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Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts    Volume 5, Issue 1 
http://artivate.org                    pp. 3-24 
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Copyright © 2016, the author   

CRUCIAL SKILLS FOR THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS OF FINE ARTISTS 
Marco Thom, London South Bank University 

Abstract 
 This article aims to define crucial skills for the entrepreneurial success of working 
fine artists as these skills have not yet been clearly identified for this professional group. The 
identification could be beneficial for artists’ entrepreneurship education at higher education 
institutions (HEIs) in order to prepare them for their careers as effectively as possible. In 
order to achieve this aim, the paper is first focused on the entrepreneurship literature to 
identify the skills that are, in general, important for the entrepreneurial success and failure of 
entrepreneurs. In a second step, a survey was distributed to lecturers in Fine Art at HEIs in 
the UK and Germany, all of whom were simultaneously working artists, to determine the 
crucial skills for fine artists based on their professional experience. Both survey and literature 
findings show evidence that in particular seven skills, the “five plus two” skills, are crucial 
for the entrepreneurial success of professional fine artists.  
 
Keywords: entrepreneurial skills, entrepreneurial success, fine artist    
 

Introduction 
Research Aim 

 The article aims to define crucial skills for the entrepreneurial success of working fine 
artists as these skills have not yet been clearly identified for this professional group. The 
identification could be beneficial for artists’ entrepreneurship education at higher education 
institutions (HEIs) in order to prepare them for their careers as effectively as possible. In 
order to achieve this aim, the paper is first focused on the entrepreneurship literature to 
identify the skills that are, in general, important for the entrepreneurial success and failure of 
entrepreneurs. In a second step, a survey was distributed to lecturers in Fine Art at HEIs in 
the UK and Germany, all of whom are simultaneously working artists, to determine the 
crucial skills for fine artists based on their professional experience.  
 
Research Background 
  Labor market statistics in the UK and Germany evidence that up to 90% of fine artists, 
including painters, sculptors, and photographers, are self-employed and mostly organized as 
one-person-businesses (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2010; Artists Interaction and 
Representation, 2011; Arts Council England, 2011; Bundesverband Bildender Künstlerinnen 
und Künstler, 2011; Centre for Economics and Business Research, 2013). Artistic talent 
therefore seems not to be enough on its own to guarantee a professional career in the arts. 
Due to the fact that there are hardly any full-time and permanent employment opportunities 
for fine artists in the arts and only opportunities to pursue work on a freelance and self-
employed basis, working fine artists need to develop entrepreneurial skills and operate like 
entrepreneurs (Menger, 1999; Swedberg, 2006; Cobb et al., 2011) to successfully meet multi-
facetted economic and opportunity-driven challenges. The crucial entrepreneurial skills for 
artists required to make a living in the arts have not yet been clearly identified. Considering 
this, it is time to identify the skills that are crucial for artists’ economic success and 
professional survival. This identification could be useful for preparing them for their 
professional and entrepreneurial career as effectively as possible at HEIs, since I have earlier 
shown that fine artists develop hardly any entrepreneurial skills during their studies (Thom, 
2015a).   



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 For a better understanding of the following findings some remarks on this study are 
necessary: the study focuses on economic issues of being a working fine artist and arts 
entrepreneur. The study is therefore led by economic thinking and interpretations of data and 
findings. Due this economic perspective, the study provides economic interpretations rather 
than social or artistic ones.  

Research Design and Methodology 
 The process of identifying crucial skills is conducted by two means: first by a 

comprehensive review of the entrepreneurship literature in order to examine whether working 
artists can be considered as entrepreneurs on the one hand and to identify the crucial skills for 
entrepreneurial success in general and in homologous professional fields to the arts on the 
other hand because of scanty evidence in the arts field itself. Second, a survey of lecturers in 
Fine Art, all of whom are simultaneously working artists,  was conducted in order to use their 
professional experience to determine crucial entrepreneurial skills for fine artists. Fine Art 
lecturers’ opinions are valuable as they usually work as professional artists and trainers or 
teachers of prospective fine artists at HEIs. In this dual function they can provide valuable 
insights into their professional understanding and knowledge, particularly in relation to the 
required skills to successfully meet the market requirements.  

The survey was conducted in January and February, 2015. In order to gain a deeper 
understanding from the lecturers’ perspectives on the skills required to successfully meet 
market challenges, an exploratory and inductive research approach was undertaken. This 
approach is needed because findings in arts entrepreneurship education are still rare.  The 
study’s findings will thus contribute to the academic literature.   

The online survey encompassed twelve open-ended and closed questions related to both 
the key market requirements for artistic and economic success in the arts and the educational 
situation of fine art students at HEIs in the UK and Germany. However, just a small selection 
of questions and answers out of the twelve questions are relevant for presentation in the 
context of this study.  

Overall, 747 fine art lecturers were identified at 103 UK HEIs and 384 lecturers at 26 
German institutions for the survey. However, due to sabbaticals, outdated contact details, 
absences, and resignations, the relevant sample size of potential and invited participants 
decreased to 652 lecturers in the UK (NLEC.UK=652) and 331 lecturers at HEIs in Germany 
(NLEC.GER=331). In total, 208 lecturers answered the questions: 142 UK lecturers from 65 
different HEIs and 66 lecturers at 24 different German HEIs. There are various response rates 
due to the fact that not all of the participating lecturers fully completed the survey despite 
three email reminders. The response rates for the relevant questions vary from a minimum of 
21.3% (nLEC.UKmin=139) to a maximum of 21.8% (nLEC.UKmax=142) in the UK survey and from 
19.6% (nLEC.GERmin=65) to 19.9% (nLEC.GERmax=66) in the German lecturer survey, 
respectively. 

