DISCE - Between labour markets and entrepreneurship

He has multiple jobs as he earns his living mainly from his other job as a bartender and therefore is in position to forward much of his earnings from self-employment to the artists. “So, I choose not to earn a lot for my work for Xx [name of a company removed for anonymity reasons], because I want the money to go to the artists or to stay in the organization. I don't feel it as money that's for me or for my work. It's just that, when I feel that I've put a lot of effort into something and weeks of work that I take a little bit of money for it, but that's it…. I want to help as many people as possible as many young artists as possible.” (LE6M30s) Our data indicates that oftentimes creative freelancers and entrepreneurs engage in portfolio work as the preferred option. The starting point of their activities – passion and freedom – is coupled with their portfolio work and multiple jobs. It is a kind of double-edged sword for creative entrepreneurs: portfolio work secures the creativity but does not enable focusing and developing the income streams. On one hand, having a parttime, but not too binding employment contract enables creative freedom as an artist: “I think that is one reason why I don't want to just be a painting and illustrator the whole time, I'm very glad that I have paid work, then I can be more free in my own creations.

I know people that are painters, and they just have to get things sold all the time and I couldn't work like that.” (LU24F50S) 18

Due to their part-time work, some can afford to be creative as they do not need to worry about whether their creative work sells well or not. Combining part-time employment with self-employment may not only be about risk management and financial sustainability at individual level, but also about making it possible for a creative worker to have time and resources to create arts and develop oneself. On the other hand, being an entrepreneur makes it possible to fulfil one’s creative freedom, something they could not necessarily do if they had a full-time employment contract: “I don't want to have 100% at the culture school [teaching] […] I have 20% of this 80% from the culture school, I have 20% that I am free to do other things outside the school.” (LU24F50S) Having multiple positions and working also as a teacher and being a creative oneself allows for ‘being immersed with the creative field’ and, thus, being more creative. Creative work of different kinds and other activities overlap and feed into each other: “That is the field I work within, and I also participate at exhibitions as an artist for my own pleasure as well as for entrepreneurship and selling purposes. Something like that. But otherwise I am, in a way, inside the creative environment, I am interested in creative things, in culture...

and definitely I participate in many ways – from attending theatre and cultural events to perhaps participating in some projects, and, and so on.” (LI7F20s) Thus, having the multiple jobs and positions have an important role in enabling freedom. The different positions are a source of doing interesting work and being creative in multiple fronts. “And for me as..., it has always been interesting for me to work in more than one field, therefore all the activities undertaken by me are widely varying from the establishment of events and different cultural activities to implementation of ideas, directing, supervising.... umm, and more and more, and more.” (LI9F40s). However, juggling the multiple positions or having different ideas and opportunities is not always easy. It is difficult to set one’s mind what they should concentrate on as different things seem interesting and useful for creative purposes, but it is impossible to participate in all of them due to time limitations. “But I don’t know perhaps exactly which is the most effective and what might have changed from it all, and what exactly should I concentrate on. I don’t know that, honestly. But it has changed. Yes, definitely, there is more experience and thus...

ideas are coming, so to speak, as to where it would be better to work, where I can risk, why should I participate at this particular exhibition and not at another one, should I be in this fair or is it not worth being there, and so on. At least I understand the clientele, the circle of people that will come. So that is what, so to speak... gives me grounds to say yes or no to something, and so on.” (LI7F20s) Having a creative break is also about finding some inspiration for the future, thus, becoming inspired by new experiences. Our data demonstrate that there are creative entrepreneurs who would not change for a regular employment although they are not satisfied with their insecure (portfolio) income. A cultural producer questioned her willingness to switch to full-time job as she found it boring, and something difficult to settle to after the experience of working flexibly - ‘tweaking’ as she says: “Yeah, but then again, would I want to have this 8 to 4, one hundred per cent kind of job. After all this tweaking, it might even feel a little boring.” (PO4F40S)

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Albeit in minority in our data, there are a few examples of creative entrepreneurs who engage in different activities (including teaching) but who organize all their activities via the business. Thus, they do not juggle between different jobs and labour market positions, but the business offers different services for different clients. For them their creative work creates a portfolio of activities but within their company: “All of my income comes from the company, right? That's my only source of income even if I'm being paid for guest lectures, workshops, stage appearances. It is all invoiced through the company. I always represent the company. So this is 100%. [..] ..being able to pay out a salary for everyone, every month, we also have at the end of the year, a profit to work with to reinvest and grow with. So that's really great. What I'm not happy with, of course, is the numbers could be bigger.” (EN2M20s) These entrepreneurs often times operate in fields that can offer full time earnings (event organiser, creative animation) i.e. not artistic side of the creative spectrum. However, having a business does not mean that all the work would be done for profit. Some adopt the same logic as the individual freelancers about segmenting their work and time.

There is a corporate work for doing business – funding the activities and then other work (more meaningful projects), for example offering free work for non-profit organisations. “We can keep on creating corporate work, commercial work that's really funding the space, employees and our income, so that we can step back, and we can approach, ?? or NGOs saying, Hey, we have a whole studio, running commercial studio, but we can afford a certain amount of hours for free to work.” (EN2M20s) Similarly, it is possible for a visual artist and an entrepreneur to have the more ‘artistic’ and more ‘businessoriented’ companies separately. Setting up a limited company for a riskier activity highlight the possibility to continue with other projects if something goes wrong. “I will put all of my VR [virtual reality] inside this is called virtual rehab this company and then I keep my theatre and my other projects in the first one so I separate a bit now, VR is more in the [limited company] so to say.” (LU23F50S) Despite the need for balancing and the potential stress, contrary to previous research (Menger, 2017), our data reveal that for some earning such portfolio income may be a “desired” and accepted way of life. The participants regularly deny any wishes for having only one job or position even if they sometimes expressed that the division between the jobs could be different, e.g.

