The Art of Starting: How to Build Your Creative Business from the Ground Up

by Iona Mathieson, Romy St Clair

Ditch your day job or set up your side project with this ultimate guide to starting and running your own creative business. From two successful entrepreneurs who share everything they wish they they'd known at the beginning.

‘Together, these two have created a flourishing business’ - Vogue

The Art of Starting guides you from the first step right through to the everyday running of a successful creative business. Whether your passion is in craft, photography, food, fashion or design, this book is full of indispensable advice.

Iona Mathieson and Romy St Clair are two entrepreneurs who learnt the hard way. Their practical advice helps you to use what you already know and develop future proof skills in a fulfilling job that works for you.

In The Art of Starting you
– Discover your strengths, foster community and create meaningful client relationships
– Learn how to value yourself, your product and negotiate fees
– Find out what school didn’t teach; from tax and accounting to social media management and developing community

Iona and Romy started their floristry business SAGE Flowers with no formal training and less than £1,000. In a few short years, they grew a floristry empire, have been lauded as London's go-to florists, and have an enviable client list including Mercedes, Nike, Glossier and Fenty. In The Art of Starting they share tips and secrets from experts and entrepreneurs so that your creative business will succeed too.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2023

Reviews

[Varsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good thought provoking book for starting a business, helps make it plausible and less daunting.

[Olivia-Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This surprised me with how easy and quick it was to read.

I am by no means planning on starting my own business, but I really appreciated some of the chapters on branding and marketing because they can be applicable to content creating too.

I really liked hearing from multiple start up creators and seeing how they went about formulating their own businesses - whether intentional or unintentional.

And I also appreciated how many of the contributors were people like me - those starting without a lot of money, or Black or otherwise those you often don't immediately think of when you stereotypically imagine 'business owners.' It was a good reminder that small businesses are profitable too.

Really easy reading, and really applicable.

[Kalindi Fonda]

The two writers start a flower shop and one that is very embedded in the local community, so it's a bit different to the things I am trying to practice the art of starting with. With it was a pleasant listen during a midnight cupboard building and cleaning session. It's nice to read stories of people who try, and manage, and learn (and then share the learning).

[Abbey Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for ideas of starting your own business!