Read outside your business

There are so many good reasons to feed your mind with reading material outside of your specific business activities as well as outside of the world of business in general. The potential for inspiration when changing the usual patterns of your thinking can be limitless. I once went on a course with the Cultural Leadership Programme and the pre-course homework was to watch The Magnificent Seven. In the film Chris, played by Yul Brynner, is tasked with pulling together the ultimate gun fighting team to help defend a village targeted by bandits. It’s a brilliant film and a great example of a particular style of leadership in action. We had fun at the course analysing the film in detail. More on a selection of films that might shed light on how you do business coming soon.

Meanwhile there is a lot to be gleaned from the following book titles – just some of our favourites that we will be drawing your attention to over the next few weeks for your reading pleasure.

-The Salaried Masses, Siegfried Kracauer – it’ll remind you why you don’t want to be an employee

- The Years With Ross, James Thurber (a book about the editor of the New Yorker Harold Ross, about how all these creatives worked together)

- First You Have To Row a Little Boat, Richard Bode

- Flatland, Edwin A Abbott

- Rock’n’Roll, Tom Stoppard

- I Don’t Mean To Be Rude But, Simon Cowell

- Murder in Samarkand, Craig Murray

More suggestions coming soon…feel free to suggest your own in the comments below.

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Barbara Schmidt – Jewellery Books

“Jewellery is a media for communication” states Barbara Schmidt on her website www.barbara-schmidt-schmuck.de – specifically Barbara is interested in the sending of jewellery as gifts disguised inside books or on a postcard.

We love the ingenuity behind the Guardian Angel Book and Monthrings – within the pages of the books that can be sent out as gifts or purchased as a unique treat, are versatile and fun rings by assorted international jewellery designers. In a Monthrings book there are 12 rings, a ring for each month of the year – how fabulous!

The Postcardrings appeal to the more DIY jewellery wearers among us as they are sent through the post in an envelope and ‘awoken to life through the receiver’ – that would be a great bit of mail to receive on your doormat.

With these product ideas we love the innovation and combination of book and product design with good-looking functional jewellery.

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Facebook for Fashion

Over the last few weeks we’ve been talking to quite a few fashion folks including the brilliant Not Just a Label and Fashion Angel teams. Part of this discussion has been around how fashion designers are starting to use facebook as the place to publish a new collection and as a means to acquire new and international clients. This was something we first came across in Beirut when visiting the studios of Lara Khoury and Ronald.

Ronald’s latest S/S ’12 collection was launched on facebook a few weeks ago and Lara has been shipping to clients across the Middle East for some time now as a result of releasing her Gluttony collection to facebook. We’re wondering if this is a trend in the sales routes for young and emerging designers? Or perhaps it is simply a way to connect to those markets where women have less freedom to travel but have the money to spend such as Saudi Arabia?

Facebook is already used by brands large and small as a marketing tool and a means of interacting with customers and with the likes of tweetdeck and hootsuite it is possible to manage your messaging through multiple channels very easily. The question is, is facebook a serious sales channel?

We don’t know, do you?

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How many measures of cultural value can you think of?

This is the challenge released by Dr Claire Donovan on the DCMS Blog series called Priceless? in the post Bring out your measures.

Claire at DCMS wants to hear about and learn from your experience of measuring or capturing cultural value in order to share best practice in the sector and create a list of 100 ways to measure cultural value. It seems its for a similar purpose albeit different approach to the Arts Council‘s recently launched tender to develop accessible and practical guidance on the best research methodologies to use when measuring the economic footprint of the arts, museums and libraries sector.

Here are the measures that Claire is starting the sector off with:

“I will start the ball rolling by listing some methods Phase One of ‘Measuring Cultural Value’ recommended that DCMS could use.

1. Contingent valuation/stated preference techniques
2. Travel cost/willingness to pay
3. Subjective wellbeing”

Between DCMS and Arts Council I expect the list will reach the thousands during the research into various studies and approaches.

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Getting ahead money

Getting ahead money is an article by Tim Conley for his website Foolish Adventure – a site all about starting and growing a successful online business.

There’s some good advice on how you might want to approach your finances. What do you need to make to pay the bills and make payments each month? How much extra do you want to earn to give yourself a bit of breathing space?

Tim says, “Don’t look for passive income promises…If you want to make a lot of money fast, then you must learn to solve tough problems for others.”

A lot of the advice is about building on your expertise, honing your skills to improve your service each time and start to charge your clients based on your success. When you know you are good your fees should reflect this.

Some food for thought for freelancing artists can also be found in Greg Klerkx’s recent article Price tag for Arts Professional where Greg mentions the current predicament facing artists on what they are prepared to work for and ask for in the climate we are facing at the moment.

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Summary of Friday’s Live Chat – Beyond the five year plan

On Friday we took part in a Live chat on the Guardian Culture Professionals Network site, Beyond the five year plan: future proofing your arts organisation.