of having two jobs, one of which would clearly be the main job. However, this may then require the ability to invoice more on an hourly basis. In most cases, the tone regarding the insecure income and the need to juggle multiple jobs and positions is mainly positive (‘of generating better possibilities for earning more income, allowing more freedom etc.). The different positions offer different schedules – for example in teaching, summers are often free or offer more free time that can be used in freelancing. This represents getting ‘two for one’: “Given that I work at school, during summertime I have a lot of free time, and that is when I can host different events. Well, although at school I am employed as a career consultant which includes event hosting as well. So basically, I kind of get two in one. So, I have a greater passion for, I really enjoy hosting weddings, but certainly I host different corporate events, summer's sporting events for groups and sometimes various family events as well.” (LI21F30s) Reasons for not wanting to put everything into the creative position are multiple: the creative work is considered demanding, challenging, even resulting in ‘a period of burnout’ (EN8M20s). This is even more so 20

if all income is dependent on the creative side. Therefore, it is often depicted that it would be nice to have a regular job (that one can leave behind), and then to have the more creative position as a side thing or as a playing field with allocated time. The emphasis is on not wanting the creative part to become a normal job as it is understood to be boring, routine-like, and perhaps forced activity: “Yeah, the interference with everything else. I'd rather do only creative stuff. I guess actually, I'm not sure. Maybe it's also good not to just do that, maybe then that would also be a job.” (EN1M20s) The stress from the creative work is also visible in the ways some explain their wish to have a normal job that does not require anything but the hours in the job and then one could be free. “Like my dream job is to be picking tomatoes somewhere you know where I can do my work, not literally maybe but figuratively. I can do my work and then when it's time to knock off I go home and I don't have to worry about it anymore. This is my big problem with the events. It always continues you know. It's always, there's always something you can do.” (EN8M20s) Although temporary and part-time jobs may be expected and taken for granted, they may also be a source of stress.

They create a need for finding a balance between the different jobs and juggling the different jobs can represent a need for constant prioritizing. The benefit of having two interesting jobs overweighs the challenge of having overlapping ‘peak times’ of the different jobs although a clearer structure would be welcomed. “Combining two jobs […] At times it can be pretty stressful, especially when both jobs have busy periods at the same time, so it does easily cause overtime and pressure. Then again, having two jobs is also pretty interesting, and they do also partly support one another […] Maybe it would be more fun to have the one 80 % and the other 20 %, so that the one of them would clearly be a smaller one and wouldn’t require that much.” (PO4F40S) The juggling between different positions is to manage the different work domains but trying to secure some time for rest and self-care, which is not easy. “I guess that's the biggest challenge is squeezing it into everything else and arranging your indeed your schedule, so that you can still have some time to rest but also, you know, you got your work down and you gave a little space for everything, for socializing, for resting and for creating stuff”.

(EN1M20s) Having multiple and temporary positions and limited resources for the projects may also cause a feeling on inadequacy as the work cannot be properly completed although the job itself ends: “It really is a big pain in this life of temporary jobs that you usually have to leave the job somewhat unfinished. (PO4F40S) This implies that one is not able to use their expertise to complete the project, which creates unpleasant feelings of “always being in a whirlwind” (DU21F30s). Being involved in multiple jobs and projects characterises the work of creative freelancers and entrepreneurs. Although such multiplicity may cause stress it can also be considered as an opportunity as it provides some flexibility and variation to their work. On one hand, salaried work may provide desired security, but as an only job it may be considered too boring and making it impossible to invest enough time on creative activities. A variety of accounts highlighting the flexibility and freedom as well avoiding boredom at work suggest that for many having multiple jobs and a portfolio of activities may not be a transitionary phase towards having one job or position but rather the preferred scenario – despite some disadvantages.

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2.5. Snapshots to income inadequacy among creative professionals The survey data of creative professionals in Finland are informative of their income (see Appendix 2 Survey Data and Variables). Concerning the income status of the studied creative professionals, we explored the income inadequacy because a modest and insecure income is a phenomenon widely referred to in the creative sectors (Hennekam & Bennett, 2016). About third of the respondents reported that monthly income does not cover the living expenses and 13% that monthly income exceeds living costs (Table 1). For further analyses the income inadequacy was measured with a recoded dummy variable in which “1”=”monthly incomes does not cover living costs” and “0”=”monthly income equals or exceeds living costs”. Table 1 What describes the current financial status of the respondents? n

%

My monthly income doesn't cover my living costs

157

34

My monthly income equals with my living costs

241

53

My monthly income exceeds my living costs

58

13

Total

456

100

The further analyses focus on studied creative professionals who have had worked during (at least some of) the previous 12 months and whose income comes mainly from creative work (n=410). Among these creative professionals, women perceived income inadequacy more than men as also previous research suggests (Conor et al., 2015). Moreover, income inadequacy is higher among those whose income is based on something else than steady monthly wages. For instance, those living on grants (from trusts or foundations), those who get financial support from their own close networks (family, friends) and or have received unemployment benefits during the 12 previous months perceive higher income inadequacy. In addition, income inadequacy is higher if the income varies on a monthly basis. In our data income inadequacy was not associated with the number of professions or income streams the creative professional had or one’s work experience in creative sectors. Furthermore, respondents’ experience in entrepreneurship or general work experience were not connected to income inadequacy. Income inadequacy is higher among those with fewer weekly working hours (on average 26hr compared to 31hr). Moreover, income inadequacy is higher if one has lost a large part of their income or number of customers during the previous 12 months at the time of survey.

