Publishing details
HARRIMAN HOUSE LTD
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Website: www.harriman-house.com
First published in Great Britain in 2013.
Copyright © Sophie Jacobsen Family Trust 2013
The right of Michael Jacobsen to be identified as Author has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
9780857193216
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For Melvyn
About the author
Michael Jacobsen is an Australian-born serial entrepreneur, now based in Europe. He holds a Bachelor of Business degree from UTS in Sydney and a financial diploma from the Australian Securities Institute. He is active in UK and European business and is also an angel investor and business mentor to start ups, growth businesses and businesses in the creative sector, predominantly in the UK and Europe. He sits on the board of the world-renowned Australian Centre for Event Management, a division of the business faculty at the University of Technology Sydney.
Michael co-founded/owned and was founding co-producer of Dirty Dancing –The Classic story on Stage, which held its world premiere in Australia in 2004 and has since played in Holland, Canada, the USA, Germany and London’s West End. It set box office records in Germany, Canada and London and is one of the most successful live entertainment products ever staged in terms of ticket sales and revenue.
Michael also co-founded and developed the 13,000-seat Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand, and sat on the board as an executive director. For a number of years he was also on the board of the 2000-seat Capitol Theatre in Sydney and was CEO and board member of the 12,000-seat Sydney Entertainment Centre for six years. He has also been involved in the promotion of concert tours by numerous leading artists including Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand.
Alongside his own entrepreneurial activities, Michael is active as a business mentor in the UK and Europe. He has taken numerous companies to market and worked with others on how to become investable – assisting them in gaining finance, venture capital and private equity.
Michael is passionate about education and in addition to his work as a business mentor, he lectures at universities in London, is a mentor at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy, sits on the steering committee for NACUE Create (National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs), has acted as a resident entrepreneur for the StartUp Britain campaign and is a mentor for the Doug Richard School for Creative Startups.
Visit Michael Jacobsen’s author page on the Harriman House website: www.harriman-house.com/book/view/565/business/michael-jacobsen/the-business-of-creativity
Michael’s website can be visited here: www.corporatesuccessinstitute.com
With thanks to
My family, Emma Jones, Myles Hunt, Dr Usama Jannoun, Paul Manley, Ben Posen, Kamran Bedai, Scott Russell Hill and Lord Archer
Preface
The creative sector forms a large part of the British and European economy, encompassing the following areas:
Advertising
Architecture
Arts and antique markets
Crafts
Design
Designer fashion
Film, video and photography
Musical and visual performing arts
Publishing
Radio
Software, computer games and electronic publishing
Television
Business and creativity will always be an uneasy marriage, but it is a marriage of convenience and also a marriage of necessity.
With this book I want to empower and equip those who have creative passion, who have launched creative start ups and those who are growing creative businesses with the specialist knowledge I have gained from my experience as a creative entrepreneur. I also want to inspire the millions of people employed in creative industries in Britain and Europe to start their own businesses.
Drawing on my own experience, lessons I have learned, and what I have seen to work and to fail in my own businesses and those I have invested in or mentored, I have put together this easy-to-digest business book.
You don’t have to read it from front to back (but you can if you want!) It is arranged sequentially, taking you through the various stages of the business journey from start up, to growth, to the pressing question of what to do next when you close the book.
I do not hold myself up to be flawless, in fact I have tried to draw on my own successes and failures to impart knowledge to you. All entrepreneurs have their fair share of both, but the important thing is to come out on top.
I am fortunate to have had more successes than failures and I put that down to learning from mistakes and learning from others. You only come out on top through learning and education, and using this to add more value, and to create and implement better systems. This is good business. You won’t win every race, but pace yourself, train and win as many gold medals as you can.
A last point to note here is that throughout the book I have included spotlight case studies of some of Britain’s best creative sector companies. These are headed up by entrepreneurs who have a passion for their particular art form, and who have built a successful business around that. These should provide you with inspiration!
Use this book to regularly acquaint yourself with the tools you need to turn your creative passion into a viable, successful, long-term business.
Introduction
A passion for business
From the time I was young all I ever wanted to do was be in business. My father was in business and from the age of five I used to go to his office with him on weekends or during holidays and sit there going through papers on his desk. My parents even bought me a little briefcase!
Through school the idea of holding a job down never appealed