“The two most precious resources for any small business owner are time and money. That’s why when the subject of intellectual property comes up, many owners run in the other direction. They see images of expensive lawyers and use that as an excuse to ignore the topic, reasoning that it is a problem for big companies to worry about. The trouble is, with the rise of competition through the Internet and on the global market, understanding intellectual property is more critical than ever for small business owners.” Read on

Darren Dahl The New York Times

Tags: Intellectual property

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“To adjust to market conditions quickly and do more of what’s working and less of what’s not working, you need to track and measure your activities and the results of those activities. As you engage in this process you’ll likely find corollaries between routine business activities and revenue growth. These corollaries are key performance indicators.” Read on

Paul Diamond Bizmore

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Gaya Ceramic Art Center in Bali is accepting applications for their inaugural residency program. Successful applicants will be provided with a private studio space and resources and spend two months working alongside master potters in a beautiful setting.

Each private studio is equipped with a pottery wheel, work table and shelves. Ceramicists are also provides with access to general studio facilities which include a broad range of ceramic equipment.

To be eligible for this opportunity, artists must demonstrate that they are seriously interested in working in clay and interested in focus and exchange, exploration and exposure.

Residencies will take pace in early winter or late spring 2010.

For more information and to apply visit here.

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The Women in Business Mentor program is accepting applications from female business owners in New South Wales who are interested in participating in the 2010 mentoring program.

The Women in Business Mentor program is tailored for small business owners or operators who draw most of their income from a business, and are committed to growing the business and achieving commercial success.

The program links up and coming women business owners with experienced business people. Through cooperative learning, mentoring and practical sessions participants work to improve their business skills and have their confidence boosted. Networking is also a key component of the program.

The Women in Business Mentor program runs for 45 hours over six months, including introductory briefing sessions.

The program’s four components include:

– Business skills workshops (18 hours)
– Business forums (five hours)
– Networking event (two hours)
– One-on-one mentoring meetings (20 hours).

The business skills workshops cover business development planning, financial management and marketing and strategic selling. At the end of the workshop program, participants will have developed an appropriate business plan, which covers the goals and objectives of the business.

Business forums include a mini expo and a business panel discussion that give participants a chance to share information and explore specific aspects of running
a business.

Potential participants in this program must submit their enrolments as soon as possible as places are strictly limited and are filling up fast.

For full eligibility criteria and application forms for mentorees and mentors, visit here.

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Daisy and Dandelion has developed a workshop series in Canberra designed for market stall holders. They are currently calling for expressions of interest from designers interested in participating in the next series.

The workshops are small facilitated discussion groups that have between eight and twelve participants and meet once a week in Kambah. The format of the workshop allows each participant to tap into the knowledge, experiences and ideas of the group as well as benefit from the peer support and contacts they make which carries on long after the workshop has ended.

The six sessions held are: 

– Before the market: Marketing on a shoestring
 This workshop will focus on what you can do before the market to encourage people to visit your stand. It will look at strategies like premarket promotions, PR, collaborative marketing and developing a word of mouth marketing campaign.

– At the market: Making your business stand out
 This workshop will focus on your stand as your store, stand layout, creating the right atmosphere, at market promotions, customer service and managing expectations.

– After the market: Creating loyal customers
 It is much cheaper from a marketing point of view to increase the spend from existing customers than to continually chase one-off sales. This workshop looks at building a relationship with customers over time and moving them from customers to advocates of your business.

– Pricing Strategies
 It can be very difficult to price the time and attention you pour into handmade items. This session will look at some of the ways you can determine the price of your products, including value based pricing, loss leaders, the special order, wholesale pricing and selling on consignment.

– Developing your brand online and offline
 Learn how to differentiate your business both online and offline. We will explore the basic laws of branding that will help you to decide where and when to advertise, how to use PR, when to expand your product line and how to advertise on the Internet.

– Developing a marketing calendar
 This session will tie everything discussed together to produce a marketing calendar that will make the best use of your time and money to promote your business.

All sessions are held at Theiss Cottage, Reynell, Place, Kambah, Canberra.

