Creative Business Wrap – July 2025

Welcome to the July Creative Business Wrap, and hello to our new subscribers who I recently corralled into signing up. Hope you find much of interest in this collection of creative business “stuff” from around the web. This month, the selection explores what drives our sector: creativity itself, its cultivation, and the infrastructure and mindset required to sustain it. I hope it gives you a mid-winter boost for your creative enterprises.

When I started my business, I had lunch with an old friend, the late and much missed Morri Young. Morri had just come back from New York, and he was enthused about a store he’d visited that sold headphones, but in only two varieties. “Just two types of headphones, David,” he said, eyes bright. “That’s what you need! Be niche!”.

I think that would be familiar advice to many creatives: “niche down” and specialise. However, in 2025, with shrinking budgets, AI disruption, and shifting client needs, being multi-skilled is no longer a compromise. In fact, it can be a significant competitive advantage. As Tom May writes in this article for Creative Boom, this is because clients are increasingly asking more from fewer suppliers, and timelines are compressed.

The “new generalist” is not someone who does everything poorly, but rather someone who applies deep creative thinking across multiple disciplines with competence and confidence.  Clients appreciate the “one-stop shop” efficiency, saving them money and the coordination headache of managing multiple suppliers. For creative practitioners, this approach also offers resilience and work-life balance, as having multiple income streams allows for pivoting when one area of work slows down. May argues that in a world where AI can handle technical execution, human generalists who can think strategically across disciplines are becoming indispensable.

I wonder how that dual headphone shop is going these days?

Talking of how some bright ideas have aged, let’s check in on Brexit and its lingering impact on the UK’s Creative Industries. This article by Kirsty Warner and Hussein Kassim at UK in a Changing Europe says creative enterprises continue to face significant challenges post-Brexit, largely navigating these complexities without clear government guidance.

For the music industry, membership of the EU single market and customs union previously allowed UK bands to tour freely, without visas, customs checks, or merchandise taxes. Post-Brexit, visa costs, customs paperwork for instruments, and the 90-day limit on working in the EU have made touring financially and logistically complex, especially for young musicians. A staggering 87% of musicians report financial losses, with average EU tour earnings down 45%, rendering touring unviable for 59% of UK musicians.

The media sector, particularly film, TV, and animation, has also been heavily impacted by the loss of access to EU funding. The Creative Europe program, for example, previously awarded millions to UK organisations and supported UK film distribution. Post-Brexit, UK projects receive significantly less funding from domestic replacements, with an estimated €184 million cost to the UK creative sector due to the loss of Creative Europe funding.

For performing arts, EU-funded programs that fostered international networks and artistic exchange are now limited, reducing opportunities for British work in Europe and vice versa. While some creatives have found workarounds, others have left the sector entirely due to varied obstacles related to copyright, talent pipelines, tariffs, and complex paperwork.  Sounds like a long-term strategy to improve access to European funding and opportunities is needed.

On TikTok, rapper Tyler the Creator (on high rotation in long trips in my car, thanks to my kids taking over Spotify), talked about how his approach to songwriting is to “create like a child, and edit like a scientist.” This was the springboard for an article by Carlota Rodben and Carolina Soares on how to foster fear-free creativity in the workplace. They quote a recent study stating that only 13% of respondents see their companies as creative risk-friendly.

What’s the problem with being creatively cautious? Rodben and Soares say that “fear-led” leadership blocks staff’s creativity by triggering fight, flight, or freeze responses. This negatively impacts business performance, as brands with a high appetite for creative risk seek agencies that can match their ambition. Plus, fear makes leaders reactive and reduces the room for risk and error, leading to burnout among creative individuals.

To counteract this, they argue, leaders must design models that restore confidence in creative risk-taking. This is where Tyler the Creator’s mantra of “create like a child and edit like a scientist” comes in, where the childlike mindset allows for play, invention, and unexpected emotions, before the idea is honed into something great. This approach, demonstrated by examples like Loewe turning a tomato meme into a luxury clutch, shows that creativity doesn’t always need to be serious or monumental to be powerful.

Vegetable-inspired couture aside, how are you inspiring creative risk in your workplace?

Perhaps you’re thinking about an eventual exit strategy from your creative business. In which case, you might like this reflection by US mosaic artist Ray Corral for Forbes.com. In it, he talks about how he moved his business from being “founder-led” to “founder-inspired”.

He talks about a critical question for many creative businesses: how to maintain a business’s unique creative vision, often tied to a founder’s personal perspective, when they step back. The “invisible job” of artistic instinct and gut feelings is the hard thing to pass along. For mosaic artists, for example, it’s not just about technical skills but also “artistic flair” and the ability to “vibe with the story a space tells”.

For Corral, the key to maintaining vision in a personalised craft lies in mentorship. This involves bringing apprentices directly to job sites, allowing them to engage with the sensory aspects of the work, learn from mistakes, and ask questions. What is truly being taught is “permission” – permission to see, to revise, and to trust one’s own eye. The goal is a “founder-inspired” transition rather than merely “founder-led,” ensuring the craft grows under the care of those who respect its origins while allowing them to take it in new directions.

Come to think of it, a mosaic is a pretty good metaphor for a creative business. Lots of individual pieces assembled to make something bigger than its component parts.

Do you sometimes feel the need to come up with great ideas on the spur of the moment? This YouTube video from Harvard Business Review is a summary of a 2019 article by Joseph Grenney, which discusses how creativity is not an “inexplicable miracle,” but rather a “learnable providence” that can be cultivated through predictable conditions. For individuals and teams to provide creativity on demand, there are individual practices that can help you perform when the moment hits. A few of my favourites were:

*   Frame the problem, then step back: Clearly, concisely, and vividly articulate a compelling, unsolved problem to create “cognitive irritation.” After slogging through initial solutions, step away to allow unconscious work to begin.

*   Obey your curiosity: Build a mental database of passing curiosities. Spend time with intriguing articles, books, or people, even if they have no immediate purpose, as they become the “Lego bricks” for future creative connections.

*   Stop and work when it hits: When a “rush of clarity” or inspiration hits, capitalise on these moments by immediately transcribing and organising your thoughts. Ignoring them can lead to losing the emerging clarity.

A bit like exercising regularly: daily drills can help keep your creativity match fit. Maybe there’s something in that video or the original article you can put in place today. 
 

Finally, some other bits and pieces of note:

• Here in NSW, the state government is closing the Business Connect program, which offers free and low-cost business mentoring to small business owners. This is particularly regrettable, as it had a stream for creative businesses and was a great source of support for micro-businesses and sole traders, many of whom are in the arts and creative sectors. The program is open until September 30, so if you want to try it out or recommend it to someone, the clock is ticking.
• Also in NSW, but with a national remit, is the forthcoming Art of Tax Reform Summit, which will discuss ways in which changes to the tax system (federal, state and local) could help grow the creative sector. Sharpe Advisory will be making a submission, and we’re brainstorming ideas of how the lot of individuals, companies and not-for-profit organisations might be made easier through tax reform. If you have any suggestions to throw into the mix, let me know, or make a submission yourself by 10 August.
• Looking for a new podcast to try out? Simon Hill at Wired has a handy and up-to-date list of the best in the business. Two recommendations from me on that list, The Adam Buxton Podcast, which features “ramblechats” with creatives, musicians, and comedians, and the increasingly surreal Sizzletown, by comic Tony Martin, described as the “world’s first late-night call-in podcast”.
• Got a tricky group meeting you need to facilitate? I’ve put together a few tricks of the trade which might help over here.