In addition, these professionals have reduced the prices of their offerings and applied for financial support from the state or municipality more often than those who did not experience income inadequacy. However, those facing income inadequacy felt less often that the Covid-19 pandemic would have caused major changes to their creative work despite the fact that they felt the influence of Covid-19 more negatively than others. This is surprising given that creative economies particularly have faced income losses due to lockdowns. This finding can imply that those with income inadequacy have not interpreted the Covid-19 to represent a major difference compared to their (seasonal) challenges in generating sufficient income. In addition, since those with higher income inadequacy have applied for public financial support more often than others, one interpretation may be that although Finnish government has at least partly compensated income losses related to Covid-19 for many, the income level of these respondents has been low for a longer period of time already before the Covid-19 and therefore nor Covid-19 or support have made a big difference. Finally, income inadequacy was higher among those

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who identify more strongly with a creative identity and when one perceived her business skills low. The Table 2 summaries the findings on income inadequacy across the studied creative professionals. Table 2 Summary of income adequacy across the studied creative professionals Income inadequacy

Income adequacy

Women, those living on grants or being funded by their own circles, those on unemployment benefit, less weekly hours on average.

Monthly wages

Those who have reduced the prices of their offerings, applied for financial support, stronger creative identity, low perceived business skills The survey findings echo well with the experiences of creative workers across Europe as presented in previous sections. For some creative freelancers and entrepreneurs, monthly wages provide fixed earnings to cover basic living costs. However, in terms of income inadequacy the (living) costs tend to be adjusted according to earnings. Therefore, if one third of the respondents claims that their income does not cover their living costs, they may find it difficult to make any adjustments. It is, indeed, hard to say whether having living costs covered equals with decent living. As one of our interviewees stated, “I think people would be quite amazed with how little money you can survive” (LE14M30s). Our findings resonate with previous research indicating that creative professionals engage in portfolio work combining different forms of employment (self-employment, waged work and unpaid work) in creative and non-creative domains. Contrary to some previous research findings, this portfolio work seems the preferred mode of work for many and the full-time employment or self-employment is not necessarily the desired aim. The challenge however is whether the form(s) employment generate sufficient earnings to cover even the basic living costs.

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3. Resources of creative individuals 3.1. Scope of the chapter Valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and non-substitutable resources and capabilities that a firm controls are seen important for them to build sustainable competitive advantage (Barney 1991, Barney et al. 2001). At the firm level these tangible and intangible resources comprise management skills, organisational processes and routines, and the information and knowledge a firm controls (Barney et al., 2001). These findings have been transferred also to the individual level in order to understand how entrepreneurs use their individualspecific resources in their entrepreneurial process. Based on the resource-based view (RBV), Alvarez and Busenitz (2001) suggest that entrepreneurship involves the entrepreneur’s unique awareness of opportunities (opportunity recognition), the ability to acquire the resources needed to exploit the opportunity (acquiring resources), and the organisational ability to combine inputs into heterogeneous outputs (organising resources and creating outputs). Accordingly, individual resources such as entrepreneurial alertness, insight, entrepreneurial knowledge, and the ability to coordinate resources are important resources for an entrepreneur to build sustainable competitive advantage (Alvarez & Busenitz, 2001).

Scholars have jointly developed different perspectives to the RBV and gradually started to use the term resource-based theory (RBT) instead of RBV (Barney et al., 2011) to highlight that the seminal ideas have developed into a theory. When developing the RBT further it has been acknowledged that micro-foundations for RBT need to be explored. Particularly heterogeneous human capital (individual's skills and experiences) is a critical underlying mechanism of capabilities (Barney et al., 2011) and success as an entrepreneur (Gimeno et al., 1997), and its meaning for success increases together with individual's social capital (access to networks and expertise) (Davidsson & Honig, 2003). Although the RBT has originally been developed for the purposes of strategic management of a firm, it is applicable for analysing the resources of entrepreneurs and freelancers. The elements of RBT seem highly relevant also when exploring the resources of creative portfolio workers. Given their work in precarious environment, creative professional may need to employ bricolage (Baker & Nelson, 2005) or even improvisation (Adomako et al., 2018) to overcome the challenges set by resource scarcity.

Hence, it is important to explore what kinds of individual-specific resources in opportunity recognition and creation of heterogeneous outputs creative entrepreneurs and freelancers employ in their creative work and in creating sustainable living and competitive advantage for themselves. In our research data we found different types of resources, which the creative entrepreneurs and freelancers rely on when creating their creative outputs. In the following sections we first discuss the individual resources that relate to their skills and ways of working to tackle the issue of scarcity of resources and skills. Then we discuss resources of others, which complement their own resources. Finally, we look at the creative ecosystem, namely creative premises and spaces, as well as external support programmes which they consider to be important resources for their creative activities.

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3.2. Individual resources and working modes 3.2.1. Self-sufficiency and using resources in hands Driven by freedom and passion but having limited resources, creative freelancers and entrepreneurs rely on their own individual resources to create something new. Our data demonstrates how creative entrepreneurs are highly apt in bricolage which implies “making do by applying combinations of resources at hand to new problems and opportunities” (Baker & Nelson, 2005, 333). The participants emphasize using their own skills and resources and being self-sufficient as much as possible in order to save money and to be able to generate sufficient income. Being “self-sufficient” or “trying to learn to do as much as possible by oneself” are important goals. One of the interviewees, a photographer, highlights how he tries to do everything by himself to reduce the costs: “I am doing everything myself, including, if you will, selling, which happens you know three or four times a year that I sell something. The rest is just costs.” (LU16M60S). Being in charge of everything by oneself implies freedom but also requires self-discipline and persistence.

