London's School for Creative Start Ups

School for Creative Startups is a one-year programme for entrepreneurs in the creative industries - and it tackles the big obstacles facing creative entrepreneurs.

The programme’s part funded by local government, Westminster City Council, who have chipped in to help keep their own area competitive, as many of their creative businesses are moving East (to Shoreditch and the Silicon Roundabout). They’ve been smart, supporting a proven, existing programme with the edge to make a difference. There’s plenty of research to show that the big barriers to creative businesses are skills and access to finance. School for Creative Startups targets both.

School for Creative Startups from Doug Richard Limited on Vimeo.

It´s about the bottom line

First, it gives rigorous and hard-nosed business advice. This isn’t about lifestyles or creativity - it’s about the bottom line. And the man behind it highlights the financial focus - the programme is the inspiration of the serial entrepreneur and angel investor Doug Richard. Participants on his other programme (School for Startups) have been known to arrive on day one, have their business idea torn up by him. They have to sort one out the next day.

Second, he’s an experienced investor. He first came to the attention the UK public on the first series of Dragon’s Den, a TV show putting entrepreneurs in front of investors.

"Entrepreneurship can be learnt"

But his own Schools for Startups (he’s adapting an existing programme targeting all businesses) he has shown that, if not investing himself, he’s impressive at putting businesses in front of people that can. So it’s a focused programme with the teeth that creative businesses need. As founder Doug Richard says, "entrepreneurship is a teachable skill. It can be learnt".