Selling, hiring or buying across borders can expose a start-up to costs that are easy to miss in a headline price. An invoice may be denominated in a foreign currency, payment may arrive weeks later, and an agreement may allocate tax, delivery or exchange-rate risk in an unexpected way. These issues do not require a complex treasury department to notice, but they do require deliberate questions and appropriate professional advice.

This checklist helps founders identify where cross-border financial exposure may arise. It does not replace legal, accounting, tax or regulated financial advice. Rules and contract consequences depend on the countries, entities and transactions involved; ask qualified advisers to review the specifics before committing the business.

As a body of work grows, memory becomes an unreliable archive. Titles blur together, dimensions are guessed, and the story of where a piece has been is reconstructed from old emails. An inventory replaces that guesswork with a single, consistent record, and it pays off every time you prepare an application, deliver work to a gallery or answer a query about a piece you made years ago.

A catalogue does not need specialist software. It needs a method you will keep using. This guide explains what to record, how to organise it and how to keep it accurate without turning it into a second job.

When a founder moves into a new market, their public profile has to help an unfamiliar audience understand who they are and why their experience is relevant. A profile written for one professional culture may rely on titles, institutions or examples that carry little meaning elsewhere. Localising it can make the work clearer without changing the person’s expertise or inventing a new identity.

The task is editorial as much as promotional. Keep the underlying facts stable, then adapt the context, language and evidence so that local readers can assess them. A credible profile is specific about contribution and careful about claims. Its purpose is to help a reader decide whether a conversation, partnership or further enquiry makes sense.

Applications for exhibitions, grants, residencies and open calls are judged first on images. A selection panel often sees your work as a set of digital files on a screen, sometimes for only a few seconds per piece. The photograph is therefore part of the application rather than a neutral record of it. Weak images hide the qualities an assessor is looking for, while consistent and accurate images let the work speak for itself.

This guide sets out a practical method you can repeat for every submission. It covers setup, lighting, colour, file preparation and the mistakes that most often weaken an otherwise strong portfolio. You do not need an expensive studio. You need a consistent process and a habit of checking the result before you send it.