Advice & Guidance
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Our clinics and workshops are open to all RCS Staff, Students, and Alumni. You can find out more about the advice & guidance opportunities we’re currently offering on the panels below, and book your place or sign up to our newsletter to hear more for each.
1:1 Clinics & CEDO Workshops
1:1 Creative Clinics
Creative Clinics are led by our Associate, Rachael Brown. These open, friendly clinics are available to our whole RCS community, to chat about anything related to your creative career or life as a freelancer such as:
- Knowing your audience or customer
- Understanding your value
- Planning your projects
- Managing your finances
- Making the right connections
Clinics will take place twice a month with Rachael Brown. Sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with Clinic dates.
CEDO Workshops
CEDO workshops will help you get your ideas, projects, companies, and collaborations off the ground and into the world. Topics included in these online workshops:
- How to write strong funding applications
- Costing and pricing your work
- Managing burnout
- Handling your IP as a creative freelancer
All CEDO events are welcoming, intimate, warm, and casual. No experience in the topic is necessary and our expert speakers will guide you through the basics, leaving plenty of space for questions and conversation.
The first workshop is Starting out as a Freelancer: The Nuts and Bolts on Tuesday 12 November at 18:00.
Keep up to date with other CEDO Workshops by signing up for our newsletter
Legal & Financial Clinics
Legal Clinics
Legal Clinics are hosted by Philip Hannay, Cloch Solicitors. In this half-hour long online clinic, you can ask Philip any general legal questions directly related to your creative career and practice such as:
- Legal and Employment Contracts – Are you contracting other freelancers or employing a small team to make your work with you? Have you been presented with a freelance contract that you are uncertain about signing?
- Intellectual Property – have you considered how to protect your creative work? Do you have work that you’d like to patent, take out trademarks, design rights, or copyright?
- Company Structures – what kind of company structure best fits the kind of work you want to make?
- Simple Procedural Actions – do you need to defend a court action related to your business? Or are you considering going to the Civil Court to claim money you’re owed by a person or a business?
In this clinic you cannot:
- Discuss things unrelated to your creative practice (e.g. a parking ticket, dispute with your landlord)
- Make confidential disclosures to Philip (A confidential disclosure is private information that is shared with another party, either orally or in writing, with the expectation that it will not be made public or with third parties)
Financial Clinics
Financial Clinics are led by David Nicholls, Brett Nicholls Associates. In this half-hour long clinic, you can ask David any general finance or accounting questions directly related to your creative career and practice such as:
- Company/business Structures – what kind of company structure best fits the the kind of work you are undertaking and will ensure effective financial processes without burdens?
- UK taxes for freelancers and small companies (HMRC related topics)
- Effective financial planning for your freelance work or projections for your company
- How the UK tax system might impact you and how best to plan for it
- General money management as a freelancer
- Self-employment: best practice and use of systems available to you
In this clinic you cannot:
- Discuss things unrelated to your creative practice
- Make confidential disclosures to David (A confidential disclosure is private information that is shared with another party, either orally or in writing, with the expectation that it will not be made public or with third parties)
Please ensure you read this disclaimer before attending.
Industry Guest Clinics
Throughout the academic year, we will invite a range of practitioners to host guest clinics to provide specialist advice and guidance from a particular industry, discipline, or practice.
In Autumn 2024 we are delighted to welcome specialists from Revere Arts to provide tailored advice for the music industry.
Music Industry Artist Clinics with Revere Arts
The clinic is being hosted by Revere Arts, with Elise Brown and James Egelhofer. These clinics are available to our whole RCS community, to chat about anything related to career as a music artist, such as:
- Knowing your audience and target market
- Understanding your genre and key contacts
- Planning your performance schedule and tours
- Working with a manager or agent
- Making the right connections and how to reach out to the industry
This 40-minute long online clinic will focus on you as a musical artist: your development and your next steps to think about in your journey.
Music Industry Project Clinics with Revere Arts
The clinic is being hosted by Revere Arts, with Elise Brown and Alisdair Nicolson. These clinics are available to our whole RCS community, to chat about anything related to the process of creating a project:
- Knowing your audience and target market
- Creating a project plan and strategy
- Building connections and making key contacts
- Putting your processes in place, what does this look like?
- What support do I need to make this a success?
This 40-minute long online clinic will focus on a specific musical project you are leading and need support to flesh out further.
