Running a Creative Company in the Digital Age E-Book

Lucy Baxter

• Herausgeber: Creative Essentials
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 453

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Running a Creative Company in the Digital Age helps you navigate the landscape and learn from seasoned professionals, understanding the mistakes they made so you don't have to make them too! Running a Creative Company in the Digital Agehelps you navigate the landscape and learn from seasoned professionals, understanding the mistakes they made so you don't have to make them too! In the modern media industry digital content production is cheaper, more democratic and accessible and it's becoming more attractive - and easier - to do things your own way. So what if you want to set up on your own? This book will guide you through the joys and pitfalls of running your own creative company in today's diverse media climate. This is a nuts and bolts guide to company set up, structure, management and content production for digital platforms, TV, festivals, charities, education, brands and businesses. Full of tips for creating innovative business models and platforms, handling tricky people and situations, funding and networking, these pages are your touchstone for making that bold first move into founder/managing director status. Featuring interviews with industry experts including digital agency and production company CEOs, creative entrepreneurs, crowd funding platforms, investors, film makers, media lawyers and accountants.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Introduction

PART ONE: GETTING STARTED

• Your USP

• Setting Up Your Limited Company; Business Partnerships; Company Legal Structures

• HMRC Comes Calling!

• Start-up Funding in the Digital Age

• Premises, Budgets and Cash flowing

PART TWO: HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

• Publicity and Advertising

• Pitching for Business

• Your First Project

PART THREE: GROWTH AND MOVING ON

• Growth Strategies and Funding

• Don’t Be Afraid of Change: Winding Up and Moving On

Resources

Appendices

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

I chose to call this bookRunning a Creative Company in the Digital Age, rather thanRunning a Production CompanyorRunning a Digital Agency, because the concept of what a ‘creative’ company is, and what it does, has become much more fluid in the last ten years.

As the digital age beds in, entirely new ways of working and creating have evolved. Traditional models of ideas generation, collaboration, funding, production, distribution and consumption are disappearing or morphing into something else. These new ways have been built from a truly digital native foundation, rather than with one foot in the old world of analogue and hard copy. This means they are unprecedented, unpredictable and exciting as well as a bit scary for anyone who grew up with more traditional models – which means pretty much anyone over 35 who isn’t involved in digital innovation already.

The landscape of work is changing, too, with more flexible working cultures and structures emerging, and large corporations hoovering up smaller rivals and promising start-ups in a bid to secure their global content kingdom.

The focus of the book is primarily on digital visual content, meaning digital video, animation, film and TV and to a lesser extent gaming and creative tech. Some of what is covered may also be true across the worlds of publishing, social enterprise, live performance and music. I generally use the term ‘content’ rather than referring specifically to TV programmes, films, business promos or campaign videos, because so many of these things overlap in the digital space.

My background is in independent film and TV drama initially, then factual content including documentaries, specialist factual, news and current affairs, digital education projects, new talent and promos for brands and businesses, so much of what I talk about will be directly relevant to these areas.

I have tried to maintain a wider overview when possible, though, precisely because the lines are so blurred these days. The digital revolution has created a landscape where collaboration is widespread and innovation so prolific that when starting up a creative company you could find yourself working within the arenas of digital technology development, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, biotech or gaming as part of any wider creative project.

I also wanted to write a nuts and bolts guide to setting up and running a creative company that can be a one-stop shop for aspiring creative entrepreneurs, because it seems to me that such a guide is sorely needed. It’s something I could definitely have used when I was starting out, full of ideas and ambition but blissfully unaware of the potential pitfalls! Although I learned a lot from running my small production company, Mandrake Films, for eight years, it was mostly on the job with a lot of trial and error, and cobbled together from different and frequently baffling sources. Wading through the incomprehensible jargon and doublespeak of officialdom and having surreal, contradictory conversations with different government departments was a dominant feature of the early years; perhaps this book will save others that considerable pain and frustration.

As digital content production becomes cheaper and more accessible, it’s becoming more attractive, and theoretically more possible, to do things your own way. But many creative endeavours end up stalling because they lack the foundation in business administration, finance, company legals and market awareness needed to give ideas a chance.

Ambitious, talented creatives often burn out and feel frustrated because they can’t get things off the ground, without realising they need some basic knowledge and training to make a company work and to partner up with others who have the skills and interests they lack. Similarly, those with business, legal or finance training often view creatives as ‘other’ from them, or exclude them from important processes. Other industries are aware that such training and structure is essential as a starting point but many of the ‘creative industries’ seem to be somehow exempt from this, as though what we are doing is in the realms of the amateur rather than the professional.

I think this has often led to casual exploitation of hard-working filmmakers, artists, musicians, ideas generators and writers by those who are gatekeepers and therefore have the power to marginalise them, or simply have the training to control the purse strings and write the contracts. Often key creatives are not paid enough to make a living, and that is not acceptable when they contribute so much to our creative economy.

