This year we are thrilled to host Patricia van den Akker from The Design Trust who will be running a bespoke workshop for Hotwalls and Portsmouth creatives at The Round Tower on Tuesday 1st July.
Spaces are LIMITED – so if you are interested please respond to us via email [hotwallsstudios@portsmouthcc.gov.uk]. Spaces will be offered on a first come first served basis.
Design A Better Creative Business – one day workshop with Patricia van den Akker of The Design Trust
Round Tower – Portsmouth | Tuesday 1 July | 10.30am – 3.30pm
Join creative business adviser Patricia van den Akker for a practical and thought-provoking one-day workshop designed to support artists, makers, and designers create a thriving, purposeful and creative business.
Cost: £30
This creative business planning workshop is centred around The Design Trust’s Creative Business Planner Handbook (included with your ticket!) and Patricia will guide you through some of its key exercises and questions. Throughout the day you will be setting your own goals and create plans to make your business or practice work better and easier – for yourself, your family, clients and beyond!
Whether you’ve had a studio for years or are still building your professional creative practice, you’ll leave this session with:
- Develop a clearer business vision based on your values & purpose, and set goals for your creativity & production, and your finances & marketing for the next 6–12 months in line with those. You will focus on what you want to create and do, and we will discuss the 5 motivations for creatives and how they apply to you.
- Do you find it hard to juggle the different parts of your business? To make enough time not just for the creative and making part, but also your marketing, finance, and general planning or forward thinking? Do you make the most of the quiet and busy times in your practice to get ready? Patricia will share her practical approach to seasonal and quarterly planning and time management for creatives. In the planner you will find many useful planning tools that you can use afterwards too.
- Is your creative business viable? Patricia will introduce the 3 financial question exercise, and what to do if your numbers do not stack up. Do you need to diversify, increase your price points or do more effective marketing? You will start to create a financial forecast too for the next 2-3 years to make your numbers work for you.
- Patricia will focus her marketing advice during this workshop on selling at events (as your open studios is coming up) and also how to get more commissions.
- There will be plenty of time for questions and learning together throughout the day.
Expect a day of lively conversation, practical planning and small business advice, and loads of quiet time too to reflect and work ON your own business ideas. You’ll be part of a friendly, focused group of up to 20 creatives. The aim of the day is that you’ll leave with new confidence, fresh business & marketing ideas, and a roadmap for what to focus on next in your business journey.
There will be a 30min lunch break, and you will receive the 107-page The Design Trust 2025 Business Planner & Handbook as part of this workshop.
About Patricia van den Akker
Patricia is an award-winning creative business coach, trainer and speaker who’s worked with thousands of creatives across the UK and beyond for over 20 years. She is the Director of The Design Trust (the online business school for designers, makers & other creatives) and the author of Teaching Creative Workshops In Person & Online. She’s known for her inspiring, honest and practical approach to creative business development. She’s passionate about empowering artists, makers and designers to build creative, impactful, meaningful and profitable businesses. www.thedesigntrust.co.uk @TheDesignTrust