From Great Expectations to Hard Times A Longitudinal Study of Creative Sector Graduate New Ventures

Richard Hanage

Visiting Lecturer, Teesside University Business School Teesside University, Southfield Road, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BA

[email protected]

www.tees.ac.uk/schools/tubs/

Dr Jonathan M. Scott

Reader in Entrepreneurship, Teesside University Business School

© Richard Hanage – www.hanage.com

Research Question and Approach What happens to graduates with a creative degree when they try to start a digital creative business on graduating.

 Four year longitudinal study of 7 graduates, through 6-monthly in-depth semi structured interviews and periodic questionnaires (eg GET test, Learning Styles)  A ‘convenience sample’ from my start-up workshops.

 All had been independently assessed as having ‘promise of business success’, but were young and lacked business experience.  They had high levels of start-up support, eg DigitalCity Fellowships  Interviews recorded, videoed, transcribed, and analysed by topic. Also used business plans, tweets, Facebook, for some minor triangulation. No other contact.

 Researcher tried to be a ‘disinterested observer’, but inevitably influenced the participants’ thoughts and actions, through the questions asked.

© Richard Hanage – www.hanage.com

Creative Graduates: Stages of Business/Career Development

Prior creative experience Prior personal experiences school, Uni. Peer & family influences, etc.

Prior enterprise/ work experience

Phase 1: Life up to graduation and intent to start a business.

Utilising ‘creative’ experience Their personal world and experience Utilising business experience

Transition 1: from creative student to creative entrepreneur.

Creative development Personal development: learning, shifts in expectations, skills, identity, career etc Entrepreneurial development

Phase 2: Trying to be a successful creative entrepreneur.

Utilising creative learning Personal learning and events Utilising business learning

Transition 2: to a viable career in line with new personal objectives.

Creative development (if any) Personal development in new role(s) Entrepreneurial / employee development

Phase 3: Sustaining a successful (entrepreneurial?) career.

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Practice their art

Business/Career Routes

Growth Business Owner Solo Freelancer Employee E: Animation business

A: Website design A: Website design

A: Web-site designer

F: Motion graphics C: Music design F: Motion graphics

Use their art

C: Music publishing & record labels B: Designer goods E-commerce D: Animation sales C: Collate DJ music reviews B: Running creative workshops D: Graphic design

B: E-marketing Manager Abandon their art

G: Retail e commerce idea G: Sales lead generator idea

F: Betting Shop Mgr C: Shelf-stacker D: Signage Manager G: Trainee chocolatier

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£20k+ £10-20k £5-10K £0-5k £0k Annual income

Varied Journeys

Web-site design job.

Other ideas

Web-site design business

Shelf stacker job.

E-commerce marketing manager job.

Other projects

E-commerce web site for designer products

Freelance work in schools Free lance work

Music for computer games

Record labels Music publish ing DJ ing

A: Linear B: Serial

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C: Portfolio

Business Thread

–

Financially, they all ‘failed’

. None have paid themselves the minimum wage. –

Starting a business

did not necessarily equate with being entrepreneurial. Some were avoiding boring jobs (2) or could not get a creative sector job (4).

–

Selling skills

were the main missing element of human capital. They all struggled to find customers, despite having good products.

–

Support

cost about £20k each. Some thought it was too optimistic and generous. –

Unknown unknowns

: So much to discover and learn.

–

Time commitment:

only one worked consistently more than a 40hr week. –

Alternative income

from family, state or other work reduced the pressure to succeed in the business.

–

A business team

may be a key to success (1), but not if the team is too big (1), or combines social as well as business (1).

–

Tough industry

. Are some sub-sectors especially tough – eg music?

© Richard Hanage – www.hanage.com

Personal/Creative Threads Personal Thread

–

School/Uni behaviours

were good indicators of business behaviours. –

Artist/Business identities

. Most moved easily from an artistic identity to more of a business identity – as expected from their declared intent.

–

Developing their personal lives.

All were exploring options in their personal lives, which influenced their businesses – eg forming/splitting social partnerships.

–

Personal issues

were major determinants of career outcomes – eg financial pressures on acquiring a family, having to move location, loss of alternative income.

–

Learning:

all believe that the experience was not wasted.

–

Serial Entrepreneurs?

None of the six in employment expect to run a full-time business again, but some may do some freelance work

Creative Thread

–

Practitioners?

Three were very keen to continue as practicing creatives. Another three do it as a side-line or hobby.

© Richard Hanage – www.hanage.com

Questions Arising from Insights

–

Excess graduates.

Do Universities produce too many creative graduates? –

Enterprise training.

Do too few creative students get in-depth business experience and training? Especially about being

‘necessity entrepreneurs’.

–

Masters degrees.

Do graduates do a Masters degree mainly to postpone the pain of entering the employment market?

–

Post-grad support.

Are graduate start-up schemes too optimistic and too munificent?

–

Selling skills.

Do start-up schemes give too little training in selling?

–

Teams.

Should start-up programmes encourage team start-ups?

–

Getting experience.

Is starting a graduate business a necessary step on the road to a ‘proper creative sector job’ rather than the first step in entrepreneurship?

–

Assessments & prior experience:

are they good indicators of business success?

–

Personal weaknesses (eg confidence):

how can we make sure we address these?

© Richard Hanage – www.hanage.com

Next Steps: Focus on the Entrepreneur

This is a very unusual longitudinal data-set:

detailed real-time data from business birth to closure (and beyond). What other issues should be investigated?

Business stage

Why and how did they start the business? How did they run the business?

Why and how did they close it?

What next? Why?

Entrepreneurial issues

• Prior experiences • Entrepreneurial intent • Stages of start-up • Use of business support • Critical incidents • Entrepreneurial learning • Networking/stakeholders • Marketing/selling • Impending doom • Closure and grief • Learning from failure • Next career step • Return to entrepreneurship?

© Richard Hanage – www.hanage.com