Literature Review 

Why are Innovative Professional Artists Arts Entrepreneurs? 
In order to classify working fine artists as arts entrepreneurs, a clear distinction should be 

made between the terms “entrepreneur” and “small business owner.” According to 
Schumpeter (1965), entrepreneurs are individuals exploiting market opportunities through 
technical and/or organizational innovation. Bolton and Thompson (2000) define an 
entrepreneur as a person habitually creating and innovating in order to build something of 
recognized value around perceived opportunities. Hisrich (1990) defines an entrepreneur as 
someone demonstrating initiative, creative thinking, risk taking, and being able to exploit 



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opportunities. And according to Jacobson (2003), the entrepreneur can be defined as an 
individual either having a pre-existing business idea and actively seeking appropriate chances 
(“opportunities”) to realize them on the market with an existent demand or recognizing new 
chances on the market by intuition and creativity and changing them into a business idea to 
realize them on the market by means of business activities. In this context, the entrepreneur 
organizes, invests and coordinates resources, and brings them to a productive process by 
which new market requirements and demands are generated and satisfied. The entrepreneur 
undertakes risk in the creation of new market demand.  

All these definitions have in common that risk taking, opportunity recognition, and 
creativity are considered as essential elements of being an entrepreneur (Drucker, 1970; 
Phillips, 2010). These elements can also be applicable to working artists (Menger, 1999; 
Alexopoulos et. al., 2004; Eikhof & Haunschild, 2006; Jackson & Tomlinson, 2009; 
McGregor and Gibson, 2009; Cobb et al., 2011). While the definition of a "professional 
artist" is contested, an artist who makes unique work for sale can be considered a 
"professional artist" for the purposes of this study. Professional artists pursuing to earn a 
living in the arts by having innovative art concepts or making unique art can be considered 
arts entrepreneurs. They assume the risk of an uncertain demand and market need for their art 
work (Menger, 1999; Darmer, 2008; Pang, 2009; Phillips, 2010). It is therefore up to them to 
find or create the ideal audience in order to create market attraction. This situation is quite 
similar to all entrepreneurs with innovative business concepts and market ideas. This 
approach to defining arts entrepreneurs explicitly excludes artists who make art not for the 
market and/or who supply pure “me-too” art concepts to the market, for example, faked and 
copied work of others without any new and innovative elements that would require the 
creation of new market demand.  

 In contrast to entrepreneurs, small business owners are people whose businesses are 
seldom engaged in innovative practices and visions. Their business idea is already existent on 
the market (“me-too” products or services), not unique or innovative, and does not require the 
creation of new market demand.  

Considering this, the literature review further focuses on identifying crucial skills for the 
entrepreneurial success of working fine artists. The review is based on a two-pronged 
approach: first, the identification of the crucial skills for entrepreneurial success (“direct” 
approach) and second, the identification of key reasons for entrepreneurial and small business 
failure (“indirect” approach). While the indirect approach is focused particularly on both the 
core reasons for entrepreneurial and small business failure, the direct approach concentrates 
exclusively on the identification of entrepreneurial success.  

In the literature, “failure” is defined as a bankruptcy with losses to entrepreneur, small 
business owner and creditors (Perry, 2001; Thornhill & Amit, 2003). Identifying the core 
reasons for failure can help to indirectly identify the crucial skills needed to prevent it; if the 
lack of specific skills will be identified in studies as a reason for failure, these skills can then 
be considered as important for entrepreneurial survival and success. In contrast, the direct 
approach represents the more common way of reviewing the literature that is related to 
studies and theories that try to directly identify crucial skills for entrepreneurial success. 
 It is worth noting that the extant entrepreneurship literature has hardly been focused 
on (fine) artists up to now. As a consequence, hardly any findings that may help to identify 
the crucial entrepreneurial skills for fine artists exist. Therefore, the critical review of 
literature in the field of entrepreneurship in other (non-cultural) industries and with focus on 
other professional and/or research groups provides valuable input for this study.  
 



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Reasons for Failure of Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners in Non-Arts and 
Non-Cultural Industries 

The majority of literature findings evidence the following: 

• Mistakes by the entrepreneur and small business owner are main reasons for business 
failure. Entrepreneurs’ mistakes are primarily based on the lack of skills and 
competences. Shortcomings in skills can be considered as key reason for business 
failure (Dowling; 2003; Zimmerer and Scarborough, 2005; Metzeger, 2006; 
Kutzhanova et al., 2009; Mason, 2009; Department for Business Innovation and 
Skills, 2013; Freiling and Laudien, 2013; Sikomwe et al., 2014);  

• The mistakes of entrepreneurs and small business owners are alike. The review of 
causes of small business failures shows no significant differences between these two 
groups. 

 But what mistakes do failed entrepreneurs usually make and what skills do 
entrepreneurs and small business owners lack? Duchesneau and Gartner (1990) analyzed the 
differences between thirteen successful and thirteen failed distribution businesses in the 
market of fresh juices in the U.S. in the late 1980s. They found that failed entrepreneurs and 
business owners had a lower level of business management skills, in particular in finance, 
sales, and planning. Lussier (1996) supports this finding. He surveyed one hundred failed 
entrepreneurs and small business owners across different industries and shows that the lack of 
finance skills in particular was the key reason for their failure.  