The three parts cover the life cycle of a company from setting up and kicking off through growth and diversification and finally selling, merging, buying up or moving on. For the most part I am referring to a private limited company incorporated by shares, although part one outlines other company structures such as LLPs and non-profit companies, and a lot of the information contained in this book can also be applied to them.

Part one looks at company identity and structure, executive roles, paying yourself, shareholders and boards, start-up funding and all the nitty-gritty practical things you need to consider in the first year of running your business.

Part two covers topics such as publicity and advertising, dealing with staff, pitching for business, running your projects and whether or not it’s actually possible to protect your ideas.

Part three is all about growth, maturity and working out what the best future for you and your company might be.

Throughout are case studies from a range of creative companies and interviews with media lawyers and accountants, company MDs, the founder of Crowdcube, the CEO of an investment fund, international broadcasters, pioneers in flexible working and the head of the Channel 4 Growth Fund, all of whom have their own take on what being a creative company today is all about.

There is also a section about the possible effects of a British exit from the European Union, or Brexit, which came so suddenly upon us in June 2016.

All parts contain my random musings and some brief rants, as well as practical examples and anecdotes from years of experience working in the production industry.

I hope this book will help people with ideas and ambition to have the confidence to go their own way, find the right collaborators, innovate change and take their place in an industry they love. Many more women, and many more people from a range of socio-economic, gender and ethnic backgrounds, need to set up shop in our creative industries and thrive there. We need their contribution to and representation in our culture. And I hope the scores of students I have encouraged to set up on their own over the years will be newly inspired to do so after reading these pages. Because, despite the challenges, running a creative company is inspiring, horizon-broadening, life-affirming and, above all, fun!

PART ONE

GETTING STARTED

YOURUSP

So who are you, why are you here and why should audiences and funders care about you?

Fundamental questions you need to ask yourself when setting up a creative company are: what makes you tick and how do you want to influence, educate and entertain others? Take some time to think about the things you really enjoy. Do campaigning virals make you think about the world in new ways? Or do longer documentaries help you to engage with the human story? Are you a gamer who interacts more online than in real life and, if so, what would you do differently or innovate with? Is there a disruptive technology idea that has been brewing in your head? Do you want to work in animation, live action, factual? Do you want to tell audiences stories directly by making and appearing in films yourself, or oversee the process from behind the scenes? Do you want to help businesses tell their stories?

It is also vitally important to know the landscape. Find out who is out there already doing what you want to do. Who made the content you have engaged with the most in the last year? Don’t know? Find out and do some research on them. If they seem approachable you could ask them to meet for a coffee – or alternatively stalk them online until you understand exactly how they got to where they are today.

EXPERIENCE LEVEL

Media production, and the ‘creative industries’ in general, has always been one of the most popular career choices and also one of the most vague. Even if you have done a relevant degree in film, media studies, digital content production or broadcast journalism, it’s so fiercely competitive out there that it could take years of free work before you get your dream paid job.

Broadcasters, production companies, digital agencies, technology and creative corporations are frequently approached by hopeful graduates and non-graduates alike.

Being a digital native obviously helps. Thousands of employed people have to retrain in digital skills including social media, web development and project management tools such as Javascript, Flash, Agile, JIRA, Waterfall (and many more) to get hired nowadays. You need to know some of this stuff to set up and run a company, too. There are myriad digital courses that can be done online, and organisations such as Digital Mums are aimed at people returning to work and a bit mystified by the world of digital media. Things move so fast now that you only need a few months not using these platforms to be out of touch. Those of you who are young enough to have been born into the digital age already have a great skills base to start from, but if you don’t, never fear – there are plenty of training options out there and people you can partner up with.

The best way to get noticed now is to create a profile online using free platforms. For video, these would be content platforms such as Vimeo (or Vimeo Pro at a small fee with much larger storage), YouTube or Dailymotion, showcasing any work you have done, so that any approaches you make are backed up with an easy link that shows your identity as a content creator.

My advice would be to do this in the first instance and get some years of industry experience behind you as a freelancer in the creative industry you aspire to, before setting up a company. In parallel, create your own content and put it out there into the world.

If you are a novice and want to set up a company, first find a business partner who knows the industry ropes and will set up the company with you. This should be an experienced producer or executive producer, head of talent, head of development, chief technical officer or finance director depending on your individual company needs and the kind of creative enterprise that interests you.

WHAT IS A CREATIVE BUSINESS?

Running a business involves a huge amount of creativity. That doesn’t mean it isn’t for you. It just means that sometimes you have to rediscover yourself and what makes you tick, after functioning in a society and education system that values conformity.

The advent of the digital age has meant that things change faster than ever before in history. In almost any industry today, and certainly in the creative industries, ‘Innovate or Die’ is an apt phrase. Keeping on top of things is hard enough; keeping ahead of the curve nigh on impossible. The Silicon Valley generation, which opened the door to our digital age, taking notice of the crazy ideas and developing them, was often buoyed up by the hope and innocence of youth and had bypassed the traditional education system.