There is no one to tell you what to do and when, but one needs to be responsible of one’s commitments and performance: “Self-discipline is very important...when I have to finish something for a deadline, I do not need a boss or leader who tells me when I should start and finish working. I can split my own time so I can be effective.” (PE6F50s) “I think that the attitude you need to maintain to want to do this job is a good predisposition and the determination to want to do it, because if you are not more than convinced, then the sacrifices are too great to face, and you might as well change perspective and change direction immediately.” (LA9M50s) Delegating or hiring of additional help may not be easy as the tasks are small, and thus aiming to delegate them many not be worthwhile use of time: “…there's a lot of different tasks. And because it's a small company, all those tasks are relatively small. So, it's tricky to give those tasks to someone else.” (EN9F30s). Furthermore, there is not necessarily anyone to rely on and no backup available if needed. Therefore, selfsufficiency, flexibility and trusting on one’s own skills are highlighted: “And normally it's done, sort of at the weekends when there's no one to call upon at the office and things, you've got no backup.

So, you kind of have to be, quite confident in being able to cope with situations sometimes.” (CH2F40s) Such self-sufficiency and doing it all by oneself can be a necessity and a constraint, but also a source of job satisfaction. Multiple, even basic tasks may enrich the work and provide different experiences. “Everything, everything, absolutely, yes. It is... it is something interesting, very, very interesting experience that most probably I would not gain in another profession [laughing], so diverse. Concerts, preparing for concerts, arranging the hall, the most basic things that no one will do. Also, you have to change toilet paper rolls in WCs, and so on, so on.” (LI13M30s) Resourcefulness is not only an asset when completing a given assignment. It is also a useful mindset or a way of working when trying to find new solutions in an unexpected situation. If one door closes, it may be possible to open up new doors when putting effort on solving the dilemma, as one participant explains:

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“Sometimes a project ends because the funding or funder says no. You cannot really, it's not your own decision. And depending on what's the reason, you decide whether or not you should go forward in another direction. Yeah, so, it's difficult to give one answer to that question. But usually what I do is I try to always with the situation and see if I can turn it around. Or make another solution and be proactive in it and not just sit down and say oh shit, it's not going to work. Because then stuff ends.” (EN9F30s) A visual artist learnt to do her bookkeeping by herself but continued to be hesitant about her skills and therefore asked her friend to check it on regular basis: “She says I don't need her help but I don't believe her, I think I still very much need her help. I'm very happy for her to just do the last check with me because I hate that. It's horrible, I think. (LU22F50S). Feeling insecurity of her business skills, by being self-sufficient she wants to learn by doing. On one hand, self-sufficiency is an asset which makes it possible for creative professionals to run their businesses with low cost. On the other hand, an attempt to master all aspects of the business by oneself may also be a deficiency as one easily loses the target. Being self-sufficient does not only cover business-related tasks but it is important also in activities related to arts.

For example, in performative arts a variety of skills are needed in order to be able to organise an event. By working in different kinds of projects, it is possible to learn different skills which are needed. It is important to be able to integrate business and arts in order to get it all done by oneself as described by an entrepreneur in performing arts: “So, I've been able to do some, the Festival website, I did that myself. And, I did some work for a little bit, a few years ago, running a website for another company, as a little side project. And then, things like my own projects, I've learned how to do them technically. So, I can walk into a space and I can know how to set up some lights and connect my computer to their lighting, and their sound, and all of that. So, yeah. So, the business side and the art side, I've tried to learn to do as much as possible myself, just so I can do stuff.” (LU26M30S) The ways in which creative freelancers organise scarce resources to create outputs oftentimes translates into self-sufficiency and flexible use of resources at hand. This makes it possible for creative entrepreneurs and freelancers to pursue creative activities, which they find meaningful and interesting.

In entrepreneurship research it has been found that the self-employed are consistently more satisfied with their jobs than waged workers, which is explained by autonomy and versatility of their work and that they are engaging in meaningful work (Hytti et al., 2013). On the other hand, self-employed are less likely to be satisfied with their job security (Millán et al., 2011) which is also visible in a form of unsustainable creative deal among creative professionals as discussed in previous chapter. Seeking autonomy, versatility and meaningfulness in their work as creatives are important resources for our study participants. Being self-sufficient is an asset but it may also be a liability. There may be nobody to rely on even if needed and time is used in too many nonproductive routines. Furthermore, self-sufficiency requires constant learning by doing in order to cope with new situations which will be discussed next.

3.2.2. Learning to tackle uncertainty and lack of own (business) skills Many of the creative entrepreneurs in our data bring out the feelings of uncertainty in relation to themselves as skilful freelancers and entrepreneurs when taking care of everything by themselves. Creative entrepreneurs use their own skills as a resource as much as possible as was highlighted in the previous section. It certainly implies learning new things: “It's just I learned when I needed it, learned by doing. I'm very much a doer, I do things and I learn and when I need something.” (LU24F50S) Further learning is 26

important, particularly in business-related skills and tasks. For example, the interviewees learn to do compulsory business-related tasks, such as bookkeeping themselves to reduce costs. “When you were thinking about that, that's part of the business, that's part of having your own firm. You can leave it to someone but then that costs money of course. So I did a bookkeeping course and just took the bull by the horns and, so, yeah.” (LU22F50S). The participants consider business-related tasks remote for themselves and feel uncertain about their own business skills. Lack of business skills and uncertainty are not discouraging the interviewee as an artist or preventing her to do what she is interested in. On the contrary, the desire to become a good artist pushes her to step into the unpleasant field of marketing to find ways through education for example to demonstrate one’s work: “It's not very easy to get a good exhibition place always if you're not that good at selling yourself. […] Then I found other ways, through education for example, but I have never given up my own artwork.” (LU24F50S). Another younger freelancer who had studied (arts) for years feels embarrassed of needing to rely on someone else to be able to manage their businesses. “I just had to sign forms without knowing what was written there, something like that.