Sarah Thelwall chatted online with culture professionals who logged in to pose questions to a panel including Alex Homfray Director BOP Consulting, Mark Robinson Director of Thinking Practice and author of Making Adaptive Resilience Real, Keith Evans Managing Director of CIDA Co, Annette Mees Co-Director of Coney and Andrew Erskine Senior Associate at Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy.

The discussion on future-proofing began with a question about how organisations can get their Board members working harder for them on helping to secure funding and partnerships. All were agreed that in the current climate organisations should be driving their Board to perform and make an impact after firstly assessing whether there are the best match of skills covered by those on the Board. In response Andrew Erskine mentioned Arts & Business and their Board Services resource and Alex Homfray referred to The Clore Leadership Programme and the work they do around auditing Board dynamics.

Sarah went straight to the facts and figures in her recommendation for making your Board work harder by suggesting individuals on the Board are given responsibility for a specific area of income generation – this means organisations need to clearly break down their income into types and discuss at the Board meeting which income types each Board member is going to tackle.

There’s a very brief summary of some of the other topics discussed below. There will be a link to the Guardian’s summary of the chat shortly:

Networks

The power contained within the networks of your Board members should not be underestimated. Map out who they know as an activity at one of your Board meetings – what can be built upon?, where are there gaps in connections?

Often there are interesting discussions to be had with people outside your sector and in other networks that meet. Attend a few different sessions with other groups of professionals that meet and see if after a few of these you come away with any new insights for your organisation.

Shaping the future – what are your goals, what is coming up?, where are the gaps?

In terms of strategically planning for the future panelists discussed benchmarking against peers as a growing necessity in the sector. We were very happy to hear this, it would be great if everyone was using tools such as Culture Benchmark to shape and plan for their future. We know how brilliant this type of thinking and analysis can be!

Trend watching is not going to help your organisation in a general sense unless you relate it directly back to what your organisation does. Devising some metrics for your organisations specific business activities and resources needs would improve your planning for the future when analysing trends in the industry.

Data – not being afraid of what it might reveal

Panelists mentioned that the scrutiny of data is often neglected by many organisations due to their fear of what it might reveal.

Just a few of the resources and techniques mentioned:

Charity Commission – for reports on your peer organisations

Horizon scanning – technique for identifying the drivers of change in your organisation

NESTA’s 12 predictions for 2012

Series of articles by Patrick Hussey, Digital Campaigns Manager at Arts & Business on the impact of digital growth on culture

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Join in Live Chat at noon with Guardian Culture Professionals Network and us

Today Sarah Thelwall will be taking part in a Live Chat – Beyond the five year plan: future proofing your arts organisation with other arts experts on a panel brought together by Guardian Culture Professionals Network. She’ll be discussing how your arts venue, organisation or cultural career can be proofed for the future.

Join in with the proceedings at noon and you’ll be able to ask Sarah about practical tools you can make use of and some strategies to bear in mind.

Culture Professionals Network Live Chats

Join The Guardian each week with a panel of industry experts to share advice, insights, best practice and discuss the biggest issues facing arts and culture

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2012 – year of opportunity

Let 2012 be the year of opportunity (as well as the year of the dragon, the London Olympics, Alan Turing Year, year of the solar maximum when the Sun’s magnetic poles will reverse and not forgetting it is a Leap Year!)

Here are some of the opportunities we thought you might like to know about:

InBetween Time Productions seek two producers – Bristol based

Fierce Festival call for submissions for Pilot Night – Birmingham

Crafts Council opportunities

Nominations open for Arts & Business award 2012

Grand Union seek new Chair of the Board

Grand Union is an artist-led initiative that supports the development of artists and curators. Based in the Eastside district of Birmingham, it is a unique project that houses eight purpose built artist studios and a project space, providing a platform for a diverse and exciting programme of events and exhibitions and a vibrant working space for the best young contemporary artists in Birmingham.   They are looking for a new Chair for their Board with strong management experience and appreciation of contemporary art and working with young arts professionals.  The board meets once every three months for two hours in Birmingham.

If you would like further information about the vacancy, or would like to express an interest, please contact Cheryl Jones direct on email info@grand-union.org.uk, you can find out more about the organisation here: grand-union.org.uk

Get opportunities straight to your inbox from Arts admin e-digest

a-n: Jobs and opps

Turning Point Network – each region posts on opportunities and signposts to visual arts resources. Turning Point South West currently have a web development opportunity – deadline 30 January.

Artquest – January 2012 opportunities

jotta – opportunities page

We’re sure there are loads more coming up to – please post your links for January 2012 in the comments below.

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What influences national wellbeing?

The UK government is looking at what matters, at what will improve our lives and make life worthwhile. They want to know what influences national wellbeing.

In the article by Arts Professional, No mention of cultural activity in proposed measures of wellbeing, a possibility that cultural activity could be excluded from future statistical measures of quality of life is highlighted.

