PESTEL Analysis

Political Factors
My market has been hit heavily by government decisions in recent times, especially in the recent months as Brexit has been the reason that the creative industry has taken such a damaging hit. Prior to Brexit, it had been growing five times faster than the rest of the UK economy. Brexit means that not British nationals would have a much tougher job in working for British production, lowering the workforce by nearly a third. 29% of Creative companies in Britain say that foreign people in their workforce have skills they haven’t found in British nationals too, further adding to the negative effect. Creative business make up 1/8th of all UK businesses, making it a sector worth funding, but it is feared that funding will continue to fall after Brexit.

Economic Factors
Funding is something that the creative  sector in the UK is short on as it’s being squeezed in many schools across the country, according to almost 1200 schools, who say as a result they’re having to cut down on lesson time, with 1 in every 10 schools relying on voluntary donations from parents to keep the arts going. This has lead to only 53.5% of students taking a creative subject according to the BBC in 2016. Back in 2016 it was said that from then TIL 2020 the government would have to spend £400 million on the creative industry, which hasn’t happened. There are worries that if money isn’t injected in to the creative arts soon, the next wave of great actors and actresses could be lost. As a freelancing drama tutor I wouldn’t have to rely on funding from a third party as I would be making my own money and I’d get to keep it and use it to reinvest in to my business as I choose. However, the lack of funding means less roles are available which makes it harder for me to find roles for my students. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42862996

Social Factors
East Anglia is the hardest place in the UK to get in to the creative industry as there are minimal TV opportunities, limited essentially to Norwich, and theatre opportunities are limited mainly to small scale theatres in local towns, again excluding Norwich. The biggest stage in Norfolk is the Theatre Royal in Norwich with a capacity of 1308, which doesn’t rival anything like London’s big stages. Latitude and Sundown festivals do take place in the East of England, and year-round they tend to be the most popular events in the region, meaning that music makes up a lot of the creative sector in East Anglia. The lack of drama opportunities will affect my business as part of my job includes finding auditions and parts for my students, and being in this area mean that it would be a lot more challenging to do this.

Technological Factors
The creative industry needs technology to thrive and that is something that is happening as in the past we have gone from having black and white TV with no audio, then with audio, and then colour tv which has been constantly evolving with the development of High definition and Ultra High Definition, so technology is advancing well in the industry. TV and theatre shows always need special fx whether it be live or in post-production, so pyro-technics for example are constantly evolving and becoming more impressive by the year, meaning shows are becoming more impressive too. The creative industry isn’t totally reliant on technology as some shows are very minimalistic and need just a stage and actors, so it isn’t in need o technology constantly improving. Technology in the sector isn’t an issue for me and my business as I’m running a small-scale drama tutor business, and I don’t need too much technology to run my business at all.

Environmental Factors
As my business is being a drama tutor I wouldn’t have to worry about any environmental factors in particular as the only time I would be contributing to the environment is when I’m travelling, and thus there isn’t a point where environmental factors particularly come in to my business. It’s a similar story for the sector as a whole, although when there’s a big show on then a lot of people would be travelling in to see it which would raise the carbon footprint, but that’s not something that the industry would be able to change.

Legal Factors
There are a few legal factors that affect my business as well as the creative sector as a whole. For a child to perform in a show, they have to have a licence to perform, which has to be sorted by the organiser of the event, and for me as a tutor, it’s something that I can help with too. For me, I would have to have a DBS Check completed on me so parents and potential customers can look in to my past. I also have to follow safeguarding rules to a similar degree. GDPR is also something I particularly have to follow as I would be taking recordings of auditions for students to send off to theatre companies and universities, but these would have to be stored and so I would have to make sure that they’re securely stored and that the student can have access to see their tapes whenever they like. Copyrights laws have to be abided by too especially in music as a lot of songs sound similar and musicians/songwriters end up having to pay royalties to other people.