Mar 6
Upskilling Young Entrepreneurs with Creative Futures
Entrepreneurship positively impacts economic growth and innovation and can take many forms. From social entrepreneurship to creative entrepreneurship, what is at the centre is the entrepreneur who has an idea and sees an opportunity to create value and solve a problem.
In this sense, universities are crucial in supporting students to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and skills and fostering an environment encourages new businesses through coaching, mentoring and opportunities.
That is why in 2022, the University of the Arts London approached us at LMF Network to help them deliver business workshops for their Creative Futures Programme. They aimed to unleash the creative and entrepreneurial potential of South London’s young creatives, supporting them to set up and grow viable businesses within a creative field.
Our Founder, Sonya Barlow, led and delivered the online workshops through Zoom.
What did we do to support the entrepreneurs?
We designed and delivered a programme that included online workshops around business models, value propositions, customer fit, and pitching.
Our training sessions included pre and post-session tasks, in-session practical exercises and frameworks that these young entrepreneurs could apply to their business ideas to make them viable and sustainable in the short and long term.
What was the result?
Through our training programme, we supported 24 entrepreneurs, including a core cohort of 15 diverse founders, to develop business and professional skills so they could become part of the creative entrepreneurship community in London.
Rachael Baskeyfield, Creative Futures Project Manager at UAL’s Creative Futures, said about our work:
“Sonya and her team at LMF Network provided workshops on business modelling, identifying value propositions and customer profiles as part of the UAL Creative Futures programme in 2022. The workshops were engaging and energising, connecting key entrepreneurial concepts through great storytelling and the use of case studies. Feedback from young people taking part has been brilliant. The team have gone above and beyond, remaining adaptable to meet the needs of the participants and the programme to provide 1:1 support and business model feedback.”
What’s next?
Since then, we have kept our post-training support that has enabled these creative entrepreneurs to build and refine their business models and value propositions and learn how to pitch their ideas to potential users, consumers, investors, and other relevant audiences.
Size of the programme: ~30 entrepreneurs
Location: London, United Kingdom
Want to work with us? Email — hello@lmfnetwork.com
Sonya Barlow CEO & Founder of LMF Network — a business author, BBC broadcaster and content creator. Sonyabarlow.co.uk & @LMFnetwork
What is LMF Network?
The LMF Network is an education careers platform bridging skills and the gender gap. We know it will take 257 years to achieve gender parity, but that’s too long. Our community trust us to support their development needs, build their confidence and align ourselves with trusted, inclusive partners who can nurture and grow talent to progress in their careers. We’ve upskilled 20,000 people in 3 years — we know what we are fighting for and need your help creating equitable change.
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