 Lussier and Pfeifer (2000) tested fifteen success-versus-failure variables. They show 
that successful entrepreneurs had greater management experience, developed more detailed 
planning, made greater use of professional advice, included more partnerships, and had better 
timing in selling products than failed entrepreneurs. The importance of planning skills for 
entrepreneurial success is also supported by Perry (2001). He shows that successful 
businesses made more formal and detailed planning than failed businesses.  

 Thornhill and Amit (2003) analyse data from 339 Canadian business bankruptcies and 
find that the failure of younger businesses is closely linked with deficiencies in business 
management skills in general and financial skills in particular. These findings are supported 
by van Scheers and Radipere (2007) who survey entreprepreneurial failures in South Africa. 
They show that failed entrepreneurs lacked finance, marketing, and sales skills. Egeln et al. 
(2010) also cite the lack of finance skills in their business failure report for the German 
Ministry of Economics and Technology. They show that more than one third of all German 
business failures between the years 2000 and 2008 were due to shortcomings in 
entrepreneurs’ finance skills.  

 Cardon et al. (2011) analyze 389 accounts of business and entrepreneurial failures, 
collected by U.S. newspaper reports from 1999 to 2001. They find that the majority of 
entrepreneurial failures were caused by mistakes of the entrepreneurs and business owners. 
These mistakes are primarily based on lack of skills and competencies. They specifically 
identified lacks in planning, finance, strategic thinking, opportunity recognition, and 
leadership skills as main reasons for the entrepreneurial failure. 

 The negative impacts on entrepreneurial success brought about by a lack of strategic 
thinking, finance, and opportunity recognition skills are also stressed by Nobel (2011). With 
the help of longitudinal case studies and interviews, Freiling and Laudien (2013) additionally 
show that failed entrepreneurs have shortcomings in business management skills, market 
knowledge and networking skills. 



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 In summary, most studies in non-arts and non-cultural sectors and industries identify 
in particular the lack of business management skills in general and the disciplines of 
finance/cash management, sales, marketing, planning, opportunity recognition and 
realization, strategic thinking, and networking in particular as main reasons for failure (see 
Table 1, following).  

 
Reasons for Entrepreneurial Success  

Churchill and Lewis (1983) mention the entrepreneur’s capabilities to basically master all 
entrepreneurial requirements as a key success factor. However, the successful entrepreneur 
must have in their opinion in particular special abilities and skills in opportunity recognition, 
networking, idea, marketing, and finance. The question,“What does one ‘need to know’ in 
order to become a successful entrepreneur?” was also investigated by Hood and Young 
(1993, p. 115) in the early 1990s. They asked this question of one hundred leading 
entrepreneurs and chief executive officers in U.S. American fastest growing entrepreneurial 
organizations. As a result, they identify finance/cash management, accounting, leadership, 
marketing, and sales skills of the highest relevance besides professional engineering skills.   

 The entrepreneurship model by Stokes and Wilson (2010) emphasizes a mixture of 
various skills, behaviors and attributes an entrepreneur should have in order to succeed. In 
their opinion the successful entrepreneur must have special abilities and skills in the areas of 
opportunity identification, creativity, resource leveraging, networking, marketing, and 
finance.  

 By analyzing the careers of Stanford alumni, Lazear (2004, 2005) finds that 
individuals who have varied work and educational experiences and therefore a balanced set 
of various skills become more likely entrepreneurs and make better business progress than 
those who focus on one area of work or subject at HEIs. As a consequence, entrepreneurs 
must be, in his opinion, “jack-of-all-trades” (Lazear, 2004, p. 1).  

 Stuetzer et al. (2012) analyze longitudinal data on innovative business ventures. In 
their finding, a balanced set of business management and strategic thinking skills, including 
planning skills, is an important determinant of entrepreneurial success.  

 Smith and Perks (2006) analyze the entrepreneurial activity and levels of developed 
skills of black micro-entrepreneurs, mainly operating in the manufacturing and service 
sectors in South Africa. They identify strategic planning, organizing, leading and controlling 
skills alongside professional and employability skills as most important for their business 
success.  
 Gibb (1998) highlights entrepreneurial skills in the fields of strategic thinking, selling, 
negotiating, and creative problem solving as crucial for business success of self-employed 
individuals. Baines and Kennedy (2010) analyze the professional environment of freelance 
journalists to formulate recommendations for their education at HEIs. According to their 
findings, journalists should urgently develop an entrepreneurial attitude and behavior 
(entrepreneurial mindset) in order to find and create new ways to engage with audiences. 
Freelancing journalists have to compete with everybody for producing and selling stories and 
news in the age of the Internet and digital media; they are not the exclusive producer of news 
any more. The skills of creativity or ideation, marketing, self-promotion, and selling stories 
have, in Baines and Kennedy’s opinion, become additionally important as a result of 
enormous structural changes in the communication and news industry in the last decades. 
Author Year Research Focus Findings 



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Duchesneau 
&  
Gartner 

1990 Comparative examination of 
characteristics  
and behaviors of entrepreneurs 

- Lack of idea, planning, finance, and sales skills 
- Less use of professional advice 

Lussier & 
Corman 

1995 Quantitative analysis of 15 literature 
variables in order to reveal the 
differences between successful and 
failed entrepreneurial businesses; 
sample of 216 businesses 