The Western education system is not, alas, always the friend of creativity. Much of it is stuck in the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century with large classes behind rigid rows of desks, listening to a teacher by the whiteboard, anxiously waiting to be singled out. Although schools vary in terms of teaching style, learning by rote is still often used for children in primary school. Uniforms, rigid rules, timetables, punishments, obedience: conformity is key and it is often at the expense of creative expression and allowing individuals to develop their talents and capacities. How can we make new, exciting connections, forge new brain pathways through free exploration that lead to profound innovation, when the ability to do so has been educated out of us? As is often mentioned by those encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit, some of the biggest tech and media tycoons are school or university dropouts; Steve Jobs at Apple, Bill Gates at Microsoft, Richard Branson at Virgin, David Karp at Tumblr, Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, to name a few.

Finland offers hope for the future of our education system. It has banned subjects completely post-16, in favour of an integrated curriculum which follows the specific interests of students. Instead of individual subjects, students will study events and phenomena in an interdisciplinary format. The goal is that students choose for themselves which topic or phenomenon they want to study, according to their ambitions for the future and their capabilities. Students will no longer sit behind school desks. Instead, they will work together in small groups to discuss problems. The head of the Department of Education in Helsinki, Marjo Kyllonen, says: ‘There are schools that are teaching in the old-fashioned way which was of benefit in the beginning of the 1900s – but the needs are not the same, and we need something fit for the 21stcentury.’ Let’s hope it catches on!

The stereotype of the ‘creative’ as useless at business, often peddled by creatives themselves as well as those around them, helps maintain a convenient distance between the number crunchers (and profit takers) and those doing the content creation. It has allowed middle and senior management to cream profits off the top for generations – stories abound of musicians, painters, filmmakers and writers being fleeced by their management through time immemorial. It still means that, for example, in documentary feature film production today, directors and originators are the people who make the least cash out of the finished product.

Of course, sometimes it’s true that an individual is terrible at running a business, but just because you create the content doesn’t mean you can’t grasp the fundamentals of business and finance. You just have to learn, and not sell yourself short. A 2016 report by RealScreen calledDocumentary Pays? The Price of Filmmakingwas a candid look at how directors in particular are selling themselves short while everyone around them makes the cash. In the report, documentary filmmaker Emily James is quoted as saying:

We’re exploiting ourselves, but we’re also being exploited by all the people around us who are making a proper living from what they’re doing, and using our work as the center of that … Nobody ever pays you back for all of that effort you put into [development]. But then, if the film is good, you suddenly have all of these other people that are working for distributors, festivals and broadcasters – who are being paid a waged job – and they’re using the work that we’ve created as the central commodity of their industry without ever repaying the people that took the major risk at the beginning.

It’s incumbent upon everyone to take creative roles seriously and allot to them a decent salary, and also upon creatives to understand their worth.

I remember being labelled ‘artsy’ at school. This meant I could not be ‘mathsy’ or ‘sciencey’, and indeed I was useless at science and maths while being good at writing, art and the humanities. But before that, at primary school, I was among the top of my class at maths and science. And after working as a producer on various science and medical films and programmes on subjects like particle physics, autism, intensive farming and heart surgery, I became passionate about scientific ideas and came to view them as intensely creative. Alas, I still lack the foundation in science that might have allowed me to appreciate them fully, because I was shooed away from it at school. What I’m saying is, don’t judge yourself as not up to the task without giving yourself a chance. The old adage ‘The more you do, the more you can do’ is true. Boardrooms are full of financiers, lawyers and administrators who think they know best and keep the ‘creatives’ out of the room. You can help change that by appreciating that we can be multifaceted and having the gumption to do your homework and stand up for yourself.

TEN FOUNDING AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR YOUR CREATIVE COMPANY

1. Follow the Passion, Not the Money

This might sound rather quaint in today’s profit-orientated landscape, where turnover is so much more important than quality. In the creative arena, in my experience, you are far better doing the things you care about – and if you get to know the landscape and the basic rules you will eventually be savvy enough to make it lucrative, too. When I have tried to follow the money, it has only got me lost and made me question why I wanted to do this in the first place. That said, you need to be practical, too. If your main passion will never bring more than a trickle of funding in, think about what else floats your boat and how you can diversify to bump up your turnover. Even better, find a business partner whose job it is to follow the money for you!

2. Know Your Talents and Know Your Limits

No one is brilliant at everything, so work out what you are great at and what you are not so great at – and identify the people you know and trust that can do the things you can’t and are interested in the things that bore you to tears.

3. Know the Landscape

Find out who is out there already doing what you want to do. Who made the content you have engaged with the most in the last year? Don’t know? Find out and do some research on them. If they seem approachable you could ask them to meet for a coffee – or, alternatively, stalk them online until you understand exactly how they got to where they are today.

