BUSINESS PLAN WRITING FOR BEGINNERS by Janet Vaughan

It will probably be funders or bank managers that ask for it, but treat it as a document for you - and strangely enough it will be really useful: Writing a Business Plan is probably not the first thing that occurs to the average artist - until the Arts Council or the bank ask to see one - but putting a BP together can actually be a really useful, thought-provoking and ultimately focusing exercise for an artist or artists group. Whilst its very rare for any career in the arts to follow a path which might be recognised as conventional or logical, and that always makes planning three years ahead slightly difficult, I think it also makes it hard to keep sight of your ambitions and longer term goals because you're so busy with your work. It's difficult at first to realise you don't have to accept every bit of work you are offered, but that you will benefit from taking a little time out to get a strategic perspective on your career. [see also Making a Career Path Map] It doesn't have to be long/wordy/dull and full of jargon, but there will be certain sections that funders and bank managers will expect to see: There's no point spending loads of time putting together a BP which is solely for the bank or funders. They will obviously want to see that you have thought about what you are doing, that there is a logic to your plans and that your figures are realistic and add up, but most of these things will also be useful to you. Even more usefully for you, the BP is a sort of career/work handbook which lays out what you do and why you do it; what skills/areas of work you're most interested in developing; your targets in terms of work path and finances; how you plan to reach these targets; and an appraisal of your strengths and weaknesses. Suggested sections to include in your plan: 1. Introduction - who you are, what you do, how long you've been doing it 2. Your Philosophy - can be a mission statement (pithy); your key aims as an artist; your strategic objectives or targets (eg take part in 2 gallery shows a year; achieve a 20% year on year increase in commissions; find/finance your own studio space so that you can move out of your spare room; develop a long-term relationship with a particular school which focuses on developing a meaningful contemporary art experience for the young people there; study part time for a welding qualification etc etc) and what action you are going to take to achieve these. This doesn't necessarily need to be the complete masterplan, but just demonstrate/act as your checklist of how you'll go about achieving the things you want. 3. What partners/funders or collaborators you have; and which others you'd like to work with and are therefore going to approach. 4. How you are going to market and sell your work; who your audience is; if you want to develop your audience, how you are going to approach that. 5. Finances - how you are going to fund your work; what you predict your cashflow to be. 6. SWOT analysis - a list of your current Strengths (eg sold a lot of work in a recent show), Weaknesses (eg working at home with no dedicated workspace - in dire need of a studio), Opportunities (eg new links with local studio organisation) and Threats (eg work sales may diminish and make it difficult to keep up a new studio). 7. If you are part of a constituted group, you will also be expected to include a copy of your constitution, along with copies of your policies such as equal opportunities, health and safety, your artistic programme etc. You should also consider how the DDA will affect your work and premises (if you have some) [see http://www.disability.gov.uk/dda] 3 years is a long time and things change: Most BP's cover a three year period. Three years may seem like an impossibly long time to plan ahead in such an unpredictable career, but its worth doing because it allows you to be realistic (year 1), aspirational (year 2) and really blue-sky (year 3). It also means that if you have a fantastic idea for a huge project you'd really like to do, you can put it into year 3 but can make sure you allocate a useful bit of time to its development in years 1 and 2, rather than letting it drift because you're just too busy. Don't worry that things you put in (especially in year 3) will be circumspect and likely to change - this is always the case: perhaps the funding doesn't come through, timing just isn't right, the project changes or grows in scale and needs thinking about over a longer period... This won't worry your funders and bank manager - as long as you didn't put anything unrealistic in in the first place they will see you are responding to unforseen circumstances and taking opportunities that have arisen to develop your work, which everyone does. It is worth re-examining and updating the BP every year or couple of years - add in a review of how you are doing - what objectives you have achieved and what new ones you are proposing as your practice, partners and interests change. Presentation, distribution and saving time on writing applications: If you are going to be referring to your BP regularly (which you are!) there's no reason not to lay it out properly and include images. If you haven't been asked to write it, but have done it for yourself, you probably won't need to distribute lots of copies, but if you are going to be applying for funding, its as well to have copies to hand. You can use a copy to add weight to your application, but you'll also often find that the questions on the grant or loan form correspond to sections of your BP, so you can cut and paste, which will (usefully) save a lot of time on the application. Photocopying/printing and binding your plan can be quite expensive, so if you can make it into a PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) and distribute it on CD, you'll save money. Further info: http://www.artsadvice.com/business/planning/default.asp Janet has been involved in writing Business Plans for Talking Birds and Coventry Artspace.