In this online workshop for 18-30 year old creative freelancers Jon Aitken and Bex Baxter will help you explore how to manage and value money.

Managing finance as a freelancer can be a tricky thing to balance alongside making creative work, as is understanding how the value you bring to a project or client translates into money. Being confident and bold about your value can be even more intimidating. This workshop will explore what it means to offer your services for money and how to understand your worth as a self employed creative, with practical tips on putting systems in place to make your approach to earning a living easier.

In this online workshop participants will:

• Explore different practical ways to manage money, whether this is direct income or an external budget
• Explore how to set day rates that work for you
• Explore the psychological, cultural and socio-economic influences that too often limit and stigmatise the artist into consciously or unconsciously living within limited resources or believing they shouldn't 'want' to value or earn money through their art.
• Offer new ways of relating and talking about money, inviting participants to challenge tensions and pioneer new empowered narratives for themselves and their creative communities.

About Jon Aitken:

Jon Aitken is a freelance filmmaker and photographer based in Bristol. With a background in journalism and marketing, he has spent six years creating content for arts organisations and businesses around the UK, and documenting people and events internationally.

Jon regularly facilitates workshops introducing people to filmmaking and creating online content, as well as how to approach running a business as a freelancer in the creative industries.

Alongside this, Jon has edited several short films and is now writing his own, exploring the comedic nuances of the queer experience.

About Bex Baxter:

Bex Baxter is a life coach/facilitator, singing teacher, music manager, Tedx speaker and former director of Coexist CIC (the organisation that powered the creative hub, Hamilton House in Stokes Croft). She has overseen the journeys of hundreds of artists through her 10 year commitment and is passionate about empowering artists and creatives.

Including serving as People Development Manager and Board Chair, Bex pioneered a menstrual flexibility policy at Coexist to acknowledge biological cycles at work. This garnered significant media and public attention internationally, and in 2017 she gave a TED talk on the positive impact of the policy for the whole organisation.

Bex has a background in youth work, facilitation and the arts and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Art and Social Context at Bower Ashton. She is currently working as a Life Coach for female creatives/ entrepreneurs and sings professionally as part of The Fraser Anderson Band.

Who is it for:

This Lab is part of a series of workshops curated by Rife at Watershed for freelance 18 – 30 year old early career creatives or those who are a little more established in their practice. Themes include ‘setting boundaries’, ‘purposeful branding’, ‘the value of money for creatives’ and 'separating your practice from yourself'.

Come with an open mind, good energy, ready to share and participate.

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