mark up to cover their own higher overheads such as the shop rent, taxes, business rates, and staff.

Do not undercut a retailer, as they will very quickly stop buying work from you! You can read this blog post from a gallery owner about what happened when a jeweller undercut them.

Some retailers might charge less and others might charge more! Why is that? Retailers who charge a rate of around 200% are more likely to be smaller retailers, away from larger city centres, with lower rental costs, who use family members to work with them, and who are not likely VAT registered. Retailers who charge a higher rate of around 300% are more likely based in London, where costs are higher for their space and staff. They also probably have clients who can afford to spend more.

Be very aware that the consumer will always pay more or less the same price, but that your trade price can fluctuate.

What do you do if your stockists charge different amounts? If your trade clients buy from you there is actually very little you can do about dictating what they charge! You can give them a recommended price, but indeed it’s recommendation only! If you keep to the advice of calculating your own retail price at 2.5 x the wholesale price then you are always safe. It doesn’t overly matter if a gallery in the north of England would charge say 10% less than your boutique in south-east London because it will be rare that their audience overlaps.

If your trade client places a very large order from you then they would probably expect to pay less per unit anyway! To find out more about what to do if you get a large trade order click here.

 

What about trade discounts?

Great question! If you are selling to trade buyers who buy regularly from you, or order larger quantities, but aren’t buying for a shop (e.g. a public art consultancy or an interior designer) then I suggest you offer them a trade discount.

This trade discount is often around 20% – 30% off the retail price, so sits between the trade and retail price. Depending on the quantities and your negotiations this can vary.

Did you find this blog post about cost price, wholesale price, retail price, and trade discounts useful? Please share it with others on your social media. If you have got any further questions or comments then do let us know in the comments box below.

How do you calculate your freelance design rate?

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Dear Design Doctor

I am a new freelance web designer and need to know how much I can charge for my daily or hourly rate. Do I just charge what others are charging, or is there another way? How do you calculate your freelance design rate?

The Design Doctor is Patricia van den Akker, Director of The Design Trust who answered this popular question on how to calculate your hourly or daily design rate:

“Web design is a very competitive area to work in and very often the price is set by your employer or the recruitment agency you work for. Your daily or hourly freelance design rate depends on:

  • What experience you have for the job and how unique your skill set is
  • Where the work is e.g. London pays higher hourly rates
  • How long the work is for: if the work is for a longer period then often the daily rate goes down
  • The market rate. What are others charging? How competitive is the job?
  • When the work takes place. Night or weekend work gets a higher rate, or if there is an emergency job to be done
  • Your ability to negotiate

As a web designer, you might like to check out in particular ‘value-based pricing’ where you look at how much financial value you add with your work.  For example, if you can show that your web design has increased a previous clients’ turnover by 25% then you can charge a higher rate than if your design has had no or little-proven value.

There are three steps in calculating your freelance design rate:

Step 1: Identify your annual business costs

Firstly, identify how much you spend annually on your business: what are your annual overheads and other costs?

You might need to go through your previous years’ bills to get the facts. Don’t forget to include your phone, travel, insurance, work space, materials, and marketing costs.

As a freelance designer, your business costs will be much lower in comparison to people who run a product-based business, who have stock and require a studio.

Let’s say for this web designer who works from home or his client’s offices the total annual business costs are £ 3,500 p.a.

Then identify how much you would like as a salary.

Be aware that you will need to deduct tax and National Insurance in the UK, so let’s say that you would like to earn £27,000. (This figure very much depends on where you are and what seniority you hope to get within the business).

So this web designer would need to earn £30,500 to cover their annual overhead costs (personal and business costs = £3.5K + £27K).

Step 2: How many hours can you invoice for?

This is tricky! You will need to have holidays (we all do!) and you might get ill. You will need to spend time on admin and marketing too.

And then there are slow periods in the year such as Christmas or the summer holidays (although you might actually get booked for that to cover employees’ holidays!)

As a web designer, you might get fairly regular bookings with the same business clients for a longer period, so I would expect something like 60 – 70% of your hours to be billable throughout the year.

If you are a recent graduate then I would expect your billable hours to be far lower, and if you work in other design sectors it would also be harder to find regular repeat business, so then you might be looking at 25 – 40%. This means that you get paid on average for only 1 – 2 days per week, other days you might work but don’t get paid for it.

My suggestion is to be on the cautious side with the number of days or hours you will be able to invoice for.

So I would expect you to have something like the following annual billable hours:

48 weeks x 40hours x 60% = 1,152 hours p.a.

Step 3: Calculate your freelance design rate

Now divide your total annual business costs (step 1) by your total hours invoiced (step 2) and you’ll get your hourly or daily freelance rate that you need to charge to break even:

In our case that is £30,500/1,152 = £28 p.h. or £212 p.d. for an 8-hour day.

And that’s it! That’s how you calculate your freelance design rate.

Does that hourly freelance rate look high to you?