4. Do Not Max Out Your Credit Card

You may believe in your passion project, and that’s great – in fact, without that passion and belief, you won’t get very far. But you need to be practical, too, and take all the variables into consideration. So when you’re starting your company with a project in mind, get some backing, and some opinions first – and don’t use your own cash, unless you can afford to lose it. It all depends how much stress you want in your life! I know some creatives will disagree with me on this, because they have taken a punt with their own cash and it has paid off. If you are starting something that you have a lot of experience in already and you have a couple of business partners who are also fronting up some cash, it may fly – but the truth is, these people are in the minority.

5. Surround Yourself with People Who Know What They’re Doing

It can sometimes be tempting, because it feels more comfortable and less intimidating, to work with mates or people you know are not the best in the world but are fun and easy to get on with. This can be a mistake and it’s a rut you might find yourself in for some time until you branch out and approach people outside of your circle. Make sure you have a business partner who complements your skillset. In other words, someone who knows the stuff you don’t know, inside out. More often than not with creative companies, this means getting someone in who is comfortable with the numbers.

6. Be Collaborative

The digital age has heralded a new and in my view very welcome shift in attitude towards collaboration and sharing rather than competition and suspiciously holding your cards to your chest. Cooperatives are popping up everywhere, and the sharing economy means that you can swap skills rather than money when you are cash-strapped, and often use material for free via platforms like Creative Commons. I believe that collaboration and openness lead to a more interesting, diverse and exciting creative landscape.

7. Don’t Be Too Down to Earth

Although I advise being practical in some instances, you also have to allow yourself time to be the opposite way. Where I grew up, the biggest compliment you can pay to someone’s character is that they are ‘down to earth’, meaning they are grounded, realistic, and not too big for their boots. Sometimes this can be a limiting idea, creatively. It’s a kind of Tall Poppy Syndrome where people who try to stand out or do something differently feel exposed and ridiculed. Like our education system, it’s all about conformity. We all absorb the culture in which we grow up and live. So allow yourself to have absurd flights of fancy, objectively unachievable ambitions and ridiculous ideas from time to time. Have collaborators with whom you can while away afternoons in the pub planning world domination. Dare to Dream. As the old Apple ad used to say: ‘Here’s to the Crazy Ones!’

8. Have Heroes

It’s both helpful and important to have role models and heroes you aspire to be like. It’s even better if you can make contact with them and ask for their guidance; it’s very flattering to be asked and you may be surprised at how receptive they are.

9. Be Adaptable

Once you get a moderate amount of success and a couple of big clients, it can be tempting to kick back and coast for a while. Unfortunately, this can quickly become a habit. Don’t assume you are indispensable. Keep abreast of changes in working methods and workflow, technology, industry trends. Keep abreast of staff changes within your clients’ companies and stay in touch constantly.

10. Keep Doing What You Enjoy

Too many of us soldier on in life doing what other people think we should be doing, or what we were doing before, when we have changed as people. If you suddenly realise that you’d rather be a midwife in Peru, so what? It’s your business and your choice. A life well lived can mean different things to different people.

THE MANDRAKE FILMS USP

I’d like to say I set up Mandrake with a clear five-year plan but, to be honest, the first couple of years were trial and error. I started with some funding from the Irish Film Board, a start-up grant and free administration help from the Innovatory Fund in East London and a commission from the Wellcome Trust. This was enough to get me through the first several months, pay myself a small salary from projects run from home, hire freelance crew and work out what to do next. I was also lucky enough to have contacts who were media lawyers and could advise me for free on some company law, but essentially I was learning on the job and pitching and networking like crazy.

This was an exciting time of intense creativity and energy, with scores of ideas simmering, and I made some great contacts and also partnerships that, with hindsight, were probably not the best idea. My first business partner and co-director was a fiction film director and personal friend with whom I had a few drama projects in development. We came to realise after the first year that we were going in different directions and did not have complementary skills. It was a rather messy process to part ways and taught me some valuable lessons. It also gave me a clearer focus about the direction I wanted the company to go in. Around this time I managed to find a private investor, a contact made through one of our drama projects, who was willing to take a small share in the company to help us drive forward. This allowed for some freedom to hire longer-term development and production staff to keep the momentum going, and realise some ideas.

Having straddled drama and factual during my career up to that point, and done some drama at Mandrake, I realised that I was feeling more excited about the educational factual content, documentary and current affairs we had done and had in development than I was about the very long and arduous process of fiction development. So at this point I made a three-year creative and financial plan to go in that direction.

Our first website was pretty difficult, too. Designed for free by a friend, it was less than perfect and there was a battle to get any updates or amendments done after the initial work – which also put strain on our personal relationship. I decided to pay to get it updated professionally and that small outlay was definitely worth the money. It also meant I could take as long as was necessary to get it perfect and bug the developers as much as I needed to as they were getting paid!

At this point I was hiring enough freelance staff to start thinking about how I wanted to be as a boss, and the structure the organisation should take. Things grew organically and I realised I was more of a collaborative and non-hierarchical boss than a ‘Big Cheese’ type. This was partly the result of experience and growing confidence. When I first started out working on feature films and dramas as a production manager and line producer looking after large crews, I was probably a lot less approachable, because I was more insecure. However, as someone who works a lot better in small groups or one on one, it was easier for me to have a small, friendly, intimate group to work with than a larger one. With creative and business endeavours, much depends on individual personality – of the founder/managing director and of the team.

