Creative Plus Business

What if your next big business breakthrough was just a coffee order away? ☕✨

Marketing your creative business doesn't have to mean spending thousands on ads or pushing awkward, high-pressure sales pitches. In fact, one of the most powerful ways to build a thriving network is completely casual, low-stress, and costs less than a latte.

It’s the art of the coffee meeting.

Whether you’re meeting a potential client, a future collaborator, or an industry mentor, a casual face-to-face chat can open doors that emails never will. But to make it work, you have to follow a few simple rules of engagement (hint: it's all about empathy, not selling!).

We’ve created a 5-step strategy to help you win your next coffee or wine date—from the initial approach to the perfect 30-minute conversation.

https://creativeplusbusiness.com/the-art-of-coffee-2/

The Art of Coffee | Creative Plus Business Coffee is a powerful tool. Yes, it helps us power our day (and late nights) but it can also be the key to building a trusted network. Learn how to use relationship marketing and coffee meetings to build trust, secure a mentorship, and improve your strategy for getting, and keeping, new clients.

Sydney-based? Have you heard of The Creative Futures Lab?

Our friends at The Hey Mate Project are working with the City of Sydney to deliver a new creative wellbeing program co-developed with artists to tackle burnout in the creative sector. The program runs through to the end of 2026 and includes two workshops, an innovation sprint, a public showcase and a Creative Wellbeing Playbook - built with and for Sydney-based creatives.

EOIs to participate are now open and they're particularly keen to hear from artists, freelancers, early-career creatives, arts workers, community connectors, and creatives from diverse backgrounds across Gadigal/Sydney.

💛 Paid participation
💛 Creative, supportive and trauma-informed spaces
💛 A chance to shape resources made by and for creatives

EOI link:

Creative Futures Lab — Expression of Interest Thank you for your interest in Creative Futures Lab — a wellbeing program delivered by Hey Mate, with support from the City of Sydney through the Innovation and Ideas Grant Program. Creative Futures Lab brings together Gadigal/Sydney-based creatives to explore burnout, creative sustainability, p*e...

Fabulousness alert! The one and only Stavroula Adameitis (AKA ) has unveiled the cover of her book AUSTRALIANARAMA and we just had to share the news. 😍

In Australianarama, Stavroula brings to life the good and the so-bad-it’s-good of decades past with playful commentary, colourful illustrations and archival photography.

Full of nuance and nostalgia, the book covers everything from objectionable objects to spiffy structures, Expo 88 to the Sydney Olympics, including interviews with Australia’s kitsch-spert icons like Art Simone, Dylan Lewis, Katherine Sabbath and Tony Albert along the way.

It’s an encyclopedia for all Australians – send it straight to the pool room!

Stavroula is one of our amazing industry mentors for IGNITION SA where she is helping artists, designers, and creative freelancers enhance their own creative businesses and careers. She is a technicolour angel.

Pre-orders are available now on the Frida Las Vegas website - go get it

https://www.fridalasvegas.com/australianarama

Ready for your monthly dose of inspiration? C+B's AdHoc news lands in inboxes on Monday.

This month it's time to get our favourite topic back in focus - TAX! 😜It's our annual update of the sexy taxy stuff you need to know about, plus new events, where to find us in June (we're on the road again), and new articles and fun things to explore. Not subscribed? Fix that by following the link in our bio!

Need a grant to support your professional development? Using opportunities like these to get a mentor, access things like our GROW or CHAT programs, or event undertake study or research can be a great way to accelerate your creative practice or business. Here's three grant programs closing soon that are worth looking at today.

Robbi had a huge week in Melbourne visiting Showcase Victoria at the Clocktower Centre recently. The state's biggest gathering of venues, theatre makers, and artists was an epic two days of performance, connection, and inspiration.

Huge thanks to VAPAC for hosting such a great conference and arts market. We're thrilled with the new connections and friends made, and we can't wait to see the showcase works out on the road.

Keen to know more? visit www.showcasevictoria.com.au

Got your eyes on an arts grant but feeling totally overwhelmed by the application?

Grants are often held up as the holy grail of a successful arts career, but let’s be real: there is no such thing as 'free' money. Assessors aren't just looking for a beautiful, passionate manifesto about your work—they need proof that you can do exactly what you say you’ll do.

Special guest expert Cat Dibley has penned an article for our blog that breaks down the basic brilliance of how to write, manage, and maintain grants without losing your mind (or your creative vision). ✨

Before you hit submit, here is what assessors are actually looking for:

✅ A Track Record of Competence: You don't need to send your entire CV. Provide strategic examples that prove you can deliver quality work.
✅ A Bulletproof Budget: It needs to add up mathematically, yes—but it also needs to make sense conceptually. (If you’re applying for $30k with no other income but pitching an $80k idea... that’s a red flag! 🚩)
✅ Clear Artistic Intent: What are you actually trying to achieve? Vague promises are unfundable. Clear writing = clear thinking = a fundable project.
✅ A Specific Audience: "Everyone" is not an answer. Who is your audience, what change are you creating, and how will you measure that impact?
✅ Adherence to the Guidelines: The guidelines aren't just helpful suggestions; they are literally the marking rubric. Address the criteria!

We know grant writing can feel like speaking a completely different language, but it’s a specific skill that can be learned. You just have to walk the line between confidence and capability.

Click the link below to read the full article for down-to-earth advice, tools, and techniques you need to get fit for funding.

https://creativeplusbusiness.com/what-assessors-look-for-in-an-arts-grant-application/

What Assessors Actually Look for in an Arts Grant Application (And Why Most Artists Get It Wrong) | Creative Plus Business Ever wonder what assessors are actually looking for? Cat Dibley takes us into the assessment room for some hard truths and great advice!

It was such a pleasure to work recently with the amazing participants in the inaugural Wamarra Music Lab, presented by MusicNSW on Gadigal, talking and listening about all things financial sovereignty.

Wamarra Music Lab was created by MusicNSW First Nations Development Manager Kaleena Smith (Briggs) to strengthen the First Nations music ecosystem and support First Nations-led businesses to grow while maintaining cultural integrity and community centred practices. Participants came together to share their experiences and grow new knowledge and skills as they build a sustainable roadmap for growing their business.

Thank you Kaleena, Thalia, and N***y, and the whole team at Music NSW, for inviting Creative Plus Business to be a part of this fabulous culturally safe space for skills development, mentorship, and connection.

Wamarra Music Lab was supported by Sound NSW, Creative Australia & The Neilson Foundation.

Images 2-4 by Sasha Parlett / Red Handed Productions