Workshops cost AUD$35.00 (incl. GST) for individual sessions or AUD$145.00 (incl. GST) to take part in all six.

This is an ongoing opportunity.

Places in each series are limited. Please contact Candice on (02) 6292 1573 or email candice@daisyndandelion.com.au to secure your spot.

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Site design

The copyright in the design of this website is © Australian Design Unit.

Site content

All the content in this website is copyright © Australian Design Unit unless otherwise stated.

The ADU encourages readers to copy, share and distribute our original articles and publications for educational and training purposes.

Articles that include the label Some Rights Reserved are subject to copyright and you must agree to the Creative Commons License Deed “Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia”.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/au/

This means you are free to share, copy and transmit the work comprising our original articles and publications under the following conditions:

1. Attribution

– You must attribute the work by attaching the name of the author to the article. You must also attribute the article as being published by the Australian Design Unit and include a link to the ADU website (www.australiandesignunit.com)

2. Non-commercial

– You may not use this work for commercial purposes, or make it available to others for a commercial purpose.

You must not make money from the content without the prior written permission of the Australian Design Unit. If you would like to discuss potential commercial use of our content please contact Ewan McEoin on ewan@australiandesignunit.com.

3. No Derivative Works

– You may not alter, transform, or build upon the work.

When republishing work, please add the following copyright notice:


“Copyright © Australian Design Unit. 2009. Some rights reserved.
This work is released under a Creative Commons licence, which allows you to copy, print and redistribute it so long as you credit the author, do not change the work, and do not use it for commercial purposes. For further information see www.australiandesignunit.com.”

If you breach any of these conditions, we may restrict your future access to the site and, depending on how serious the infringment is, commence legal proceedings against you for infringement.

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“How do you create packaging that combines real sustainability and compelling form, without compromising on either? Sarah Woods unpacks the issues involved and looks at what some key brands are doing to get their offer right.” Read on

Sarah Woods Design Week

Tags: Branding, Packaging

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“Are you thinking about exporting your product or service? If so, congratulations, exciting times are certainly ahead of you. Yet with the thrill of launching your offering into a new market comes many challenges, including deciding which country to export to, how to get into the market and how to make sure it’s profitable and deliverable. So, where to begin? Here are three steps to help you export like an expert.” Read on

Steve Dowling Australian Anthill

Tags: Export

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“Your customers are talking about you — and the whole world is listening. Local review sites are reshaping the world of small business by becoming the new Yellow Pages, one-stop platforms where customers can find a business — and also see independent critiques of its performance. How do you manage your reputation when everybody is a critic?” Read on

Kermit Pattison Small Business, The New York Times

Tags: Branding, Market positioning

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Creating perspective

In building your business, one of the cold hard facts that must be faced is how much time will be spent managing it. For some creative entrepreneurs this might come as a surprise.

If you are from a purely ‘creative’ background you may now be faced with learning a whole new range of specialised skills devoted to administration. The task list is diverse and unrelenting. The learning curve is steep and the demand on your time will sometimes seem overwhelming. It’s worthwhile recognising this as a reality check.

Creating a business, like creating a product, requires intensive effort. As a creative entrepreneur your professional responsibilities must now include not only the development of your idea but the building of the commercial vehicle that will carry it forward to success.

When writing a business plan you are aligning both your design idea with the business process and framework – the idea itself relies on this to ensure survival by providing financial existence, while the business is reliant on the idea to ensure unique, profitable demand in the market place. For a creative-lead enterprise this is the correct relationship and demonstrates that both aspects of the enterprise are equally important and balanced.

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Springboard exhibition, Design Made Trade

While the ADU was officially launched online today, the story really begins more than eighteen months ago when we launched our first initiative – Springboard.

Springboard is a practice-based, support program for emerging designers throughout Australia. The program is delivered through education, mentorship, the ADU web site, one-on-one advice from industry experts, studio visits, and online exchanges. You can read more about the program including who took part and more information on what its all about here.

Last month during the 2009 State of Design festival in Melbourne, the ADU held an exhibition at Design Made Trade focused on the Springboard Project. The exhibition was designed and curated by ADU co-director Heidi Dokulil, Graeme Smith of Parcel and Jenny Louey.