- Failed businesses made significantly much less use professional 
advisors 

Lussier 1996 Examination of 100 failed businesses;  
10 most common reasons are identified 

- Lack of finance skills (undercapitalisation and high fixed costs, 
tax problems, slow accounts receivable) 
- Lack of sales/promotion skills (engaging with customers) 

Lussier & 
Pfeifer 

2000 Quantitative analysis of 15 success 
versus failure variables; comparative 
analysis of U.S. and Croatian 
entrepreneurs 

- Lack of management skills 
- Lack of planning skills 
- Failed businesses made much less use of  professional advice 
- Lack of networking skills (included partnerships)  
- Lack of opportunity skills (bad timings in product launching 
and staff recruiting) 

Perry 2001 Quantitatitve examination of 'planning 
activities' on U.S. entrepreneurial and 
small business failures; sampling frame 
was the dataset of Dun&Bradstreet with 
more than 10 million listed companies 

- Failed businesses developed less formal planning 
- Formal planning has no affect on success for businesses with 
less than 5 employees 

Thornhill & 
Amit 

2003 Analysis of 339 Canadian 
entrepreneurial and business 
bankruptcies 

- Lack of finance skills in particular and business management 
skills in general among early-stage businesses 
- Lack of strategic thinking and opportunity 
recognition/identification skills among later-stage businesses 
(inflexibility to adapt to environmental change) 

        
van Scheers 
& 
Radipere 

2007 Analysis of 100 entrepreneurial failures  
in South Africa 

- Lack of finance skills (>80% of failures) 
- Lack of marketing/sales skills  

Egeln et al. 2010 Analysis of failures of innovative 
businesses in Germany between 2000 
and 2008 

- Lack of sales skills (engaging with customers) 
- Lack of finance skills (high fixed costs; funding problems) 
- Lack of planning/controlling skills 
- Lack of strategic thinking skills (adoption to environmental 
change; product development) 
- Lack of opportunity recognition/identification skills (market 
timing; recruiting staff)  
- Lack of leadership skills (problems with staff, partners) 

Cardon et al. 2011 Analysis of 389 business failures in the 
U.S.  
between 1999 and 2001 

- Lack of planning skills 
- Lack of finance/cash management skills (high costs) 
- Lack of strategic thinking skills (adoption to environmental 
change; product development) 
- Lack of opportunity recognition/identification skills (market 
timing; recruiting staff)  
- Lack of leadership skills (problems with staff, partners) 

Nobel 2011 Analysis of business failures in the U.S. - Lack of strategic thinking skills 
- Lack of finance/cash management skills (high costs) 
- Lack of planning skills 
- Lack of opportunity recognition/identification skills (market 
timing; recruiting staff)  

Department 
for Business 
Innovation & 
Skills 

2013 Small Business Survey 2012 UK - Lack of strategic thinking skills (adoption to environmental 
change) 
- Lack of finance/cash management skills (high costs; tax; 
funding problems) 
- Lack of opportunity recognition/identification skills    (market 
timing; recruiting staff)  

Freiling & 
Laudien 

2013 Case study analysis of 3 failed  
entrepreneurial businesses 

- Lack of strategic thinking skills 
- Lack of business management skills 
- Lack of market knowledge 
- Lack of collaborative skills (problems with investors) 

Sikomwe et 
al. 

2014 Analysis of 25 failed entrepreneurial 
businesses  
in Zimbabwe 

- Lack of strategic thinking skills 
- Lack of business management skills; particularly finance skills 
- Lack of market knowledge 

Table 1. Findings from Literature Review on Key Reasons for Business Failure 
 
Since this professional group faces similar challenges in creating market demand and 
audiences to self-employed or freelancing professional artists, Baines and Kennedy’s 
recommendations are directly transferable to this study’s subject group of fine artists. 



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 Cobb et al. (2011) illustrates the particular needs of artists in building a professional 
artistic career in an interdisciplinary general guide. They emphasize an entrepreneurial 
mindset, defined as open-minded thinking, attitude, and behavior as well as strategic planning 
as the most important aspects for working artists to consider. Through strategic planning, the 
artist is required to define his or her mission and vision -- their reason for being an artist. The 
mission helps to set goals and objectives and answers the question of the artistic approach, 
which is the core of the art-related business concept. Besides strategic planning, Cobb et al. 
also stress finance topics as crucial for an artist’s career. The importance of both topics is also 
supported by Jusoh et al. (2011) and Pollard and Wilson (2013). Some of these findings, such 
as developing entrepreneurial mindset are also supported by Welsh et al. (2014), who 
surveyed 119 artists from various art disciplines at an Self-Employment in the Arts 
conference in 2014. Their findings show that skills to build network contacts are important 
for their success.  

 Landwehr (2005) provides an organizational context. He analyzes the different types 
of skills needed for innovative business formation by dividing the start-up process into four 
sub-phases and considering their phase-specific requirements and problems. Landwehr 
(2005) stresses in particular ideation, opportunity recognition, and strategic thinking or 
planning skills as crucial in the early stages of business formation, while business 
management skills are more required in the later stages to run the business. Developed 
networking skills, alongside skills of opportunity recognition, creativity, problem solving, 
leadership, communication, and innovation are considered by Liňán (2008) as crucial for 
successful entrepreneurship.  