So I felt really insecure about that and I had also a bitter feeling that they were messing with me. That I was being super naïve and... [..] I was five years...eight years studying and I didn't know how to make a bill. Ridiculous.” (LE2F30s) Business-related tasks may be considered even scary, and they may pose a barrier for efficient work: “I know that that it sometimes keeps me from doing stuff because it's an unknown territory and therefore difficult and scary.” (LU22F50S) Business is considered messy and something not desired: “This stuff to run a business, because these things are, kind of, not in my area of expertise, so they take up an incredible amount of the time, and then there’s a lot to learn.” (PO31F20S). Creative entrepreneurs often find the business environment and the language of sales and marketing difficult and remote for them. “I don’t really know, who my target audience could be” (PO028F30S) stated by a graphic designer illustrates how creative entrepreneurs often think about their markets and audience. This may imply a wish not to be engaged in business practices of trying to identify the ‘target audiences’ and ‘customer segments’ for the purposes of targeted marketing and sales. However, there are also creative entrepreneurs who identify their target audiences and are comfortable in promoting their work for them.

“I would say that the age range for my target group might be, like, middle-aged women, I feel like that’s about it, if I look at my Instagram followers […] And maybe those, who are interested in hand-made and Finnish products. And then, because my products are often pretty colourful, so you do notice that it’s people, who are inspired by colours and have that kind of courage in their style, because they aren’t everyone’s style.” (PO31F20S) The designer who makes hand-made shoes speculates about the target group of her products based on her Instagram followers and the qualities of the product. The choice may not have been deliberate to start with as she made the first shoes as a present to her sister, and the business evolved from there. Creative entrepreneurs also referred to their insufficient skills in selling and marketing particularly as they understood that they would need to become known in order to get projects for themselves. It is important for all new entrepreneurs to find a way to becoming known by the potential customers. This is obviously more difficult for those in the beginning of their career.

They are uncertain how they balance between pushing themselves at the forefront and remaining in the background to be found: But they need to find you somehow? They need to be the ones who go and show interest and then you can...it's kind of a love game I guess if it's too direct it doesn't work. So yeah, it's important to be visible and how do you make yourself visible? (LE2F30s) 27

The participants identify a direct relationship between how known they are and their ability to generate income. Therefore, building a name is a goal which brings money and, thus, a possibility to do creative activities. However, being recognized is not only a business issue, but it gives also personal satisfaction as a successful creative professional. It works on making my name more known and promoting is one and of course it also will get more money and it's always helpful to have more money because then you can do more and nicer things. (LE8M40s) The business can be divided into two, there is the creative industry thing, and the operational thing, starting from marketing for example… I usually say that there were great artists who died by hunger. Since we are in an economic cycle, that part is not negligible, it has to be a fertile thing, success is not always related to business, success is to put it in one of the Facebook groups and get 5 thousand likes and get messages from people about how beautiful the dresses are. Recognition coming back from the audience is like applause in the theatre, because the actor does not only do it because he gets paid, or earns a lot, it’s not the point.

(PE3M30s) Along with experience partnerships and clientele also develop and some more experienced interviewees with a longer creative career indicate that they do not necessarily need to do any customer acquisition. Particularly at later career phases long-term relationships are important resources in the business. When I started to be self-employed it was hard to create a basic partnership. Now, I mostly have permanent assignments. I edit newspapers, magazines, so I built my partnership and now I don’t have to think about who to ask. The other orders are just bonuses. (PE6F50s) Related to the difficult relationship with money, our data also demonstrate that pricing is something that creative entrepreneurs consider challenging and somewhat remote for them. Pricing and talking about money make them feel uncomfortable, something that they definitely cannot or do not want to handle: “Well, [pricing] is horribly difficult and I hate this money stuff.” (PO028F30S). Pricing is an area where support is appreciated: “I could use some help there sometimes. But also, for example negotiating about prices. That's not my favourite thing to do and it is very important.” (EN8M20s) Our data further demonstrate that uncertainty can also be related to the experience of not been taken seriously as a skilful artist e.g.

due to age and gender in combination with the technology as experienced by an entrepreneur in the field of films and virtual reality: “Now I'm going into a new area of VR for example, and as a woman 56 years old...you can sometimes feel that young guys, you have to like...show them that you are good, if you are 28 yourself and a guy they respect you from the first but if you are 56 and a woman and a priest...you have to show them that you know something because they don't believe it.” (LU23F50S) She felt that the emerging field of virtual reality was not considered possible for her but rather for younger men with more suitable education. This made her demonstrate her capabilities and challenge the expectations. One of the female participants explained how it is important to be ‘deaf’ to the questioning and doubts, in order to go forward (LI9F40s). A participant was striving hard for doing good arts but still he was unsure about whether and how he can make it: “I always have this feeling that I'm doing, that I'm not doing enough, that I'm almost not there, and it is this constant feeling of trying to be more than what you are, which is a 28

good way of striving, but it's also very annoying because you, at the end of the week, you always feel like you didn't move anything, you didn't make a step.” (LE14M30s) Digitalisation has transformed also the ways in which creative entrepreneurs can approach their audience and customers (Gross et al., 2020). This has become more visible during the pandemic (see also Chapter 4 Impact of Covid-19 to creative work). Therefore, learning to use social media for example is also being resourceful: “I mean you try to make yourself digitally or online available by more frequently and in different ways reaching people who cannot come to your place.” (LU16M60S) Social media brings visibility to wider audiences although it is acknowledged that all potential customers are not accessible via social media. An entrepreneur who at the age of 26 years has just got her bachelor’s degree as a shoe designer also utilizes social media when communicating and networking. She is pondering whether ”Instagram is not that kind of a platform for all people in the age range [of her target group].” (PO31F20S) Learning new things and trying out new, even difficult ways of doing, such as utilising technology in new ways, is important for creative freelancers and entrepreneurs. This is also important for keeping up the creative energy.