After the first three years we had a much clearer USP. Our brand was educational, human rights, specialist factual and youth-orientated as well as business-to-business content. But we could have come to this brand identity more quickly, and less painfully, with more detailed forward planning and deeper thought about appropriate partnerships.

IS THERE A RIGHT TIME TO START A BUSINESS?

When I set up in 2008, it was at the beginning of a recession in the UK after a catastrophic financial crash. Funders, investors and broadcasters were even more cautious about spending money than usual and if you had a turnover under a million, the banks didn’t want to know (alas, this seems to be the case even today with many banks – no matter how much they claim to be pro small businesses). Bizarrely, this had very little influence on my decision whether to start up or not. I felt it was ‘now or never’ and the challenging financial times probably meant I had to be more resourceful and imaginative.

The digital age had begun, but not truly taken hold in the media industry. The prevailing attitude, at least in TV and film, was competition, hierarchy, exclusivity and keeping your cards close to your chest. The industry had its gatekeepers and cliques, commissioning editors were king, and it was still very difficult to break down social and cultural barriers. When I was a freelancer working in medium-to-large production companies between 2001 and 2006, managing directors had their top office and didn’t mix much with the hoi polloi. It wasn’t till I worked in a smaller company, Mosaic Films, that I saw the spirit of collaboration and community at play. Diversity was not yet a watchword, although it was very much on the radar.

Although some of this is still true in some sections of the creative industries, things are rapidly changing. Attitudes to collaboration inside businesses and between businesses are now, happily, more fluid and company structures are more influenced by non-hierarchical models. There are more opportunities to get yourself heard although, of course, this does mean you have to shout even louder. The sheer scale and volume of digital creative content has meant that the traditional gatekeepers are running to catch up and have had to let go of some of that arrogant authority. The ease of production has led to a natural increase in social, ethnic and gender diversity, which traditional media giants have had to embrace and reflect in order to survive. This has begun to trickle down throughout the industry, slowly, and also emerge itself, organically and in parallel to traditional media – although much work still needs to be done on that score.

All that being said, you have to think about how you want to structure your company based on who will be in it – numbers, job roles, levels of seniority and autonomy, and what your ultimate goals are.

PRIORITISING DIVERSITY

This is something close to my heart and so important for creative businesses today, so I wanted to put it right up front. It is something you should be thinking about when forming your company. In my view, creative industries should reflect the global community as well as the local one and give a voice to all ethnicities, social and economic groups, gender and sexual identities, religions and non-religions, able-bodied and those with disabilities – where possible. Our culture tends to do this more naturally now that the digital age has truly bedded in, because it’s simply easier for people to access technology – but in the creative industries generally, and especially in more mainstream ones, we are nowhere near where we need to be yet.

Of course, socio-economic factors and disenfranchised, marginalised or stigmatised groups within all cultures still make it difficult for some people to speak, creatively or otherwise. I come from a Western cultural perspective, because that is the one I know and have mostly worked in. There are variations. But creativity itself is universal, and all industries include some element of it – not just the official ‘creative industries’ such as digital content, film and TV, music, publishing, theatre and art. The huge global popularity of these officially sanctioned creative careers, however, means they have a chance to lead the way in reflecting and discussing who we are in the twenty-first century.

There has been a feeling of lip service to diversity from the media industry over the last ten years but now digital content has moved on from ‘observing’ or telling stories about marginalised communities, to those people telling their own stories in their own voice. Within digital film and TV, networks such as Al Jazeera English and Vice have led the way, in using reporters who live in the regions they are reporting on, rather than flying a Western journalist in to tell their story.

Online channels, like My Genderation by Fox Fisher, feature films made by, as well as just looking at, the LGBTQI community, which is an important shift. UK channels like Channel 4 have used their Diversity Fund and diversity department to great effect, reaching out to smaller companies and those outside the London capital, as well as diverse ethnic and underrepresented communities, including disabled creatives and presenters. Ade Rawcliffe, creative diversity manager at C4, and Lara Akeju, project lead events and Paralympics, are constantly working on projects that broaden our outlook and horizons.

Directors UK released a report in May 2016, ‘Cut Out of the Picture’, about the disparity between male and female directors across genres, which has some shocking statistics. In digital agencies and the games industry, there is also a notable lack of gender diversity. Organisations such as Raising Films are tackling these issues, and have finally given an industry voice to mothers who want flexibility in their work because of childcare or just shifting priorities. Women in Film and Television have done a brilliant job of encouraging women in the film and TV industry through large networks, events and initiatives like their mentoring scheme, led by Nicola Lees, which is aimed at mid-career-level women who have already established themselves but want to make a change and support each other through their careers. Having been briefly involved with this scheme myself, I know what a fantastic support network it offers.

