Dream Plan Do – CREATIVE BUSINESS PLANNING workshop, London – July 2025

Dream Plan Do: a One day Day Creative Business Planning workshop at COCKPIT aRTS, hOLBORN lONDON ON wEDS 2 JULY 10.30AM – 3.30PM

*** PLEASE NOTE we have decided to postpone this workshop to later in the year. If you are interested then please sign up for the waiting list below. Thank you!

We are halfway through 2025 – and for many creatives, it’s been a strange, unpredictable year. Maybe you’ve felt off-track, unsure what to focus on, how to get sales or commissions in these tougher economic times, or stuck in the grind of doing everything but getting nowhere.

Is your business still working for you, or is it time to design a better business? For you, your family, your clients, the world even? To refocus what you do, improve your finances, polish your marketing.

Half way through the year is the perfect time to take stock, and to plan ahead for the next 6 months! To get ready for autumn and Christmas, or to plan just ahead before the summer holidays kick in.

Maybe your’re at cross-roads and need to go into a new direction? Maybe things have gone very quiet and you need to investigate alternative income streams or improve your marketing, … or maybe you’ve been so busy keeping the wheels turning that you never have time to look up and ask: ‘Where is this going? What do I really want from my creative business – now and in the future?’ and even: ‘ What can I do now to make this Christmas better?’

It’s time to press pause and plan what really matters for you and your creative business: reminding yourself of your business dream & values, and the work you really love to create and do, to position yourself better in the market and stand out more, to sort out your finances & income, and improve your marketing and sales knowledge, skills and confidence. You are ready to reflect what works, deal with the issues that really matter, create a better plan for your business for the next 6 months, and make it happen!

This Dream Plan Do one day creative business planning workshop is our invitation to you to step away from your hamster wheel, to make deliberate time and space to work ON your creative business and to design a business that will work better and easier for you. Using our popular 107-page Business Planner Handbook you will be working on your big picture, values and dreams; setting business, financial & marketing goals; creating plans and getting expert advice on marketing actions, strategic planning and time management to make your ideas happen.

WARNING: This is a very hands-on creative business planning workshop! Patricia will facilitate the key questions and challenges, and you will be exploring the best answers and solutions for you – working by yourself to dream, plan and do, and with other creative professionals in the room.

You will also get a lovely lunch and The 2025 Dream Plan Do Business Planner Handbook. Min. of 10 people to have booked by 17 June at 9am, with a max. of 18 creatives so that Patricia can provide individual support throughout the day. Tenants from Cockpit Arts in Holborn and Deptford get a significant discount.

This is your only chance this year to join a creative business planning workshop with Patricia in the capital!

sign up to waiting list here below

Unfortunately we have had to postpone this in person creative business planning workshop, due to too few signups. We have been in touch with everybody who signed up, and we hope to run this session later in the year. Please sign up here below to the waiting list to get an update when we are hosting this session again.

join patricia for a one-day creative business planning workshop

This Dream Plan Do one-day creative business planning workshop is a practical, focused, thought-provoking and strategic in-person workshop at Cockpit Arts in Holborn London for creatives who want to reset, reflect, and map out a tailored action plan for the rest of 2025, especially focused on themselves, their finances & marketing.

Led by creative business planning expert Patricia van den Akker, this day is designed to help you work ON your business – not just IN it. Whether you’re looking to grow your business and sales, want to focus & simplify what you do, get ready for better Christmas sales, or just want to get back on track, you’ll leave this workshop with a realistic, inspiring 6-month plan that’s actually do-able.

Aimed at both new creatives but also very experienced creative professionals, working in design, crafts, visual arts, who want to create a business that works better for themselves, their family, clients and beyond! (We recommend that you have been selling your creative products and services regularly for at least 2 years. This workshop is not for pre-startups or early stage businesses!)

what you’ll do on this one-day dream plan do creative business planning workshop

Over 5 hours, Patricia will guide you through a structured, motivating process to help you reflect on your business dream and your values, what’s working, what’s not, your finances & marketing, and what needs to happen next. You will receive and use the popular 2025 Dream Plan Do Business Planner Handbook to create your business plan for the rest of 2025. You can expect plenty of ‘me’ time to reflect and work on your business ideas and plans, creative expert advice that’s realistic and honest, but also lively discussions with other creative professionals (10-18 people in this group), in a supportive, creative environment at Cockpit Arts in Holborn, London. Here’s what we will cover:

• Reflect on the first half of 2025: What is working and what is not? You will do a quick, insightful visual exercise called the Wheel of Business to identify what you need to focus on to move your business forward.
• What’s your business dream & values? You’ll look at your ‘big picture’ and what you really want to do and create with your skills, life & business. What’s important to you for your life & business? Let’s make that the foundation to create a better business!
• Learn how to juggle the different parts of your business: yourself, creative production, finances, marketing, and get better organised! Do you feel overwhelmed or often ‘behind’? Do you need to be more strategic with your decisions on what you create and for whom? Never have the time or energy to work on the things that really matter? Patricia will share her practical and strategic planning tools and time management advice throughout the day.
• Set juicy & SMART business goals for the rest of the year, and beyond! Get clear on your financial, creative, marketing and wellbeing goals. What do you want or need to create, learn and do exactly? You will be mapping out the focus and commitments for each month for the rest of the year. What is missing? What do you need to make time for? Are you making the most of the seasons … using the ups and downs of the quieter and busy months to your advantage? Patricia is a big advocate for seasonal & quarterly planning for small creative businesses! Using the natural flow of sales to create deadlines and balance your energy, creativity and rest.
• Never have time for bigger or strategic projects like your website, better images, working on marketing or creating new work? You will select 2 x 90-day strategic projects to work on in the next few months, with specific goals and actions per month to make it much easier to make it happen.
• Is your business financially viable? You will be doing the 3 Question Exercise and what to do if your numbers do not stack up – do you need to raise your price points, do better and more consistent marketing, or diversify with alternative income streams? Or is it something else? You will create a financial forecast for the next 3 years to help you grow or stabilise your business and make it pay for you.
• Create a simple marketing plan for autumn/Christmas – Once you have created a financial plan, then we can create a marketing plan! Patricia will show you exactly which marketing activities work to get more online sales, gallery orders, commissions and event sales. She will give you plenty of real life examples of marketing activities that work right now.
• Patricia will share her favourite time management tools and strategies to help you feel less overwhelmed, manage your procrastination, and will share some extra tips too for creatives with ADHD too.

At the end of this creative business planning workout you will have much more clarity, marketing knowledge, and financial understanding of managing and growing your small creative business. You will have a clear plan for the next 6 months and beyond, a financial forecast for the next 3 years, made your business financially more viable, a practical marketing plan for the autumn, and more inspiration, energy and focus to make it happen!

This is a creative business planning workout … bring your pens, laptop and calculator!

why join this ‘Dream Plan Do creative business planning workout’?

• This workshop will give you back your business mojo and marketing inspiration! You will walk away with more clarity where you want to get to, more focus on your unique talents and values, and a plan – for yourself, your finances & marketing and two strategic 90-day projects to move your business forward! No more vague and overwhelming to-do-lists, ‘winging it’ or making-it-up-as-you-go-along. Get back in the driving seat to create the life and business you want.
• Stop trying to figure it out all by yourself! Get expert advice & support from Patricia to get ‘there’ much quicker, learn from the mistakes & wins from others, and work and get inspired by fellow creative professionals in the room too! In this friendly & supportive workshop you will get expert advice from Patricia van den Akker, who’s worked with 1,000s of creatives to grow their creative business with purpose, with useful marketing advice especially for creative business owners and freelancers, and finally tackle your finances with gusto! We know how lonely it can be to run a creative business, especially when things are not going as well as you would like … this workshop will help you to connect again with your dreams, unique talents and values and create a map to get you back in charge. We are here to inspire & support you, and to give you the right advice for now.
• Stop spinning your wheels and spending too much time, money & energy on the things that do not matter! Focus on your talents, create a financial and marketing plan that works for you for this year.
• Get ready for a less stressful and more profitable autumn and Christmas! July is a great time to dream, plan and do! Spend 5 hours to get ready, to focus, to change direction, to get your motivation back.

what’s included in the price?

Early bird price till Friday 13 June: £99,- (incl. VAT) From 14 June: £125,- (incl. VAT). PLEASE NOTE: We need a min. of 10 participants to go ahead with this workshop by Tuesday 17 June. The maximum number of participants is 18, so that Patricia can provide individual advice. So book soon to avoid disappointment.