Learning by doing can be empowering and take place all the time also at later stages of one’s career as one photographer in his 60s described: “I learn things everyday and that's, I think that's what keep us going. The moment you sit down and say no I can't do that, no I'm not interested, no it's too complex for me etc, then you are beginning to learn. Simply. It is very fascinating with the modern technology. I've always used it.” (LU16M60S) Our data show how the implementation of creative piece of work may also involve new production processes, materials and approaches with learning and experimenting. A young cultural entrepreneur did not follow the taken for granted thinking of making shoes of leather but designed a pair of shoes as a Christmas present for her vegan sister. An idea of shoes made of fabric for a vegan is about experimenting with a new approach. “When you do something that is completely your own thing, then no one else can really say how it works before you try it yourself. […] They [school] had this principle that the leather shoes were kind of the default, everyone would be doing them, and then for me that was kind of, that I don’t really know if this is for me.

Then I thought that I would try to make shoes out of fabric.” (PO31F20S) It is not only a lack of business related skills than cause anxiety and insecurity among creative freelancers and entrepreneurship, but also the creative activity per se is considered to be challenging. The high standards put to the artistic work may cause insecurity although high goals at the same time encourage to strive for better performance. Feeling that the work is never ‘ready’ or ‘perfect’ may cause anxiety. Therefore, insecurity can be an important strength as it is the resource that motivates to aim to do better by constantly questioning oneself: “But... but the... perhaps the ineptitude, I should not like to say that it is a positive aspect of myself, but the ineptitude to overcome my low self-esteem is the thing that ensures my capability and the success.” (LI9F40s) The creative field is also depicted as draining – and an arena where it is not only others who doubt you but one also easily doubts oneself: “…thing that sometimes drags me down is unrelenting doubt, that... Well, I don’t see myself as someone impressive. The way I see myself is that whenever I go in a room full of people, somehow it seems to me that everyone there is smarter than me. Well, not in 29

terms of wisdom, but I have the feeling: “Oh, that’s like...” And that is my inner feeling.” (LI9F40s). It is also about persistently striving for the better and finding one’s own way to do arts. A freelancer artist strives for the ‘perfect’ piece of arts and dreams that one day he could understand the meaning of his works and the ways in which he finalizes any of his projects: “…with the hopes of one day having some kind of clue of what I'm doing, and to finally formulate what it is that I don't understand, that I would like to understand. Yeah, I think that's the big project. “(LE14M30s) Continuous learning and experience gained during the career is an important resource when doing creative work. It is also important to keep on developing the magnitude of skills and be updated in order to be competitive. “I think the main skill is my working experience, my 10 years working experience and I think developing my professional skills is also very important. I think we have to be up-todate with the information about these online marketing things because it’s not so difficult to learn how to be an online marketer or how to be a social media manager.

The secret is that you have to be up-to-date, because if you’re not and you miss one news and you won’t use it in the campaigns, you easily can be the loser of the race.” (PE25M40s) Meeting one’s own standards put on creative work requires continuous learning. This gives possibilities for following one’s own path without copying others in creative activities as well as pushing yourself to new challenges and experimenting: “There is always something new in this, you can develop yourself in it…. I like to try new techniques. If it works well, it's a success for me. …it’s not a success for me to make a tattoo from a picture, but when they are asking for my own art. It is a much greater success. I think it is very important that I work hard, keep improving…” (PE9F20s) Tackling uncertainty requires hard work and persistence. Doing arts may require learning new techniques when exploring and exploiting one’s own creativity. It is not only about completing the creative assignment, such as tattoo, well enough to please the customer, but being able to express oneself in doing it. Creative entrepreneurs and freelancers feel insecure about their own skills but their passion for creative activities pushes them to acquire and learn new skills by doing.

Such learning is vital for their development as creative professionals if and when it allows discovering their strengths and weaknesses in front of new opportunities and constraints (Hanage et al., 2021; Honig & Hopp, 2019). Uncertainty of their own skills is visible in business-related issues particularly, such as bookkeeping, pricing, talking about finances in general, selling, and marketing, which they also find remote for themselves. They acknowledge a need to become known in order to get new assignments, but it is challenging to gain such visibility. Also new digital technologies and techniques are being learnt and experimented in order to create something new. They feel uncertainty of their artistic skills – whether they ever can perform well enough – but strive for a high quality energizes them to learn new skills and experiment new techniques and approaches. Experimenting and learning from mistakes and failures will be discussed next.

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3.2.3. Experimenting and making mistakes Uncertainty of the skills and need to learn new things pushes creative entrepreneurs and freelancers to experiment and learn by doing. This supports them in acquiring and organising resources to produce creative outputs. They are prepared to throw themselves into the (creative) process in order to create something new although they do not necessarily foresee the outcome. Many explain how it is important to “face struggle, to take on something complicated” (LI9F40s) – and how art and creative things are born out of this struggle. “Because to me, I have always liked to achieve the best result under the most impossible circumstances. As a matter of fact, that is how everything in my life has been accomplished. Because when I look back on how something has started in my life or what I have commenced, and how powerfully it has developed, at a dizzying speed. Taking into consideration that the very beginning of it has been, well... in general... not very promising [laughing].” (LI9F40s) “And from the point of being having to be self driven and realising that if I wanted to do the things that I wanted to do to earn a living from then I had to do it myself. So that was the biggest thing I learned. And, you know, out of quite what I would say 'It's a bad situation' that was the positive was that it made me use initiative.