 More recent studies considering the importance of networking skills in particular and 
the clustering of entrepreneurial skills in general are provided by de Wolf & Schoorlemmer 
(2007), Rudmann (2008), Vesala and Pyysiäinen (2008), and Kahan (2012). These scientists 
investigated farmers and analyzed the agriculture industry in Europe. The incentive for their 
entrepreneurial studies is based on the global oversupply of agricultural products urging 
farmers to operate in a rapidly changing environment with a strong price competition. Due to 
the fact that the entrepreneurial challenges and business risks of this professional group are 
quite similar to the basic challenges of professional working artists, the findings are of 
relevant for this study. According to Kahan (2012), farmer entrepreneurs farm for the market 
- as arts entrepreneurs make artwork for the market. Farmer entrepreneurs see their farms as a 
business, as a means of earning profits. They are passionate about their farm business and are 
willing to take calculated risks to make their farms profitable and their businesses grow. As 
“price takers,” farmer entrepreneurs need to developed outstanding abilities to make the most 
of their resources: they can look for better ways to organize their farms; they can try new 
food crops and cultivars, better animals, and alternative technologies to increase productivity 
and diversify production. As a result, they need to become absolutely market-oriented and 
have to learn to take calculated risks to open or create new markets for their products in order 
to increase their profits to earn a living in farming. In contrast, non-entrepreneurial farmers 
focus on maintaining their traditional way of life, characterized by farming mainly for home 
consumption. Their production decisions are based on what they need rather than on what is 
possible. For farmers to become entrepreneurs they need to be innovative and forward-
looking. They need to manage their businesses as long-term ventures with a view to making 
them sustainable. They need to be able to identify opportunities and seize them. In this 
context, farmer entrepreneurs are similar to arts entrepreneurs; both professional groups face 
quite similar challenges and business risks in dynamic markets with a considerable 
oversupply of products. About twenty entrepreneurship and agriculture experts as well as 



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almost 150 farmers in six different countries were asked skills farmers need in order to 
succeed in business (Wolf & Schoorlemmer, 2007; Rudmann, 2008; Vesala & Pyysiäinen, 
2008). As a result, five categories of skill sets with various underlying skills were mentioned 
by the experts and farmers, as illustrated in Table 2, following. 

 Categories 3, 4, and 5 in Table 2 are considered as real entrepreneurial skills by 
several experts in agriculture because these skills are considered as more complex and 
relevant to developing and maintaining a profit-making business (de Wolf & Schoorlemmer, 
2007; Rudmann, 2008; Vesala & Pyysiäinen, 2008). These three sets of entrepreneurial skills 
are therefore also understood as “higher level skills,” while industry specific professional 
skills and management skills (categories 1 and 2) are considered as “lower level skills” and 
basic requirements mainly to ensure the daily running of the business (Rudmann, 2008, p. 
88).  

 According to this hierarchical concept of entrepreneurial skills, the researchers 
consider the recognition and realization of business opportunities as the most important 
entrepreneurial skill. This statement is supported by DeTienne and Chandler (2004) who see 
opportunity identification as a crucial content area in entrepreneurship education. 
Opportunity skills are the prerequisite for any entrepreneurial success and profitable business 
(Gaglio & Katz, 2001; Ardichvili et al., 2003). These skills are followed on the one hand by 
strategic skills that enable a target-oriented exploitation, optimization and planning of 
required and/or outsourced resources and on the other hand by networking skills that are 
needed to ensure access to valuable resources in order to realize the recognized opportunities. 

 As a result, Rudmann presents in her final report of the research project a “Pyramid of 
Skills” as illustrated in Figure 1, following. 
 Faltin (2001, 2007, 2008) considers the entrepreneur basically as a “composer.” He 
critically questions the need for being multi-skilled and developed in all business fields. In 
his approach, the entrepreneur has the primary aim to develop and redefine the business 
concept systematically until a sustained unique selling proposition is created. Then, the 
entrepreneur is required to control and coordinate the different external components needed 
for daily business challenges, for example, marketing, finance, logistics, tax, etc. like a 
composer. The fundamental precondition for being a composer in Faltin’s opinion is a 
developed entrepreneurial mindset that encompasses an entrepreneurial attitude, thinking, 
understanding, and behavior as well as some specific skills. Due to the above described tasks, 
Faltin’s approach of defining the crucial entrepreneurial skills includes, at least the following 
four core skills: idea development, leadership, networking, and strategic thinking. In 
summary, the review of academic literature on crucial skills for entrepreneurial success has 
not provided a “Golden Road’ to a clear definition. The reason for this may be the lack of a 
unified definition of entrepreneurial skills in the extant literature as well as the complexity of 
reasons for business or entrepreneurial success and failure. However, the findings of the 
literature review are grounded on some similar skills for entrepreneurial success, outlined in 
Table 3.  

