The Business of Being Creative: Looking to start a copywriting business? Interested in marketing? Want to make a profitable blog?

Writing on the Wall are delighted to be a part of Enterprise Hub, the enterprise gateway for business start-up support in Merseyside. Writing on the Wall is the only arts and cultural organisational partner of Enterprise Hub and would like to see as many of our creative participants to develop and be part of this innovative opportunity. They offer expert advice and support to those who are thinking about starting a business including help to understanding the process of starting a business, researching a business idea, building a comprehensive business plan, developing a marketing plan, creating financial forecasts to understand the costs of running your business and potential income and identifying sources of finance to get started. For further information, check out their website here.

In the last seventeen years, Writing on the Wall has thrived working with diverse creatives who have been supported on our year round projects including What’s Your Story?, Young Writers and more. WoW recognised the need to support writers developing their skills for employment, whether through freelancing, setting up their own business, possibly with others, or finding work within which they could make use of their writing skills i.e. blogging for other organisations and businesses.

 Co-Director Mike Morris and Social Media Editor Alice Mason presenting to business partners of Enterprise Hub

To address this need we developed Write to Work. Write to Work is a 12 week project aimed to unemployed learners who want to develop their writing skills and pathways into creative employment. Writers from this project have the desire to become freelance and work on their artistic output. However, due to funding cuts, family commitments and a lack of knowledge, this isn’t always the easiest step to take.

Liverpool is a very creative and cultural city, where our arts scene is always buzzing with up and coming artists. Unfortunately, many artists are asked to work for free – getting told it’ll lead to other opportunities in the future.  Whether it’s down to artists not feeling confident in their pricing structure, or a business plan not in place, these situations happen too often. With the help of Enterprise Hub, they can play a key role in creating a suitable business plan as well as a marketing strategy for you.

Co-Director Mike Morris and Social Media Editor Alice Mason at Enterprise Hub quarters 

In 2017 during our annual festival at a day devoted to independent writing and publishing, Writing on the Wall delivered a new, highly popular initiative, The Writer’s Marketplace. This brought together publishers from across the region, including the award-winning Comma Press and new publisher Dead Ink, and professional writers who spent the day discussing and offering advice to new writers. This advice covered aspects of writing itself, but also the possibility of gaining a living through writing. This was a very successful event, and will become part of our annual offer in partnership with Literature Hub in 2018.

Writing on the Wall will also be offering regular information sessions for writers and creatives, to act as a gateway for creatives into the Enterprise Hub, where they will be able to be referred to Enterprise Hub for formal advice and guidance on developing their businesses. 

Our first session is on Friday 10^th November between 10am- 1pm at Toxteth Library, Windsor Street, L8 1XF (appointment only). 

Email enterprisehub@writingonthewall.org.uk to book your 15 minute appointment.

Congratulations to everyone involved with Enterprise Hub. We’re looking forward to be involved, helping people to find pathways into employment and successful creative business development.

-          - Madeline Heneghan, Co-Director