The Creative Diversity Network (CDN) has highlighted the importance of featuring different ethnicities on-screen and behind it and in 2016 they launched Project Diamond, which is, their website states:

a new industry-wide diversity monitoring system created by broadcasters BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Sky, and supported by Pact and Creative Skillset, through the CDN. It will provide detailed, consistent and comprehensive monitoring and reporting of diversity … TV needs diversity at its very core to reflect society.

CASE STUDY:

FEMALE-LED START-UP AEGIS FILM PRODUCTIONS LTD

Athena Mandis is convenor of the documentary MA and lecturer in screenwriting at Queen Mary, University of London. She set up production company Aegis Film Productions as a funding vehicle for personally generated film, corporate and charity work. Being accepted onto a film scheme specifically targeted at female directors, producers and writers gave her the confidence to set up a limited company after doing projects as a freelancer or through the university for years. Athena says:

I was fortunate to be selected as one of 12 female filmmakers on the Filmonomics Programme 2015 run by Mia Bays. This group of women have provided a network of collaborators but more importantly they have made me feel part of a supportive, dynamic filmmaking community. As a mother, it can be difficult starting up a business. A lot of events happen in the evening, so it is not always easy to attend because of childcare issues. I would personally like more events to be held during the daytime. I have also faced personal challenges to do with lack of belief in myself, which the Filmonomics scheme really helped me with.

Currently Aegis are producing a documentary on UK Armenians and World War I and have two features in development: one (Anatolian Skies) has been shortlisted for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab 2017; the other (Greek Lanes) has a proof-of-concept short (Southgate to Brighton) in production.

YOUR ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

Traditionally, companies have been structured in quite a rigid, hierarchical way called the ‘pyramid structure’. This means a narrow concentration of power at the top that trickles down to the subordinate levels – in other words, power, authority and input are centralised around the MD/CEO and board-level directors. This is still the case with many large, medium and small companies today but, in the digital age, non-hierarchical structures are much more popular, too. Non-hierarchical leadership flattens the pyramid to form a structure with decentralised authority and fewer levels – allowing more employees to have input into company ideas, and more responsibility for their roles.

Steve Jobs at Apple famously based his company structure on that of the Walt Disney Company because he thought it was the best way to maximise creativity. Although there is still a hierarchy with this model, it is a more organic and overlapping structure that allows employees to have input into company ideas and USP. Most digital companies function this way today.

Of course, many of the smaller, more agile creative companies that exist today work much better with an organic, collaborative structure because there are fewer staff involved anyway.

Think about the personalities of the key players here, too. Do they work better on their own, or as a team? Is your job the kind that needs a lot of concentrated thinking and planning time, or is it more front of house, interacting with staff? How do staff feel about the company structure?

Google headquarters in Dublin, Ireland have a ‘nested’ approach to work spaces, with closed rooms of between six and eight people as well as more open areas. They are taking a lead from anthropological research which indicates that seven people is the ideal number for a sense of community, security, belonging and productive collaboration within work culture without the need for a strict hierarchy. These smaller groups function within larger ‘tribes’ of up to 150 people in the building.

RISKS AND REWARDS WITH BOTH STRUCTURES

The advantage of the more traditional hierarchical structure is that the power belongs to the office more than the individual – meaning that if those at the top are not doing their jobs properly, they are more likely to be made accountable for it and less likely to abuse their power. Also, roles are very clearly defined, and career pathways clear. Accountability and chain of command are obvious, giving a certain amount of security and less big responsibility to employees who may not be comfortable with it. There is less opportunity for collaboration and openness and feeling part of the company as a whole, because each person is working within their established niche and this can breed competition, cliques and infighting.

With a less formal, more collaborative structure there is a lot more opportunity for diversity of thought and therefore creativity. Employees feel valued as parts of the whole rather than just working within their niche, which may embolden them to contribute things the MD and senior team hadn’t thought of. Younger people, such as graduate interns or assistants, can be invaluable here because they are tapped into networks within their age demographic that more senior people may have lost touch with. Resources can be shared openly and can sometimes lead to unexpected leaps forward. However, these structures can lead to a corrosive lack of clarity and direction, or employees and directors overstepping the mark, unless the MD and senior team can clearly communicate boundaries at the same time as being democratic and open. Sometimes too much responsibility for a project on more junior staff members makes them self-sabotage because they are not ready for it. As a founder/MD, you need to look out for this stuff, deal with it immediately and manage it well on an ongoing basis.

In all cases, it is wise to have an experienced, independent board behind you. I will talk about company boards in the next chapter.

INTERVIEW WITH JAKE DUBBINS, CO-FOUNDER AND MD OF DIGITAL BRAND ENTERTAINMENT AGENCY MEDIA BOUNTY

When did you set up Media Bounty and what do you do?

We started in 2008 with three founding partners who are still the board and we’ve morphed from a bespoke PR company to being a brand entertainment agency, effectively a modern ad agency. We do video, audiovisual content and social media for a bunch of big brands and then get the content seen across various platforms by the right person at the right time.