A couple of notes:

  • You might be earning a far lower hourly rate than this in a PAYE job, but remember that this is an hourly freelance rate from which your tax, National Insurance, and all expenses will be deducted.
  • Also be aware that you actually need to get the work to get this hourly rate! If your billable hours are far less than anticipated then your annual income will decrease dramatically. However, when you become better known with potential clients or employers your billable hours’ percentage should naturally increase due to repeat work, which means that your annual income will increase without having to change your hourly rate!
  • Your actual daily or hourly rate will depend on a variety of factors, incl. market, your expertise and experience, total work involved, and budget.
  • Be flexible with your daily or hourly rate. For long-term fixed contracts decrease your hourly rate in return for a more steady stream of billable hours. Longer term (part-time or full-time) contracts provide stability and increase your % of billable hours in the year. Be prepared to negotiate about your daily or weekly freelance design rate.
  • Get it in writing. Make sure that you get your hourly or daily rate confirmed in writing or in a contract.
May Pinterest Article How to Calculate and Set Freelance Rates
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Did you find this blog post about how to calculate your hourly or daily freelance design rate helpful? Then do let others know on your social media or ‘like’ it. If you have got any feedback or comments then please let us know in the comments box below.

“Help, a jeweller is undercutting us”. A gallery owner’s perspective

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Dear The Design Trust 

I run a successful gallery and I want to share something with you.

I recently discovered that one of our jewellery designers is selling her own work via her own website at only a few pounds above her wholesale price, which is obviously a lot lower than what we are charging for her work in our gallery. We have tried to speak with her on the phone but she will only respond by email.   

We are struggling to find the right tone to deal with this as she is a small business, but we are on the point of returning all her work.  She has loads of different outlets and all the pieces we can find online are selling at different prices.   

We asked her if she had a recommended retail price but she declined to answer. She has said it is ‘not her problem’ what other retailers charge for the work and she has indicated our mark up of x2.2 is excessive (50% from the retail plus VAT on our commission).    

I have thought about sending her a link to your pricing articles but I know she will respond badly.  Any tips?

Patricia van den Akker The Design Trust portrait

This real-life question is answered by Patricia van den Akker, Director of The Design Trust:

‘Thank you so much for your email. It’s great to hear this story from a gallery’s perspective, as so often we only get to hear the maker’s perspective.

I don’t blame you for wanting to stop working with her.

This jeweller sounds very unprofessional in my opinion, as she doesn’t seem to want to learn or listen, doesn’t take responsibility for her actions, and is obviously underselling her work. I think you have tried your best here and have shown a lot of care and patience.

And no … your commission rate of 2.2 is NOT excessive!

It’s best practice for galleries to charge between 200 – 300% commission on a wholesale price to calculate their retail price.

No, gallery owners are not ‘raking it in’. It’s what galleries need to charge to cover their high costs; to pay for their overheads (including rent, staff, insurance, business rates, VAT). Think about it this way: If a shop sells something for £100, then around:

  • 40% or £40 goes to you the creative supplier
  • 20% is VAT, which goes directly to HMRC
  • about 20% is mortgage/rent and business rates
  • about 25% is staff costs
  • so that leaves less than 5% profit!

If you want to learn more about why galleries and shops charge high commission then click here. 

What retail price should makers be charging?

Ideally, a maker’s retail price would be more or less the same regardless of where they sell: their products need to be at a similar price level on their website or online shops, as it does in retail outlets and galleries.

However, there can be a little bit of fluctuation (say 10%) or so, and some retailers might have to charge much more (especially London-based ones because their space and staff costs are higher!) and a maker can charge a little less (for example at an Open Studio, or to compensate for additional postage costs).

But charging very similar price levels to both retailers and consumers (as this jeweller is doing) is not correct. It’s simply not sustainable.

The retailer HAS to charge their commission on top and therefore would be 250% more expensive than the maker’s prices.

It’s a very common challenge for new makers that their work is too expensive to sell via retailers and galleries in the first couple of years, due to this mark up. 

Indeed that’s the reason that I often recommend that new creatives do not sell to retailers in the first couple of years because their prices simply won’t stack up. If you want to learn more about what to do if your work is too expensive then read this blog post.

Makers at the start of their business career should focus on being creative about how and where they sell and find alternative ways to sell their work in larger quantities. For example by:

  • Focusing on online retailers rather than bricks and mortar shops because they often can charge less commission (as the overheads of online retailers are far lower!). See our list of online retailers here.
  • Selling to interior designers as they are a good ‘middleman’ to get started with. They hopefully will order more and more regularly, but at lower quantities and they would be expecting a trade discount rather than wholesale prices.
  • Doing more marketing and selling to get started. Focusing mostly on selling directly to consumers in the first couple of years e.g. through craft fairs, selling events, their own site, ‘Tupperware parties’ etc. A big advantage of this is that makers’ profit margins can be higher (between the anticipated wholesale price and anticipated retail price) then when makers are only selling direct to consumers.
  • Negotiating a better commission rate with retailers. For example: if makers are selling on a sale or return basis, or if the gallery or online shop is very new.

I hope this is a lesson for other creatives on what will happen if you are unprofessional and undersell to galleries:

  • You will lose trade clients rapidly (and they are very unlikely to come back to you – ever)
  • You will very likely get a bad reputation (with both trade and other designer-makers)
  • You are not supporting galleries, who continue to play a crucial role in introducing new & existing audiences to crafts
  • You are actually undercutting the sector as a whole’

(Postscript: The gallery contacted me after this correspondence, and indeed they dropped this jeweller. They were very upset to have to do this, but felt that they could no longer work with her.)

Are you a gallery or shop owner? Have you got similar issues like the one described above?

Are you a maker who sees other designer makers undersell their work? Do you think that galleries and shops don’t do enough to earn their commission?

Feel free to add your own experience below in the comments box.