-- And it absolutely helped me on an ongoing basis of working out 'Right, well, if I want to do that, then I got to do this first'.” (CH20F30s) Taking initiative and just starting to develop something new is crucial for being able to work as a creative freelancer or entrepreneur. It is also very much about realizing that the work is actually never finalized but there is a continuous need to develop one’s skills and activities. A glass maker who continued his long family tradition emphasizes constant experimenting and development: “And I started experimenting, developing various things, because I realised, and I have always been told, that everything you do is never finished: you are your own competitor”. (TR15M50s) An important resource or motivation for the creatives to experiment is linked to the idea of wishing to challenge things and existing practices. The outcome may not only be an impressive and memorable creative event but also a possibility to create one’s name and benefit from it in a longer run by not being forced to market or sell for new assignments: “Well, I always have, let’s say, for example, I have always wanted to host a rocker wedding, to me that would be a great challenge, something absolutely different. And yes, this type of challenges, so that there is no such daily routine, the same type of events all the time.

Yes, perhaps it would be nice if I no longer had to advertise myself so much, so that people already know who I am, that they are aware of my existence without unnecessary advertising.” (LI21F30s) Ideation and thinking differently are elementary parts of creative professionals' work. However, they do not take place automatically but need continuous effort as the interviewee, a visual artist, explains: “I am a very creative person, I think. I have it very easy to find new ideas. […] It was somebody that told me I was so lucky to have to do that and I said, ok I'm not lucky it's because I work for it. It doesn't just come to me. I have to work and work hard to get it visible why it's important.” (LU24F50S) 31

The creative ideas need to be worked for – they do not just fall from the sky. In that sense they can be paralleled to business opportunities, which need to be created in order for entrepreneurial action to take place (Alvarez & Barney, 2007). By investing time on ideation and experimenting different ways to implement them may pay back when the project becomes true and something new and meaningful may be accomplished as an outcome. An important enabler is that the person identifies as someone who likes experimenting and accepting of new things and identifying as some “who doesn’t say “no”, but rather “well, ok, let’s give it a try” (LI21F30s). Creative work is sensitive, and involves emotions. Making mistakes and imposing oneself to critique from the audience is part of being a creative artist and an entrepreneur: “Experimenting and testing and exposing myself to the opinions of other people, it is what has honed me [my skills].” (PO30F30S). However, one should not let them lead too much one’s work or to be too hard on oneself as it hampers creativity as an entrepreneur, photographer describes: “I'm not a kind of self-killing, self-censorship and say no I'm never good enough. It doesn't lead anywhere. I respect people who are very critical of their own work and hardly will show them to anybody and all that, but it's not me.

I rather bring it out and see, what are the reactions here and then I say shit that was not so good, I better do something else.” (LU16M60S) On the other hand, he also urged for some self-criticism, and encouragement to “killing your darlings” to keep up the high quality: “Whereas when you see it as your own work only, then of course you love it, you think it's fantastic and bla bla bla. So that distance from your own work is very important, and that's a challenge because you have to kill your darlings sometimes. You thought this was great and it turned out to not be great.” (LU16M60S) When experimenting it is evident that mistakes and failures take place. Then it is important not to become discouraged but rather to find the way out, learn and improve the offering based on the experience. It is not possible to prepare oneself to everything but rather try to learn to tolerate insecurity as the interviewed shoemaker stated: “And when you have these failures or a partnership is not working or a deal ends up and someone calls you that the shoes got broken the same day and things like that, so can you prepare for that, so that you don’t completely fall apart if something doesn’t work out immediately.” (PO31F20S). Experimenting can take place in any processes and techniques related to creative work. It can also take place in business related issues.

Our data is informative on the variety of ways in which creative entrepreneurs and freelancers’ experiment and apply new approach to pricing for example (see more on pricing D4.3 Value creation modelling –report, 2.4.4 Pricing practices). Creative work is something that they feel difficult to value and price. Some customers may still think that creative work is something that should be available for free for everyone and that it would be fair enough for creative entrepreneurs to have a possibility to reach the audience with a possibility to perform. Therefore, creative entrepreneurs try to learn and experiment new ways of pursuing economic value, pricing, and setting enough monetary value to artistic work as emphasized in the interview by an entrepreneur in the performing arts: “I think that there's still that group of people expecting you to work for free, that stays with you for quite a while, I think. […] So, I've learned a lot from understanding how sound recordists actually charge for their time, because I've been doing that as well. So, now, in 32

my artist work I'm also going, okay, but this is my day rate, effectively, for doing sound work. So, my artist work shouldn't be less than that. You know, it's a different type of work, maybe, but I don't really, if I get that day rate then I'm happy. […] I'm being a bit more careful about that and saying, no this is my minimum. If you don't pay this then you don't get the project.” (LU26M30S) Fair salary or compensation for the hours worked is considered good enough a business. However, there are possibilities for some extra as one participant explains: “My income is basically linked to the good performance of the centre …we can imagine that in some particularly prosperous periods we also have a bonus, let's say so, we've all given ourselves a monthly basis so that we have a fair wage based on the work and the hours of work.” (TR24F40s) It seems that pricing is based on the hours invested to accomplish creative services. However, it may also be about experimenting and daring to charge enough for one’s services. A visual artist offering group sessions to teach pottery making decided to consider a more customized pricing model as she was demanded to give private lessons.

