Freelancer Skills Series: Future-Proof Your Creative Career

Culture Sheffield and Fair Collective bring you a ten part training series gives freelancers the chance to build new skills, grow their networks, and explore opportunities for income, collaboration and visibility within the city’s vibrant cultural and visitor economy.

Each session will be focused on a different topic relating to your creative freelance practice, based on the feedback and suggestions from Sheffields freelance community.

Workshop 1 - Future-Proof Your Creative Career @ Assembly Room, Leah's Yard

Start as you mean to go on! This first event in the Freelancer Skills Series combines learning with networking.

Together we’ll design the “skeleton” of your creative business plan, swap learning through peer coaching, and build supportive connections that will carry through the rest of the series and beyond.

Expect practical tools, lively discussion, and the chance to meet inspiring fellow creatives including:

Charlotte Cooper - Musician

Charlotte Cooper is the bassist, backing and occasional lead vocalist of the English rock band The Subways. A founding member, she’s been with the band since their formation in 2002 and has featured on all their studio records starting with Young for Eternity (2005), up through their latest, Uncertain Joys (2023)

Rachel Tunnard - Award winning writer, director and editor 

Rachel’s feature film, Adult Life Skills, was nominated for six BIFA’s and won two. It won the ‘Nora Ephron Prize’ at Tribeca Film Festival (2016), ‘Best Debut Screenwriter’ from the Writers Guild, the ‘Accession Award’ for Screenwriting at the East End Film Festival and was nominated for ‘Best Debut Feature Film’ by the London Critics Circle. Her short film Emotional Fusebox was nominated for a BAFTA and a BIFA.

Rachel also co-wrote Military Wives and Chicken Run 2 among other titles. 

More special guests to be announced!

Some of the questions and topics we’ll consider: 

• Why business planning matters for freelancers (not just organisations).
• Common creative freelancer challenges (feast/famine, pricing, juggling multiple roles).
• Where am I now? Where do I want to be?
• Defining your creative vision and personal/professional values.
• Translating values into business priorities.
• Clarifying your services/products: what you really offer.
• Identifying your audiences/clients and their needs.
• Your unique positioning
• Your ideal clients
• Mapping your personal “survival vs. sustainable vs. stretch” income

Fair Collective is a Sheffield-based nonprofit that matches freelancers with social good sector organisations. For almost a decade, we’ve connected talented freelancers and consultants with charities, social enterprises, and purpose-led organisations of all sizes ensuring access to high-quality, affordable support.

Alongside our matchmaking work, we’ve delivered sector training at scale, reaching people across the UK and beyond. This session will be led by Fair Collective’s founder, Vic Hancock Fell, who has supported thousands of small organisations and solopreneurs to build their skills, confidence, and sustainability.

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By registering for this event, you agree that your registration information (name and email) will be shared with Fair Collective, who will use it solely for the purpose of managing this event, including sending you joining details.

This series of workshops is funded by the UK Government via the Shared Prosperity Fund.

Photo credit: James Ward (No Bounds Festival)

Host or Publisher Culture Sheffield