  
  



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Category of Skill Set Underlying Skills 
1. Professional Skills Plant or animal production skills 
 Technical skills 
2. Management Skills Financial management and administration skills 
 Human Resource Management skills 
 Customer management skills 
 General planning skills 
3. Opportunity Identification Skills Recognizing business opportunities 
 Market and customer orientation 
 Awareness of threats 
 Innovation skills 
 Risk management skills 
4. Strategic Skills Skills to receive and make use of feedback 
 Reflection skills 
 Monitoring and evaluation skills 
 Conceptual skills 
 Strategic planning skills 
 Strategic decision making skills 
 Goal setting skills 
5. Co-operation/ Networking Skills Skills related to co-operating with other farmers 

and companies 
 Networking skills 
 Team working skills 
 Leadership skills 
 
Table 2. Skills for Farmer Entrepreneurs 
 

 
Figure 1. Pyramid of Skills, Source: Rudmann (2008, p. 88) 
 



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Author Year Research Focus Findings 
Churchill & 
Lewis 

1983 Survey of small business owners - Small business owners need capability to master all 
requirements 

Hood & Young 1993 Survey of 100 leading 
entrepreneurs and CEO's of the 
fastest growing U.S. organizations 

- Mixture of various skills, behaviors, and attributes 
- Most important skills: finance, marketing/sales, 
planning 

Lazear 2004,  
2005 

Development of the "Jack-of-all-
Trades" Theory; 
work histories and university 
transcriptions of Stanford MBAs 

- Entrepreneurs with balanced set of skills perform 
significantly better in different challenges than "one-
skill specialists" 

Stokes & Wilson 2010 Development of the "Model of 
Entrepreneurship" 

- Mixture of various skills, behaviors, and attributes 
- Most important skills are: opportunity recognition, 
networking, marketing/sales, finance 

Gibb 1998 Approach to propose various key 
areas of entrepreneurial skills, 
capacities and attributes for 
management development   

- Most important skills are: strategic thinking, 
leadership, networking, sales, business management 
process, learning, and  IT skills 

Landwehr 2005 Analysis of different types of 
know-how needed for an 
innovative business venturing  

- Most important skills are: idea, opportunity 
recognition, strategic thinking, marketing/sales, 
finance 

Smith & Perks 2006 Analysis of the entrepreneurial 
activity and levels of developed 
skills of black micro entrepreneurs 
in South Africa 

- Most important skills are: professional skills 
- Management skills: planning, leading, controlling, 
organizing 
- Business operation skills: finance, marketing/sales 

Faltin 2001, 
2007, 
2008 

Self-case study: Founder of 
"Teekampagne", in the meantime 
one of the worldwide leading 
online tea distribution companies;  
explicit use of external skills 
depending on requirements as 
integral part of the business model 

- Most important skills are: entrepreneurial mindset; 
idea/creativitity, strategic thinking (planning), 
leadership, and networking  
- Other skills will be outsourced to specialized skill 
components (experts) depending on requirements 

Liňán 2008 Testing intention to become an 
entrepreneur with 
a sample of 249 university 
students; development of specific 
skills increase students' intention. 

Most important skills are: opportunity recognition, 
creativity and innovation, networking, leadership, 
problem solving, and communication 

Oberschachtsiek 2008 Investigation how founder's 
experience and professional 
background affect the duration of 
periods of self-employment and to 
what extent the duration is affected 
by balanced set of skills 

-Balanced skill set is not sufficient to prolong the 
duration of  
self-employment/entrepreneurial success 
- Most important skills are: profound sales and 
business management skills to prolong the duration of 
self-employment 

de Wolf & 
Schoorlemmer; 
Rudmann; 
Vesala & 
Pyysiainen 

2007, 
2008 

Investigation and survey of 150 
farmers and 20 agriculture experts 
in six EU countries between 2005 
and 2008 in the context of the EU 
funded project "Developing 
Entrepreneurial Skills for Farmers"  

- Most important skills are: "higher level skills" of 
opportunity recognition, strategic thinking, 
networking 
- Supporting skills are: "lower level skills" of business 
management skills and professional skills 

Baines & 
Kennedy 

2010 Analysis of professional 
environment of freelancing 
journalists 

- Most important skills are: entrepreneurial mindset; 
idea, opportunity recognition, marketing/promotion  

Cobb et al. 2011 Analysis of important tasks artists 
need to successfully fulfil for 
professional success ("The Artist's 
Roadmap") 

- Most important skills are: entrepreneurial mindset, 
strategic planning, finance, legal, promoting, sales, 
and funding 

Welsh et al. 2014 Survey of 119 artists from various 
art disciplines at an 
Entrepreneurship in the Arts 
conference in 2014  

Most important skills are: entrepreneurial mindset and 
networking 

 
Table 3. Findings on Key Reasons for Entrepreneurial Success from the Literature  



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The literature review has shown that the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, 
defined as an entrepreneurial attitude, understanding or thinking, and behavior is important 
for self-employed professionals in competitive markets with an oversupply to become 
entrepreneurially successful. Additionally, in order to successfully operate like an 
entrepreneur, the following seven skills have emerged in the literature as crucial for the 
success of entrepreneurial businesses, independent of industry, size, culture, and 
organizational structure, as illustrated in Table 4. 

 
  
Crucial Entrepreneurial Skills Description 
Idea/Creativity Ability to think creatively or innovatively that leads 

to new  
insights, novel approaches and (business) concepts, 
fresh perspectives, whole new ways of understanding 
and conceiving things 

Strategic Thinking (Planning) Ability to set goals and develop (long-range) plans in 
a variety of areas, to anticipate the unexpected, to 
analyse the business environment, and to cooperate 
with people.   

Opportunity recognition  
and realisation 

Ability to recognise, assess and realise business  
opportunities. 

Networking Ability to develop and use contacts for (business) 
purposes  
beyond the reason for the initial contact. 
Networking skills comprise in particular the abilities 
to 1) target activities strategically, 2) sytematically 
plan networking, 3) engage others effectively, 4) 
showcase the own expertise, 5) assess opportunities, 
and 6) deliver value to others. 

