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SFEDI
Specialist Standard

S16 Creative Industries

Creative businesses depend on intangible assets: intellectual property, talent, reputation and relationships. The creative workforce has around twice the economy-wide share of self-employment, and many creative workers combine several jobs, work project to project and live with irregular income and late payment. Creative businesses are often motivated by creative purpose as much as profit, and combine commercial work, commissions, licensing and public funding. Generic business support does not always fit these realities. This Standard is about helping creative businesses, freelancers and cultural organisations to protect and make the most of their intellectual property, build sustainable business models, plan and fund projects, and connect with the networks and specialist support around them.

How to read a Standard

Who it's for

Business support professionals working with creative businesses, creative freelancers and cultural organisations, across sectors such as advertising, architecture, crafts, design, fashion, film, television, games, music, performing and visual arts, publishing, and museums and galleries.

What you need to show

  • S16.1

    Understand the client's creative practice, values and motivations, and work with them in ways that respect their creative autonomy alongside their commercial goals

  • S16.2

    Help the client identify, protect, manage and earn from their intellectual property, including through licensing, royalties and contracts

  • S16.3

    Help the client develop a sustainable business model, which may combine commissions, projects, products, licensing, teaching, grants and other income

  • S16.4

    Help freelancers and portfolio workers manage irregular income, set their rates, agree contracts, deal with late payment, and plan for tax and pensions, recognising the unpaid time spent pitching and on administration

  • S16.5

    Help the client plan and cost creative, research and development, and innovation projects before they apply for funding

  • S16.6

    Help the client identify and access sector-specific finance, including public funding, investment, crowdfunding and creative industry tax reliefs, and prepare strong applications

  • S16.7

    Help the client negotiate collaborations, co-productions and commissions, including how intellectual property and income will be shared

  • S16.8

    Help the client reach audiences and markets, including through digital distribution, platforms and international markets

  • S16.9

    Help the client assess the opportunities and risks that AI and other new technologies pose for their creative work and their intellectual property

  • S16.10

    Connect the client with creative networks, clusters, freelancer communities and specialist sector support, building on what already exists locally

  • S16.11

    Help cultural and not-for-profit creative organisations strengthen their governance, resilience and investment readiness

What you need to know and understand

  • S16.K1

    The make-up of the creative industries and their sub-sectors, and how business models differ between them

  • S16.K2

    The role of freelancers and micro businesses in the creative workforce, and the particular pressures they face

  • S16.K3

    Intellectual property, including copyright, design rights, trade marks, patents and moral rights; licensing; collective management organisations; and how rights are enforced

  • S16.K4

    How to value and use intangible assets, including when raising finance

  • S16.K5

    Creative industry funding and finance, including public funders, specialist investors, and creative industry tax reliefs and expenditure credits (for example for film, television, video games, theatre, orchestras and exhibitions)

  • S16.K6

    Contracts used in creative work, including commissions, licences, fees and the assignment of rights

  • S16.K7

    Fair work and payment practices for freelancers, and the protections available against late payment

  • S16.K8

    How AI is changing creative production and distribution, and the current position on copyright and AI

  • S16.K9

    Audience development and digital distribution

  • S16.K10

    Creative clusters, networks and specialist support, and how to keep up to date with them

  • S16.K11

    The barriers to diversity and inclusion in the creative workforce, and how support can address them

Evolved from

New Standard. Builds on Business Support 7, which identified creative businesses as an area of sector practice, and Business Support 9 (item 52, intellectual property).