The Office for National Statistics who are leading on the National Well-Being project are encouraging those involved in the arts and cultural sector to make the case for including data on the impact that art has on wellbeing and social inclusion by responding to the consultation before 23 January. It takes 20 minutes to complete a response.

“This will give us the most comprehensive evidence possible on which we can base the further development of the Wellbeing programme,” says Paul Allin, Director of the project at the Office for National Statistics.

To respond to the consultation: Either download a consultation form here or respond online here. Find further information here .

Read Hilary Jennings’ article for Arts Professional ‘Measuring well-being – no place for the arts and culture?’

Last week on The Guardian blog for the Culture Professionals Network, Demos’s John Holden commented on this issue in his article New Year, new approach to wellbeing? and playwright David Edgar asked Why should we fund the arts?

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MyCake and My Accountant

MyCake and My Accountant – how they work together in practice

This is a post for the creative entrepreneurs out there who are working with an accountant or are considering doing so.

Before we look at the working relationship lets get clear on a few basics:

• An accountant is working for you not you for them … sounds daft but this means that the work they do for you needs to be delivered in a timely manner for your business to help your decision making. So you can reasonably ask them to agree with you the deadline by which your accounts will be delivered for example. You want to avoid simply being another folder in the pile that they get to when they are ready!

• You can choose what software you use for your business and should pick the right software for you not simply the software that the accountant prefers (because if everyone uses the same software it makes their lives easier)

• You can ask for the accounts to be presented to you in a way that aids your decision making … by this we mean that there are some things that you will need to know about your financials that are not required for a tax return e.g. monies spent on entertaining are not tax deductable if you are self-employed but you need to know what you spend nevertheless. So you should think about how you enter data into your book-keeping system so that it shows key areas of expenditure, spend on different projects/clients etc and whilst you should certainly seek the opinion of your accountant it is not about only doing what they ask for and not thinking further about it!

Ok, with that cleared up here’s an idea of how your working relationship with an accountant might run through a year and through the process of an annual return (company or individual).

a) At the start of the year it’s worth having a conversation with your accountant on the headings that you are allocating receipts to and any methods of separating out different types of business or clients. If you’ve been working with an accountant for a while you might find that they send you a letter with your previous year’s accounts suggesting tweaks to the way you do things or informing you about changes to tax and accounting rules that you need to be aware of and implement.

b) Once you’ve made these changes you should be able to run your book-keeping pretty smoothly through the year. Occasionally you might ring up for advice on how to categorise some income or expenses, to check if/how to charge VAT internationally etc.

c) If your income has been dramatically different from the previous year you might want to negotiate the amount you pay in tax as the interim payment in July. If your income has been lower then this means that you can reduce the payment in July which will make things easier on your cashflow. If your income has been higher then you should consider upping the payment in July so that the full burden doesn’t land in the following January. If you don’t increase the payment make sure you set the money aside!

d) You may choose to have your accountant as the registered point of contact with HMRC. This means that they will submit your individual tax return for you and will be the first point of call for any enquiries from HMRC. Doing it this way demonstrates to HMRC that you take tax matters seriously and that there is a professional who has an overview of your activities.

e) At the end of the year you will deliver the hard copies of invoices and receipts along with bank statements to your accountant and give them online access to your MyCake account. Their job is to check through the hard copies to make sure that they tally accurately with what’s in MyCake. You may have forgotten things like bank interest or the percentage to apply for ‘use of home’ or ‘use of car’. They will probably make use of the ability to reconcile your MyCake accounts with your bank statements. They’ll also check how expenses have been classified and may exclude some of these e.g. entertaining for tax purposes.

f) It’s also worth noting that the sooner you can send in the paperwork the sooner your accountant can get on with it. In a perfect world you would send in your accounts in early April and they’d complete them in time for you to adjust the July payment. Failing that you’re aiming for the January deadline. Clearly there is no point in trying to find an accountant in the latter part of the year … they will be at capacity in terms of commitments to existing clients and will be unlikely to agree to take on an additional set of accounts for completion by January.

g) Your accountant will provide a set of accounts for your records and will complete the tax return. You will be sent these to sign before they are submitted.

h) As your accountant processes your data (many will call you to say that they’re starting, if you haven’t heard from them by November call and find out where you are in their queue) they’ll probably call for clarification on some of the expenses or invoices so keep your cheque book stubs to hand and be ready to download copies of missing bank statements etc. If it is a large firm then their will be a pool of juniors who do much of the desk work to check the basics and they may not know the details of your business as well as your key point of contact. Be prepared to go over things more than once!

i) Lastly once it is all done and dusted they’ll be sending you an invoice and your files will be ready to collect. Do ask them for an hour of their time to discuss the state of your business with them and to talk about how you see the year ahead. They are a valuable source of advice for small businesses. Make the most of it!

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