Leadership Ability to develop a "Art/Business Vision" of where 
one wants to be and to inspire people (external 
experts) to help achieving this vision. Leadership 
skills are particularly important for one-man and 
small businesses as they often need external help.  

Finance Ability to plan, fund, direct, monitor, organise, and 
control the monetary resources of the arts 
entrepreneur (business) 

Marketing (Sales) Ability to reach the market (its potential customers, 
including decision-makers) and to achieve a high 
degree of visibility and awareness 

 
Table 4. Crucial Skills of the Entrepreneurial Success 
 

The first five skills named in the Table 4 can be considered, according to de Wolf & 
Schoorlemmer (2007, p.19), as “real entrepreneurial skills”. They have explicitly and 
primarily to do with the creation of a successful business or self-employment career, while 
the last two skills in finance and sales enable the successful running of the business or 



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entrepreneurial career. This classification leads to a new explanatory model, which will be 
called in this study the working model of the “crucial ‘five plus two’ entrepreneurial skills.”  

The research interest, therefore, is to discover how these seven skills from the literature 
will be assessed by market-experienced practitioners in the arts. Will the working model “five 
plus two” be validated by the survey findings or will other skills be highlighted as crucial for 
fine artists’ entrepreneurial success? The survey of 208 lecturers in Fine Art at UK and 
German HEIs, all of whom are professional working artists, provides an answer to this 
question.  
 

Survey Results and Discussion 
Lecturers’ Survey  
The 208 lecturers were asked whether they consider entrepreneurial skills in general as 

crucial to successfully meet the market requirements to make a living in the arts. Their 
answers are illustrated in Table 5. 
 

 
The majority of lecturers gave a clear answer: entrepreneurial skills are crucial to make an 

economic living. This answer is interesting as it represents a significant contradiction to the 
taught curriculum in Fine Art at HEIs in the UK and Germany (Thom, 2015a).  

In order to classify the importance of skills to the economic success of practicing fine 
artists, the lecturers were further asked to rank the relevance of several different skills. The 
findings of both sample groups in the UK and Germany (n=204) are illustrated in Tables 6 
and 7. The ranking of skills with regard to their importance to become successful resulted 
from the number of mentions in the assessment categories “very important” and “crucial and 
of highest importance,” where the number of mentions in the latter category predominates. 

 



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Skills 

not  
important 

little 
importance 

medium  
importance  

very 
important 

crucial and 
of highest 

importance 

evaluation 
is not 

possible 
Ranking 

Idea / 
Creativity 0 1 7 13 116 2 1 

Networking 0 0 7 30 102 0 2 
Opportunity 
Identification 1 3 13 22 100 0 3 

Selling / 
Marketing 1 1 19 28 89 1 4 

Art Specific 
Technical 
Skills 

0 3 15 37 84 0 5 

Strategic 
Thinking  
(Planning) 
Skills 

1 1 20 35 82 0 6 

Communication 
/  
Presentation 

1 1 12 46 79 0 7 

Art Industry /  
Market Know 
how 

0 3 10 48 78 0 8 

Finance Skills 1 4 25 51 58 0 9 
Leadership 
Skills 4 6 29 54 46 0 10 

Problem 
Solving 1 2 54 61 20 1 11 

Project and  
Time 
Management 

1 2 60 55 21 0 12 

Decision 
Making 1 1 63 57 17 0 13 

Team Working/  
Collaboration  0 3 64 59 12 1 14 

Social Media / 
IT Skills 0 3 65 62 9 0 15 

Business 
Planning /  
Venturing 
Skills 

3 33 68 23 11 1 16 

 
Table 6. Assessment of Skills to Make an Economic Living as a Practicing Fine Artist in the 
UK (frequency of mentions by category; n=139) 
 
 

 
  



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16 

 

Skills 

not  
important 

little 
importance 

medium  
importance  

very 
important 

crucial and 
of highest 

importance 

evaluation 
is not 

possible 
Ranking 

Idea / 
Creativity 1 0 4 5 52 3 1 

Networking 1 0 5 14 44 1 2 
Art Specific 
Technical 
Skills 

2 3 9 14 36 1 3 

Selling / 
Marketing 0 4 12 12 36 1 4 

Opportunity 
Skills 0 3 18 8 35 1 5 

Art Industry /  
Market Know 
how 

0 3 15 11 34 2 6 

Communication 
/  
Presentation 

0 1 13 18 31 2 7 

Strategic 
Thinking  
(Planning) 
Skills 

1 2 13 17 30 2 8 

Finance Skills 0 4 20 11 29 1 9 
Leadership 
Skills 1 3 15 22 22 2 10 

Decision 
Making 0 1 28 24 7 5 11 

Problem 
Solving  1 1 33 23 5 2 12 

Project and  
Time 
Management 

1 1 32 22 5 4 13 

Team Working/  
Collaboration  1 4 36 19 3 2 14 

Social Media / 
IT Skills 3 6 34 17 3 2 15 

Business 
Planning /  
Venturing 
Skills 

5 15 35 4 2 4 16 

 
Table 7. Assessment of Skills to Make an Economic Living as a Practicing Fine Artist in 
Germany (frequency of mentions by category; n=65) 
 

The 204 participating lecturers identified the top 10 skills for the economic success of 
practicing fine artists as creativity, networking, art-specific, selling/marketing, and 
opportunity skills followed by planning (strategic thinking), market knowhow, 
communication/presentation, finance, and leadership skills. The rankings in both countries 
are quite similar with the exception of a slightly higher assessment of art-specific skills in 
Germany; opportunity recognition skills are more highly ranked as crucial by the lecturers in 
the UK.  