We all came out of a business that went bust so there was a decision to be made as to whether we go and get jobs or whether three crucial people in that business go and set up themselves. Over a pint and several glasses of wine we decided we could probably do this better than it’s being done at the moment. We had an accountant that we knew, he introduced us to a lawyer and we set up the URLs and started trading very quickly, with a couple of clients we’d known for a long time. So we already had an element of revenue.

Because it was 2008 and banks were not lending money, we all went for personal loans. I went and said I needed money for a new car, my colleague said she needed money for home improvements, and my other partner and founder went to the Bank of Mum and Dad. So we had three months of cash from this and, obviously, if it had all gone wrong we would be in a lot of bother – but fortunately it went right!

You’ve got to do what it takes, if you have no other route. We went to friends who had more money than we did; we investigated getting a business loan but the climate wasn’t there, so if we hadn’t taken a personal risk it couldn’t have happened.

Because it had come from somewhere you knew it was viable; it wasn’t a complete unknown.

Yes, but I don’t think many people set up a business that they don’t think is viable; it’s got to be a calculated risk as opposed to ‘fuck it, I don’t know what’s going to happen’ – otherwise you run out of money very quickly.

So were your co-founders colleagues, friends or both?

Colleagues in the previous business. One was a university friend whom I had recruited into the previous business, and Emma I had worked with for the best part of six years. So I knew them both well.

Do you feel that your roles complement each other and it all works, or did it take a bit of developing over the years?

It’s taken some sorting out over the years. We ran by committee at first and, sometimes, when you run something with no structure at board level you run the risk of inertia, because the person who says no is de facto running the company.

When you say there was no structure, what exactly do you mean?

It was three directors on an even keel. So there was a consultant that approached us and he came in and did a lot of personality profiles, interviewed us all to then make a pretty strong recommendation as to how we should structure ourselves.

So have you picked someone to be in charge?

Yes

And that’s you?

Yes

And has that worked? It’s a tricky transition!

It has but it took time. People need to think about that as early as possible, i.e. how something is structured, because if you do it halfway through there are always going to be challenges because there’s history. I would do that earlier if I was to do it again.

So what are your official roles now?

I’m MD, Matt is client services director and Emma is a hybrid of insights director, HR director and operations director.

Would you recommend, if someone is setting up with their mates, getting a consultant in to do that because it’s an objective opinion?

Yes, definitely. When you set up you’ve got to park your egos at the door and say ‘what is the best make-up of the characters in the business?’ Because it could end up as a competition between you. Objective advice from somebody who has been in business for a few years and so can give good advice – that’s a good starting position. We only did job descriptions three years ago and if we had done that earlier it would have been a clearer way of working.

What was your vision at the beginning?

Naively, we did what we knew, so we had run a lot of media competitions and radio interviews and the naive vision was ‘this will probably work, we will probably be able to sell it in five years’. We are now seven and a half years in, have changed the business immensely and are now in a good position to work with big brands at a higher level because we’re offering a much more strategic and creative package rather than a tactical, short-term ‘solve a problem here and now’. It’s more about the whole business or brand and communicating that to the target audience.

Unless you’ve got a piece of tech, it takes time to get to exit – the FBs, Twitters, Snapchats are very few and far between where they sell very quickly and make lots of money. When you’re in your late twenties and quite naive about business you think it’s going to be easy – and it ain’t. You’ve got to find your feet.

Do you still aim to sell in the future or will you stay with the company?

Possibly. I’m open-minded about it – it’s a judgement call if and when that happens. We’re still in the process of trying to grow the business but I’d be lying if I said that if a good offer was put on the table I wouldn’t consider it. I can’t see that happening for the next few years.

Talk about your team now – who else is there in the office?

There’s a senior team of five: head of strategy, two account directors, HOD in charge of audiovisual, and head of media. There's also a client services team and we're now 23 people. Building that senior team has been critical. Once you start growing you can’t manage everybody so you need senior people whom you trust but who do parts of the job better than you do, so you’ve got that mix of skills that frees up people like me to work on the business rather than just in the business. If you don’t have people you trust that do a great job and give a shit then it’s very difficult to work on the business – you end up spending all your time working in the business. I’m trying to grow the business and see the bigger picture as opposed to being constantly at the coalface.

Did you have job descriptions for all those people or was it more organic?

Bit of both. We made quite a lot of mistakes. Mainly we hired the right people and those people are still there but we also hired the wrong people, too, and had to part company. Part of growing a business is that some of it you’ll get right and some of it you’ll screw up – it’s about learning from the screw-ups so you don’t do it again. A lot of it has been organic because four out of the five senior people have been with us for more than two years and have been promoted into these more senior positions, so they know the business well.

Who are your main clients – and what is the spread of clients?

We used to over-rely on one or two clients; the spread is now a lot better. We’ve moved from being project-based to having longer-term relationships with some of our key clients. Clients include SCA (Bodyform, Plenty, Tena), Velvet, Colgate, Palmolive, Direct Line, Boots, Siemens, Celetrens who distribute drinks brands, Luxado in Italy.

