The Rise of the Cultural Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurial Characteristics
There are many characteristics of an entrepreneur that bring together common factors helping to make them successful but there are no hard and fast rules to describe who an entrepreneur may be.
They come in many different shapes and sizes. No two entrepreneurs seem to be the same so that it is very difficult to pin down exactly who is an entrepreneur. Some are extroverts and some are introverts, some have a family history of entrepreneurs whilst others do not, some start with poverty when others begin with wealth, some are young and some are old, some are men and some are women. (Bolton & Thompson)
What is a Cultural Entrepreneur?
The term Cultural Entrepreneur is a relatively new one and has arisen due to the decline in public subsidy; a streamlining of large organisations (due partly to technology); the dot com era; and the technological shift in how we produce work. All of these factors have come together to make individuals more enterprising in how they make money.
UK self-employment figures for the creative industries are over double the national average and there is evidence that the workforce is much younger than traditional industries. Starting up an enterprise within the cultural industries, and making money from it, has become much easier than 25 years ago. With small start-up costs and a wealth of free information and advice the budding cultural entrepreneur is emerging in towns and cities all over the world.
James Brown – Editor
One such entrepreneur is former Loaded Magazine founder and editor James Brown. The man cited with revolutionising men’s publishing in the 90’s.
Brown started his career at the NME as a music journalist and like many other entrepreneurs seized an opportunity that he felt was uncharted. Speaking at a conference for ‘Inspiring Entrepreneurs’, hosted by the British Library’s Business & IP, he comments that in the early nineties men read specialist magazines (music, cars) and the general consensus within the publishing world was that men wouldn’t buy in to mass-on-mass magazines as women did with titles such as Cosmopolitan.
This was his idea, his niche: A magazine that reflected what he and his friends were interested in. It was a simple formula and so the Loaded title was launched in 1994. Although he “had total and utter belief that we were right” he still had to convince the publishing company this was the case. His conviction and determination to succeed with the project, although seen as very risky to the publishers, meant that it became the fastest ever-growing title that IPC (the publisher) had ever launched. The magazine was projected to break even in year 3 but the magazine ‘pay back’ took just 9 months.
Brown’s title was timely, his magazine captured the youth and ‘new’ lad culture of the time, as he comments; “The best thing I had was luck. For me the best definition of luck is when ambition meets opportunity”. Brown grasped that opportunity and did what he needed to turn it in to a success. Loaded won numerous awards in Brown’s leadership and also saw him win Editor of the year several times.
The motivations to become an Entrepreneur
Like many entrepreneurs not everything Brown touches turns to gold. He has had his share of encounters with failure, all be it very brief, that he has turned into worthwhile life-learning opportunities. With his past experience and insight into the way the market was behaving Brown launched the publishing company I Feel Good. Just 4 years later he sold the group for around £6.4m.
Being motivated and continually looking for the next challenge, whilst having the faith to do what you think is right, are the common traits of entrepreneurship that Brown demonstrated again and again.
The Entrepreneurial Approach
One thing that is common with Cultural Entrepreneur’s is their ability to work alone or in small teams. The management structures are generally unsophisticated and although this can offer a certain amount of freedom to respond quickly to new ideas and markets their size can make them vulnerable.
When Brown was looking to put his Loaded team together he recalls a talk by the American business guru Tom Peters. Peter’s advise was to make sure that when building a team it was diverse and included at least one ‘weirdo’ who didn’t necessarily fit in with the ‘suits’. Someone who would challenge, think differently and ask awkward questions. “He said you need 99 straight guys and one weird guy,” commented Brown. “I just turned it on its head”.
Rather than employ a traditional publishing team Brown surrounded himself with people who lived the lifestyle of the magazine he wanted to create. Most of the people who worked at Loaded had never worked in publishing before. It was a big gamble and one that paid off.
Entrepreneurs are ambitious. Ambition, on its own, however does not make an entrepreneur. The entrepreneur’s ambition is about wanting to change things and about knowing he or she has the werewithal to make this change. (Southon & West)
Birmingham City University, blogs, case study, students | Kerry Thomas | Friday, February 29, 2008
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
You write very well.