The objects and materials exhibited represented the work processes of twelve of the designers who participated in Springboard’s first mentoring program – Elliat Rich from Alice Springs, Alexi Freeman, Gretha Oost, Paul Justin, Jessie Fairweather and Tim Fleming in Melbourne, Rohan Nicol from Wagga Wagga, Gareth Brown from Adelaide, Alison Schutt from Brisbane, and Oliver Smith, Amy Cunningham and Chris Byrne from Sydney.

The display of most works labelled ‘design’ usually happens in one of two settings: a gallery/museum setting in which they are presented as design artifacts, or a retail setting in which they are presented as  desirable objects for sale.

The Springboard exhibition attempted to show a third way in which design could be shown. By revealing what happens behind the scenes: in studios, workshops and factories, its possible for the viewer to begin to understand the time, effort, and skills embedded within each of the objects on show.

The exhibition revealed that models, sketches, notes on envelopes, hesitant starts and dead ends, photograph, material tests, prototypes and explorations are the ingredients that shape both design and business.

Products and studio artifacts from Alexi Freeman and Gretha Oost

Prototypes from Oliver Smith's 'One' range

Chris Byrne's exhibition flip book

All photographs by Graeme Smith, 2009.

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The Springboard Project commenced in April 2008 and involved 97 designers from across Australia in a mentorship program to develop their professional careers in local and international markets.

Stage One of the program ran from early April to the end of June, with participants developing their individual design practice with the guidance of six leading business professionals drawn from areas essential to business survival in the design sector. Stage Two followed in August 2008 and continued until the end of March 2009, and saw 16 designers selected from Stage One given one-on-one mentorship through the process of developing their business plans, their practice, business identity, and in some cases taking a product to market.

The program covered sustainable best practice, financial management, contractual law, intellectual property (IP), media relations, and retail and export strategy. Mentors included eco-design specialist John Gertsakis of WSP Environmental, IP lawyer Peter English of Surry Partners Lawyers, market strategist Mats Ekstrom, and former brand consultant for Apple Computer Europe Bradford Gorman. While guest mentors Liane Rossler, cofounder Dinosaur Designs, David Clark, Editor Vogue Living Australia, Hugo Davidson, cofounder Knog, and John Parker, Managing Director Format Furniture, shared real insights on running a thriving design business from Australia.

Participants in Stage One and Two of the program include:

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Here sample contracts, agreements, checklists, glossaries, and the essential tools for running a design business can be downloaded. This area covers the fundamentals of running a creative design business, from contracts and IP, to going to market, finances and marketing your ideas.

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ADU features take a close look at creative people doing interesting things in Australia and around the world. Here we post new stories monthly, our editorial direction centred on a growing community of creative individuals connected by intelligent free-thinking that, more often than not, is defying the traditional corporate model.

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Creative Entrepreneur is the heart of ADU where we offer you access to free business tools and structured advice. This area of the website is divided into Business News, Profiles, Getting Started, Managing your Business, and the tools you need to build and carry on your practice across Contracts and Intellectual Property, Going to Market, Finances, and Marketing your Business.

Business News is updated monthly from a wide range of local and international sources, including The Wall Street Journal, Australian Anthill, Flying Solo, The New York Times, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Our Profile section includes interviews with creative businesses, taking a revealing look behind the scenes.

Getting Started and Managing your Business look at the approach you need to take to balancing the business of design. Written by Stefan Kahn, Founder and Creative Director of Compact Desk, this section offers experience and advice on being a creative entrepreneur, backed up by the tools you need for running your business – sample contracts, agreements, legal terms and checklists developed through the Springboard project. These downloadable documents are essential for understanding, building and managing your business.

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The ADU news room includes feature stories and a comprehensive source of career opportunities for Australian designers updated monthly. Drawn from local and international design sites, foundations, blogs, design councils and government and institutional websites, this is where you will find information on competitions, grants, residencies, workshops and opportunities, gathered together in one place and organised by state
and closing dates.

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