She found it strange to start with but through successfully experimenting realized it as a new opportunity to expand her activities and sales: “Last week there was a man who sent me a message and asked if I could have a course for his wife, just her. And I was thinking [sighs] no, but then I was thinking well, okay, let's see what they are ready to pay.[…] So that might be another way of expanding.” (LU22F50S) Data demonstrate that capturing the value for one’s work is challenging for creative freelancers and entrepreneurs. Finding the right price for a project or a piece of art requires balancing and experimenting: expensive offerings do not get sold, but inexpensive do not cover the time and costs invested to produce it. Calculating every single cost may be hard and therefore a painter defined the right price in a mundane manner as “…the best thing is if I get some of my paintings sold but it should be very hard to get everything sold.” (LU24F50S) So for her the right price tag was a price where demand and supply meet, i.e. she was willing the sell and the customer was willing to pay. She also considered that she could sell her painting a bit cheaper if the customer comes to her studio to purchase it as she then does not need to pay the rent of the exhibition room.

Furthermore, too low a price may danger the markets of the future products as described by an early-career freelancer artist who accidentally was ‘forced’ to sell one of his big works which he, however, considered not to be ready for sale. “I don't think it's very intelligent to sell works too quickly, too fast, at too low rates…I don't know if you know a lot about like the primary and the secondary markets in the art world, but like if there is too much pieces on the secondary market, it can completely destroy your primary market career… But yeah, for the sculpture, it was very difficult, because I was also not expecting somebody to be interested in buying it. It's quite big, in volume. For this, it was very hard to calculate a price and it was also really in the moment, something which happened quite fast. And then, there was this element of having the, I didn't pay for building it, so it was all budgets of different other projects that I did, so it was quite expensive to make, but it was all paid by different organizations, which gave me the idea of lowering the price, but I don't know if this was a very good idea, but yeah.” (LE14M30s) A content creator working as an entrepreneur describes how she has found her way to differentiate herself in the markets not only locally, but most importantly in larger cities, too. She justifies her lower prices by 33

working in rural, less expensive region and acknowledges that customer coming from a more prosperous regions find therefore her services appealing: “I think that the sector’s disadvantage is that they can’t sell themselves, even though they are perfect artists. …. I also had a personal campaign like this - professional quality, rural price. It is present in marketing absolutely, even in my activities. But I experience that a lot of people love Pécs based entrepreneurs, so I had customers from Budapest who told me that they look for Pécs enterprises, because they know we are so creative. Somehow they realize the creativity and good quality and they know we work for rural prices.” (PE17F40s) This example suggests that it is important to understand the right price in the context. It seems that creative entrepreneurs and freelancers try to apply and are happy with cost-based pricing method and it is harder for them to price their services based on the value created for the customer. Sometimes the value for the customer may exceed the costs occurred (either hours worked or material costs) which then implies ‘missed’ income for the entrepreneur.

On the other hand, our data also reveals that it is not always possible to charge for all the costs occurred as the customers cannot afford it due to (too many) hours of experimenting and learning or many professionals involved in organizing the event, for example. Experimenting is done also for the creative offerings per se or the channels and the ways in which the services are made accessible to the customers. Examples of experimenting with new approaches link to questioning the existing ways of doing things. The interviewed creative entrepreneurs discussed their ideas for increasing their (business) activities, offerings and income: “And I also have this, I will try to do [and offer] courses in design and Photoshop illustration. And do courses online, so that could be a good income, if they sell.” (LU20F50S) In concrete forms, the experiments are done to get contacts and make oneself known but also sharing them with the creative community. By talking to a lot of people, work starts to come in. “Even if I hadn't started the podcast, maybe that work would have still come in.

But the podcasts have been one of the best ways that I've been able to make connections in the creative community and build an audience around that as well.” (DU25M30s) By being open for new experiments and having fertile enough a ground to experiments it is possible to learn important skills and get access to networks that help one to get started. Even at later career phase one remembers how important the connections built in the early phases were for his business. “…kind of quite interesting virtual circle of pure technology, corporate, so all the US-based culture of NCR, the creative sector that's music, both music and arts and design in general, and then because of the size and scale of the city if you had had an idea and you wanted to try to do something, the business community I had a great network in Dundee that could let me get on and try and do the things I wanted to. And I think, you know, in those early years of what I was trying to do it was exactly the right decision and it helped me certainly get my first business off the ground”. (DU10M50s) The nature of creative work in attempting to create new offering involves experimenting and development. Many interviewees communicate their inclination to do something unique and challenging, which has not been earlier done by others.

This may involve new materials, techniques or processes, which are unknown and need to be tested. New trends such as sustainability or circular economy may also be important triggering and guiding issues of their creative offerings: “Well, from it all I like experimenting, and usually I am that person who accepts the unusual orders which are not completely. Well, which touch a little bit of what I do but 34

additionally to that they also offer something new. And then I try to find out how to make it, how to do it. And in this case the last orders were from the cycling industry, I was sowing and making the so called steering gloves and cycling bags, things like that. But those were individual orders, and if necessary, I can send them over for you to see. (LI7F20s) And next to that because it's bit on the forefront and developing, in its textile development, I'm participating in several research projects in the field of sustainability, and also of wearable technology. (EN9F30s) Further, embracing versatility, allowing oneself to go back and forth between the different positions and different areas of expertise without knowing the ultimate outcome and how it might be used is considered important. New experiences and endeavours are believed to refresh one’s thinking and capabilities to deliver something new and different, but it certainly implies throwing oneself to the process and trusting on the process: “Well it's not art, it's not science, but what is it? I have no idea, it's developing, I'm working now on landscapes, building landscapes, actually literally making small models of landscapes, for now they can be used in education, in for better understanding water management. And I'm totally back in my old study again, water management.