When you book your place, you’ll receive:

• 5-hours Dream Plan Do creative business planning workshop at Cockpit Arts in Holborn London on Weds 2 July 10.30am – 3.30pm, guided by Patricia van den Akker, an award-winning creative business adviser, trainer and coach who has worked with 1,000s of creatives in the last 25 years. For the last 10 years she has self-published a creative business planner, journal or diary each year, with her unique system of creative business planning tools, marketing advice and exercises, and financial tools. There will be plenty of time to ask Patricia questions too to pick her brain during the day!
• The 2025 Dream Plan Do Business Planner Handbook – The 107-page business planner, especially created for creative professionals by Patricia, packed full with creative business planning advice and tools, marketing exercises and questions, quarterly planning and reviewing exercises, and monthly planners. During the workshop Patricia will share some of the key exercises and tools, and you will continue to use it in the next 6 months to turn your ideas into reality. (You can see the images of some of the pages above)
• A lovely lunch, and hot & cold drinks during the day. We are creating a welcoming space for you to make time and space to dream, plan & do. We will be using the Teaching Room in Cockpit Arts in Holborn, which is nice and light.
• Support and inspiration from a group of like-minded creatives. You will work by yourself and alongside a group of creatives and makers in a relaxed but focused atmosphere – sharing your dreams, values and ideas, encouraging and inspiring each other, and using our collective wisdom to create better businesses.

who is this creative business planning workshop for?

This one-day creative business planning workshop is for any professional creative business owner and freelancer who has been in business and selling consistently for at least two years. We work especially with designer makers, crafts people, illustrators, print makers, visual artists, photographers, Etsy sellers, giftware & interior accessories, creative teachers, and more. It is especially for you, if …

• You feel overwhelmed, and are constantly busy but you don’t feel like you ever make any real progress. You work hard, but feel like you are still dropping too many balls. You want to stop ‘winging it’ and get a plan in place, focusing on the important jobs. It’s time to become a professional!
• You want to make more money with all the hard work you put in! Sales have been down, and you need to focus more on your niche, but also get more consistent with your marketing, be more strategic with what you create, build relationships and stay in touch with potential and existing clients, improve your website, boost your email list and skills, … the list goes on! You are ready to put the work in, but don’t know where to start, and what works in 2025 as you are really fed up with the engagement on Instagram! It’s time to get proud of your business again!
• You feel a bit stuck, as sales are down and you and or your market has changed. Or you had a big change in your life, such as a divorce or started a family, or the kids have left home. You have been going for a while but it’s not working like it used to, too many events and more competition, sales are down, and you and your interests have changed in the last few years. You want to get more clarity and focus again, get inspired and get your motivation back. It’s time to shine again!
• You’ve got lots of ideas, but no clear plan, and that’s frankly holding you back. You are ready to get more organised, have a strategy, but also practical input to look at your finances and marketing. It’s time to turn your hobby-mindset into a professional mindset!

Come and join us for this powerful day of dreaming, reflection, decision-making and planning. Ready for a reset and refocus? Book your place today for the Dream Plan Do Creative Business Planning Workout.

this creative business planning workshop is not for …

Sorry, but this workshop is really aimed at established creative businesses who have been selling regularly for at least 2 years. If you have not yet started your creative business or you are early-stage then please do NOT sign up.

Also note that this creative business planning workshop is for creative businesses, especially product and serviced-based businesses such as jewellers, ceramicists, visual artists, photographers, print makers, illustrators etc. If you work in other creative or well-being sectors such as performing arts, writing, dance, or yoga, creative beauty products or creative food then this workshop might still be relevant to you, but we recommend that you check with us first on info@thedesigntrust.co.uk

cancellation policy

We will need a min. of 10 participants by Tuesday 17 June at 9am for this live workshop to go ahead, due to additional costs of the venue and catering. If we do not get enough bookings, then we will inform registered participants asap by email, and you will of course get a full refund.

You will get a full refund if you cancel before Tuesday 17 June at 9am by emailing us at info@thedesigntrust.co.uk. Any cancellations after this date will not be refunded but if you can get a replacement creative to join instead of you. If there is a waiting list then we can assist too.