It's never been more important to develop your business skills.
We’ve put together a series of guides for design professionals which offer practical advice and information on the business issues facing today’s designers.
Managing agencies and people
Managing client relationships
How can consultancies and freelancers build lasting relationships with clients? Our guide covers approaches to managing and retaining clients, and includes Ten Top Tips for client relations.
Collaborating with other design agencies
Working with other design businesses can help you punch above your weight – our guide to formal and informal partnerships, project-based collaborations and working with overseas offices will help you explore new ways of working.
A guide to employment law for designers
Even small creative businesses need to know the legal aspects of managing teams. Our guide covers common scenarios like maternity benefits and flexible working requests as well as advice on handling redundancy, disciplinary and grievance procedures.
Business development
Royalties, equity stakes and shared risk
With many consultancies now considering a range of business models alongside time-based fees, our guide explains the potential gains and possible pitfalls of royalty and equity agreements, and points to sources of advice on shared risk and reward.
Getting work through public sector tenders
Public sector procurement can be hard for the uninitiated to navigate. Our guide to finding and responding to public sector tenders and frameworks could help you get access to some of the £175billion that government bodies will spend on goods and services this year.
Legal issues - Intellectual Property
How should intellectual property rights be managed during the day-to-day running of a commercial design consultancy? Our guide provides an introduction and the answers to some frequently asked questions.
Training and professional development
Introduction to training
Our free training and development guide looks at how formal and informal training can help to develop the skills you need to become more profitable, more competitive and more capable.
Mentoring: a step-by-step guide
Following the Design Council's NextNet mentoring pilot programme, the UK Design Skills Alliance has produced a free guide to mentoring.
Download Mentoring tomorrow's design leaders
Hundreds of courses in our directory
Search our directory listings for a range of professional development courses - and suggest others.
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