Ever thought about learning about how to negotiate? If you are a self-employed creative you may be getting a bit hacked off with feeling you are not getting paid enough or lack resources.  If you have time, the art of negotiation is explored during the next Entrepreneurship for Creatives  course which runs as a Summer School at the Central Saint Martins Granary Square Campus or available as a live online course starting this month.

Negotiation is an intellectual skill which combines understanding a number of different subjects such as copyright, contract law, and licensing combined with creative thinking and presentation skills. Unless these subjects are understood its not possible to gain a fair rate or make more from an opportunity than is on offer.

Many people make the mistake of purely concentrating on the fee rather than thinking of a number of other longer term benefits or making money in other ways from the commissioning  or sales process.

Negotiation is most effective in real time conversations, face to face if possible, avoid negotiating by email. There are several reasons why, one being  interaction being impersonal and out of sync, loss of other crucial elements such as atmosphere, facial expressions and tone of voice. Email also is such a cold form of communication, whereas in business you need to build a lively warm rapport with clients  and exude confidence if you wish to gain a good deal.

The Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis is currently travelling the world meeting with people of influence face-to-face. Yanis is an expert in game theory, he has a plan combining ‘logic and ideology’. Experts in negotiation like him know you have to physically meet people to achieve your objectives even if it is way, way, way…out of your comfort zone.

In these difficult times we need to think creatively about how to make something worth our while, sometimes valuable resources or a really good client endorsement can be worth more in real terms then the original fee or price charged.

If you can’t afford a course take a look at one or two of my books which cover these subjects, The Essential Guide to Business for Artists & Designers, Revised and Updated and Making Sense of Business.