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In order to identify crucial entrepreneurial skills from lecturers’ skill assessments it is 
necessary to distinguish the three different categories of skills that are usually taught in the 
regular fine art curricula at UK and German HEIs: a) professional, subject-specific skills; b) 
transferable (employability) skills; and c) entrepreneurial skills. The skill categories and 
single skills listed in Figure 2 below, are not discrete. Entrepreneurial skills are part of an 
entrepreneurial mindset and encompass both discrete single skills and sets of skills. For 
example, leadership skills are grounded in several different skills such as communication, 
problem solving, decision-making, team working, negotiation skills (all of which are 
employability/transferable skills), and strategic thinking and networking skills 
(entrepreneurial skills).  

 
Figure 2. Entrepreneurial Skills as Higher Order Skills. Source: Thom (2015b) 
 

Considering the findings of the lecturers’ survey (see Tables 5 and 6) it becomes apparent 
that two professional skills and one transferable skill are among the top 10 skills, namely art-
specific technical skills, art market/industry knowledge, and communication/presentation 
skills. The other seven skills among the top 10 are entrepreneurial skills, as classified in the 
aforementioned working model of the crucial “five plus two” in Figure 2 above.  
While the professional, subject-specific skills and transferable (employability) skills are 

taught in the regular fine art curricula at HEIs in the UK and Germany and therefore are 
considered basic requirements for fine artists, the defined crucial “five plus two” 
entrepreneurial skills can be viewed as skills of a higher order for professional working fine 
artists to succeed economically in arts business.  
 

Conclusions, Limitations and Further Research 
Conclusions 



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Considering that the crucial skills for fine artists’ economic success in the arts have not yet 
been clearly identified in the literature, recent studies on the reasons for business failure and 
entrepreneurial success in other professions with market challenges similar to fine arts have 
been used for this study. They provide valuable findings from which the crucial skills for fine 
artists’ entrepreneurial success are derived. These studies evidence that the development of 
an entrepreneurial mindset (including entrepreneurial thinking, behavior, and attitude) in 
general and the “five plus 2” skills in particular are important for professionals in an intense 
and competitive market environment. In order to validate the relevance of these identified 
skills, 208 lecturers in Fine Art at UK and German HEIs, who are experienced and practicing 
artists, were surveyed. They were asked to assess the relevance of sixteen different skills for 
making an economic living in the arts. Their answers validate the relevance of the working 
model of  “five plus two” skills for arts entrepreneurs. 
   
Limitations 

This study is primarily focused on the economic issues of being an artist entrepreneur.  
The critical artistic dimension of success is not taken into further consideration. A 
comprehensive review of the literature reveals a variety of models to explain the different 
factors (including skills) affecting entrepreneurial economic success. Yet, there is still no 
consensus and evidence of which skills are really crucial for fine artists to make a living in 
the arts. Hence, there does not exist clear evidence that the identified “five plus two” 
entrepreneurial skills are predominant success factors for professional working artists and 
freelancers or self-employed entrepreneurs in other competitive markets. Entrepreneurial 
success has several reasons and is a quite complex phenomenon, although skills may have a 
significant impact on the later success of any entrepreneurs 
 
Further Research 

As the literature shows, there is no consensus on a unified listing of crucial entrepreneurial 
skills. This makes it difficult and challenging to implement an effective (arts) 
entrepreneurship education at HEIs. In order to adjust the regular curricula and educational 
institutions’ learning environments towards more of a market orientation and 
entrepreneurship further research in the fields of entrepreneurial skills and other reasons of 
entrepreneurial success is necessary. The working model of the crucial “five plus two” skills 
should therefore be subject to further research. First, its validation for arts entrepreneurs 
needs to be confirmed. Then, it is of interest to experience whether it is also relevant for other 
professions with similar challenges as the arts. 

Furthermore, the survey findings could additionally contribute to knowledge by 
stimulating the discussion towards a more contemporary and broader understanding of the 
term “entrepreneurship” in non-business subjects, away from business planning and 
venturing (ranked in last positions in my survey) and more toward creativity, networking, and 
opportunity recognition and realization, entrepreneurial thinking, and entrepreneurial 
behavior.   

Cultural entrepreneurship in general, and the requirements of a professional and 
entrepreneurial career of fine artists in particular, are still under-examined fields in the 
literature. Therefore, further research is recommended in order to establish a deeper and 
broader understanding in this field. Longitudinal studies would be indispensable. A 
comprehensive analysis of cause and effect relationships in entrepreneurial education at HEIs 
could provide deeper insights into the educational processes and institutional structures to 
reveal opportunities for sustainable adjustments in the future. An integration of arts 



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entrepreneurship into the regular fine art curriculum is a complex challenge for any HEI as 
many different aspects need to be considered. Important questions are still unanswered, for 
example, “which skills are really important to teach?,” “How should they be taught and to 
what extent?” Additionally, it is of interest to know to what extent student performance is 
dependent on teachers’ own entrepreneurial training. These and many other questions need to 
be answered to gain a deeper understanding of the relevant issues for effectively embedding 
entrepreneurship education in the regular curriculum across all subjects and as an essential 
part of HEIs’ strategies and objectives. 
  

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