.jpeg)
After about a decade of workshops, exhibitions and curatorial work, Narrm-based creative Elijah Money set out to make his practice more sustainable. Through the Self-Employment Assistance Program, delivered by Melbourne Innovation Centre in partnership with Business Foundations, he gained a clearer understanding of his budgets and the encouragement to launch a website he’d been putting off for years.
After about a decade of workshops, exhibitions and curatorial work, Narrm-based creative Elijah Money set out to make his practice more sustainable. Through the Self-Employment Assistance Program, delivered by Melbourne Innovation Centre in partnership with Business Foundations, he gained a clearer understanding of his budgets and the encouragement to launch a website he’d been putting off for years.
Statistics
Statistics
For Elijah Money, creative work has never sat in a single box. Over about 10 years as a sole trader in Narrm (Melbourne), he has curated and exhibited in galleries, given guest lectures at universities and high schools, worked in silver and goldsmithing, spoken on panels, written, produced events and run creative workshops for a wide range of audiences. As he puts it, "you name it and I've probably had a go."
Elijah Miima Money is the business behind his practice as a multidisciplinary creative. Wanting to make that practice more sustainable, Elijah joined the Self-Employment Assistance Program, delivered by Melbourne Innovation Centre, to build the business foundations he felt were missing.
Elijah is a proud Wiradjuri queer brotherboy, raised and living on Kulin Nations. His work spans visual art, writing, creative producing, workshop facilitation, public speaking and performance. It is deeply personal and politically charged, reflects his lived experience, and is grounded in "celebrating First Peoples' queer joy and fostering spaces of empowerment". Through storytelling and self-expression, he challenges narratives with compassion and pride.
Much of his business centres on creative workshops, covering topics from botanical illustration and creative writing to drag, collaborative murals, and stamping and collaging the Kulin Seasons.
After 10 or so years of what he describes as "guessing my way through the motions" of keeping his creative work going, Elijah decided to change his approach and prioritise sustainability. It became clear to him that he didn't understand some of the foundational elements of business, and without that knowledge he had been setting himself up for failure without realising.
"It felt a bit make or break when I applied as I was really questioning whether I could continue my creative pursuits the way I was previously going about them," Elijah says.
Among the challenges he has been working on is the big task of distilling everything he does into clear streams that clients can easily understand. Another is confronting his aversion to social media and to putting himself out there more generally.
Through his business coaching sessions, Elijah learnt more about the importance of pacing his progress and taking the pressure off when trying things out.
His website is the clearest example. Building one was something he had put off for years, until his business coach reminded him that "it's much better to have something that can be tweaked rather than nothing at all." Elijah pulled together his previous and current work and built the site himself.
The response was quick, he says,
"I don't feel like I would have had the push to publish my website which has already, in less than a month of being live, given me more work than I could have imagined."
Alongside the practical steps, he mentions,
"I also feel as though I've re-gained self confidence instead of constantly questioning my choices."
Budgeting has been another big shift. Elijah says he has never been great with numbers, let alone keeping track of how things were travelling. Through the program, he has gained a lot of useful information and templates that he now feels motivated to keep up to date.
"I hadn't previously understood how deeply important something like this was before being able to see all of the figures in front of me."
Some of the work is still under way. Getting comfortable with social media and putting himself out there is, in Elijah's words, "definitely still a work in progress".
For anyone considering the program, his advice is simple:
"You seriously have nothing to lose and only great advice and experience to gain. I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of this and to feel rejuvenated in both my person and my business."
The Self-Employment Assistance Program is funded by the Australian Government and delivered by Melbourne Innovation Centre in partnership with Business Foundations across the Inner Metropolitan Melbourne Employment Region.
Register now for 12 months of free small business coaching, with start-up support and allowances for eligible participants.
