Doug Richard’s School for Creative Startups is on the hunt for top talent to join its innovative training and support programme for emerging creative entrepreneurs. Successful applicants will join London’s hottest creative community to kick-start their businesses.

Doug Richard’s School for Creative Startups programme puts entrepreneurs through their paces to help them turn creative ideas and skills into viable and scalable enterprises.

The programme nurtures the best aspiring entrepreneurs in the creative sector empowering them with the tools they need to live from what they make or do.Although applicants don’t need to have any prior business experience to apply, hopeful students must be bursting with enthusiasm, dedication and drive for their idea or early stage business. Applicants must work hard to convince the recruitment panel that they are worthy of joining the ranks as this is a closed application process where spaces are limited, and partial scholarships even more so.

With a practical, hands-on approach, the course tackles the gap within arts and design education by equipping students with business skills and commercial acumen that are not traditionally covered on creative courses. Through a series of intensive workshops, online support, bootcamps and surgeries, aspiring creative entrepreneurs learn how to confidently brand, market and sell their products and services effectively.

Many students from School for Creative Startups have gone on to exciting and inspiring ventures. Alumni success stories from previous classes include Jessica Huie, whose adorable and amusing ‘Color Blind’ multi-cultural greeting cards and gifts will be available in select Sainsbury’s across the UK later this spring, Jamal London whose modern luxury fragrances are sold on House of Fraser online and in the flagship Oxford Street store, and Tobyboo whose accessories, homewear and stationary are now sold in Mary Portas at House of Fraser stores, and the gift shops at the Museum of London, St Paul’s Cathedral and Somerset House.

Past student Emma Rampton, of Emma Loves, commented: “I really feel that School for Creative Startups has given me so muchconfidence and encouragement and this has helped me get my business off theground much quicker than if I was going it alone. I think it is a fantasticprogram and much needed in the creative sector. I feel honored to have had the opportunity to be involved.”

Successful applicants will have access to a team of expert advisors, including a unique network of Titans of Industry that support students on their journey. The network is made up of some of the UK’s top creative talent, such as photographer Rankin, Harvey Nichols Fashion Director Paula Reed, fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, presenter, gastronome and musician Loyd Grossman and Creative Director for Made.com Chloe Macintosh.

The course culminates with the annual Startup Showcase weekend; a creative entrepreneurship festival celebrating the work of the graduates. This high-profile platform provides a launch pad for students and graduates where they have the chance to test their businesses in front of leading figures in the media, VIPs, buyer networks, potential investors and members of the public.

Doug Richard, Founder, School for Creative Startups: “I’m always amazed by the depth of talent and imagination of the people who walk through our doors. The UK is the Silicon Valley for the creative industries and nowhere else in the world do we have the same concentration of creative talent, but we must nurture it and help it to become a viable and self-sustainable sector”.

Medeia Cohan-Petrolino, Creative Director, School for Creative Startups: “School for Creative Startups is our answer to the knowledge gap in arts education, empowering creative people to reach their full potential as creative entrepreneurs.”

For more information on School for Creative Startups, visit: www.schoolforcreativestartups.com

School for Creative Startups
Somerset House
Strand, London
WC2R 1LA
UK

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Applications for the School for Creative Startups programme starting September 2013 close on 1 July 2013. Click here to apply. They will reopen in October for 2014.

The course begins with its first bootcamps on the 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th of September.