The Reluctant Entrepreneurs Club is for anyone who never aspired to be their own boss, but found themselves running a small business anyway. In the wake of the global pandemic in 2020 that shut down large sectors of arts employment, many skilled arts professionals found themselves starting small businesses to survive. The only catch was, most of us did it virtually overnight without time to create a long-term business plan or to learn the new skill sets that we were suddenly responsible for. 

 

Marketing. Finance. Contracts. Branding. The list goes on. 

 

That’s where REC comes in. Born from a thousand frustrated conversations between actual reluctant entrepreneurs, we aim to bridge the gap between the talent & skills that artists already have and the business acumen needed to successfully build businesses. Creating a community with a foundation of seminars from experts in a variety of fields and access to the tools needed to continue learning & growing as business owners well into the future, REC is helping artists become (slightly) less reluctant entrepreneurs.

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The Reluctant Entrepreneurs Club is a collaboration between Artists Resource Mobilization, the Apparel Industry Board, Inc. and Smartistry.