Did you make a conscious decision that the business was more stable with a spread of clients?

If you’re complacent then you’re much more at risk than if you’re aware of it and work hard to grow other opportunities. If that client had walked out three or four years ago we’d have probably been bust or we’d have had to really downscale quickly, whereas now we’re in a position where if we lost a big client we’d be fine. That allows you to lose less hair. It’s a balance about making sure the relationships are with the right stakeholders within the businesses as well, because those people can change and affect the company’s relation to the business. We need to know how the politics of big business works and how their external and internal structures work.

Our turnover is all client-based. No investors. We’ve put a lot of profit back into the business to make sure we’ve always had a buffer cash reserve. We’ve been very lucky in that we did that quite early and we’ve never had a situation where we’re saying: ‘how the hell are we going to pay people?’

What advice would you give in terms of retaining money in the business over the years when you’re not getting a huge amount of turnover?

Between three and six months of admin cash or on your balance sheet to cover your run rate; easily digestible management accounts so you understand as quickly as possible whether you’re overspending somewhere; a robust forecast and budget so you understand what’s coming down the track. This is easy to say in hindsight and we’ve done it as we’ve gone along – but if I was to do it again those are the things I’d put in straight away. All about having the right information to be able to make the right decisions.

What is the culture of your company?

The culture is a bunch of people who are fun to work with and really care. It’s not just a job. One of our values is we give a shit about people we work with and clients we work with. We have a charity partner. It’s quite flat in terms of ideas and where they come from. We don’t have a ‘creative’ department. There’s no creative director so nobody has that ultimate responsibility. We run open creative sessions, in an ego-free environment, where no idea’s a bad idea. Then we go back to present to the client three or four ideas from a brainstorm of 25. If creativity is always ‘owned’ by one department then you don’t encourage creativity elsewhere.

How has the digital space changed since you’ve set up?

It’s now changed to the point where platform is becoming irrelevant. If you produce good content that is then optimised for platforms, that’s the trick. The mobile is where people now consume a lot of content – a certain demographic don’t watch traditional broadcast TV any more, so whether you’re making TV film or short-form ads it’s about the quality of the content, then getting it distributed to people as opposed to hoping that, for example, C4 will just commission it. Rather than one or two gatekeepers, it’s a much broader idea. It’s very consumer-first – are they on Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc. so you can have a suite of assets that are not just cutdowns but thought about in terms of story – beginning, middle and end – for that platform? Mobile, social networks on those devices, increasingly Snapchat; video is exploding and continues to do so because it has been the best way of delivering messages since the fifties when TV came out.

Who is your charity partner?

It’s an organisation called World Land Trust. We did some consultancy for them, but for every piece of work we do, we fund the purchase of one or more acres of threatened habitat. They work with local NGOs globally. Its patrons are David Attenborough and Chris Packham. It’s about making sure we’re not just using the planet as a resource. They obviously had to vet us and make sure we’re a viable business, because your logo is on their site, etc. Over years we’ve given tens of thousands of pounds to them.

What lessons have you learned running a business for several years?

Budget together as early as possible; make sure you’re on top of expenditure to allow quick growth; the mantra for any business is surround yourself with successful people. Starting out, what you don’t know is a lot more than what you do know and you can avoid making mistakes by talking to people who have done it before. If you think you know it all you’ll screw it up pretty quickly. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and try new things. If you start a business you’re taking a risk. The market does not stand still – change your offer as you go along.

What does the future hold for Media Bounty and is it a positive future for start-ups?

We will be producing more and more content, but the right content – not just content for the sake of it. The spirit of collaboration is very good at the moment. Bigger businesses are more monolithic and they’re very protective whereas we’ve grown up a bit over the last seven years. Now, if we don’t do something, we’ll recommend partners to fill the gaps – a collaboration between two companies providing a solution rather than a one-stop shop claiming to do everything. You’ve got to understand the market but I think it’s a good time to set up and then collaborate with the right people.

Collaboration is a much more positive culture. We’ve tried to do too much before focusing on what we’re good at and then collaborating. If you work with businesses in a non-competitive way then everyone learns a lot.

SETTING UP YOUR LIMITED COMPANY; BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS; COMPANY LEGAL STRUCTURES

Buying a company off the shelf in the UK couldn’t be easier. It’s simply a case of picking a name (checking first on the Companies House website to see if there are any other UK companies with this name before buying your web domain), nominating a secretary if you choose to have one, getting together your Memorandum and Articles, and paying £40 by post or a mere £12 online at Companies House to register your shiny new company.

How exciting! Now comes the hard bit. How will you structure your company, and who will be involved? A word of warning: think hard before setting up with your mates. When things get rocky or you simply can’t agree about the creative or financial direction, it could affect your friendship. As discussed in the previous chapter, I’ve been there! What if the closeness of your relationship means you can’t be honest with your business partner for fear of offending them? What if your shared history and intimacy allows for a degree of control over each other that is not healthy in a business context? Often a better option is a colleague whom you trust and get on with and who has the kind of experience that will add value.