What is the School for Creative Startups?

The School for Creative Startups (S4CS) is a year long programme designed to teach creative people of any age or experience level how to make a living from their craft. We’ve built the programme on the idea that it’s much easier (and a lot more fun) to teach creative people business skills than it is to teach business people to be creative.

Our curriculum is jargon free and very visual and interactive. I don’t know if we can make spreadsheets and business plans fun, but I know we can make them tolerable and understandable.

It’s really about demystifying seemingly complex business systems and arming tomorrow’s creative entrepreneurs with everything they need to become a sustainable and successful business.

What does S4CS teach you that you might not learn at a traditional art school or from a degree?

I used to work at a major arts university in London for five and half years, so I speak from experience when I say that UK universities have been late to the party in terms of embedding professional development within the curriculum. At S4CS we support our students as they actively realise their first year of business. Many of them come to us with little more than their creative skill and a dream to turn that into a business.

We help them discover their value proposition, teach them how to monetise and brand it, support them in building their business plan and funding models – the business basics. Knowledge really is power, and understanding how to run a business helps our students gain the confidence they need to do it themselves.

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