Case Studies

V.OGRAPHICS is a filmmaking business that is run by Fabien Souzandry from Kennington, London.

The company makes documentaries for television or web broadcast, corporate or promotional films, live feeds for events, editing and music, short and feature films and runs film workshops for young people. Its customers range from small organisations or individuals to large corporate companies and government sponsored organisations.

Fabien was introduced to us by Livity, the Brixton based socially responsible marketing agency, which had commissioned Fabien to complete a filmmaking project for one of its clients.

Fabien was born and grew up in Paris and moved to London at the age of eleven. At that stage he spoke no English and eventually left school at 16 with 1 GCSE (an A* in French!!) in 2004.

Fabien says, "I was never really good at literature until I left school and found my own interest in reading and writing stories and developed a real passion for world culture, films, Japanese animation and manga, which is where I draw a lot of my inspiration in my filmmaking today."

Bright Ideas Trust helped Fabien to incorporate v.ographics in October 2008 and invested £7,500 into the business. These funds will be used principally to upgrade the company's filmmaking equipment. We have also provided him with a business Mentor and introduced him to financial and legal experts who are helping to plan and manage the business and to a number of prospective customers through our network of contacts.

Why BRIGHT IDEAS TRUST supports V.OGRAPHICS?

From the first time we met Fabien we saw that he not only had a passion for filmmaking but that he also had demonstrated a drive and commitment to learn as much as he could about the industry. When we met him, he had already undertaken numerous projects and had worked, at times for nothing, alongside experienced filmmakers to learn his craft.

Fabien says, "I haven't studied one day at traditional film learning platform, however my craft is very self taught, born out of personal interest and passion driven by conviction, resolve and ambition."

"Initially I started out making films in my bed room but after having my work screened in cinemas and broadcast on TV and having worked on numbers of film projects I became in demand to create more films, which then evolved into paid work."

During his apprenticeship period, Fabien worked with The Hayward Gallery, running film workshops culminating in a short film, which was screened at The British Film Institute and won a best story and best picture award. He also worked with BBC documentary filmmakers on a BBC3 documentary on the gallery. He worked for Live Magazine as a freelance filmmaker, making corporate and campaign marketing films for a number of companies including Nike, Mindshare, MTV and Sony BMG and for Current TV on a documentary about pop culture in Paris.

Fabien says that his "ambition is to become a self accomplished, renowned film director who owns his own studios and productions very much like Luc Besson and to work on films that I am passionate about and contribute to the enrichment of the British film/cinema economy and to enrich the cultural wealth of Europe."

"For me Bright Ideas Trust is very simply for business mentoring, specialist professional support, such as legal, accountancy, marketing and consultancy a network of contacts, marketing and promotional activities. But also to tap into the potential clients that are within the network range of Bright Idea Trust."

Rent-a-Cleaner limited (RACL) was formed in early 2008 and is run by Shawn Brown to provide cleaning services in both domestic and commercial markets.

RACL focuses on four London boroughs (Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Wandsworth) and offers a range of cleaning services including domestic and commercial cleaning and fleet car washing services. It provides services to both Domestic Clients - homeowners, tenants - and Commercial Clients - embassies, offices, estate Agencies, schools, etc.

Bright Ideas Trust supported RACL with funding of £7,000. This came directly from the Accenture donation to BRIGHT IDEAS TRUST and is being used by RACL to acquire a company vehicle, cleaning equipment, consumables and for marketing.

Shawn Brown was born, grew up and lives in London. He left school at 16 in 2001 and began work in the retail management working firstly for Selfridges as a sales advisor and then Harvey Nichols as a sales manager in their formal menswear department. However, it was when he changed career to the property lettings business that he developed the idea for his own business.

Whilst working for two London based property lettings companies during 2007/ 08 Shawn saw the opportunities for cleaning services in this sector. He says, "Tenants were always asking me where they could get reliable cleaners once they moved in, particularly if they were not from the area. Also, as agents we were continuously looking for professional and good quality cleaning services between lettings and during the void periods and we had a fleet of cars which were cleaned every few days."

During 2008, Shawn decided to leave his position and become an entrepreneur. When we first met him, he had just completed an intensive 6-week industrial cleaning course and qualification and was clearly determined to learn as much as he could about the industry in which he had chosen to work.

Since that time, he has undertaken extensive on the job work experience with other cleaning providers and has built a sales pipeline of prospective domestic and commercial clients. He said "I did about as much as I could to get my business started by doing my research, learning on the job and taking a course, but ultimately realised that the two things I really needed someone else to provide was some expert business guidance and the finance required to buy the essential equipment I needed."

Why BRIGHT IDEAS TRUST supports RACL?

BRIGHT IDEAS TRUST chose to support RACL because not only does it offer the opportunity for us to help to get a determined individual back into gainful employment through the creation of their own company but also expects to initially employ another 2-3 people.

Shawn says, "I believe having your own business enables one to have more choice and flexibility in life. I want to be a success; I have always believed with hard work, ambition and dedication I can achieve 'anything' in life. I also want to provide my daughter and family with a better lifestyle."

"I believe that we will be successful because we will promote rent-a-cleaner as a professional, customer friendly business with fully insured and CRB/police checked staff offering a high quality service at affordable prices."

La Bella Hair and Beauty provides hair, beauty and tanning services from its salon in the Emirates Stadium Complex in Islington, North London. The business was founded by Amariyah Shadia Raheem and Jason McClewer and opened its doors in April 2009.

Having initially secured a loan of £5,000 from The Princes Trust, La Bella found that they needed a larger amount of capital to finance the salon fit out and for working capital along with some experienced business mentoring to guide them through the start-up phase. They heard about Bright Ideas Trust (BIT) and completed the online application on our website.

BIT supported the development of La Bella with an investment of £12,000, made up of a mixture of debt and equity in the business. BIT also introduced the business to Judy Naake, 'the guru of self tanning', who is the driving force behind the St Tropez self tanning range. Judy is acting as La Bella's business mentor.

Life was not always so glamorous for the directors of La Bella Limited.

Jason grew up in a single parent family and spent many of his teenage years looking after his younger siblings rather than going to school. Undeterred, he started his education once he left school, studying accountancy and then IT and web design on his own account. He said "Even though I missed out on a lot of things I always had a dream to have my own business and knew that one day I would realise it".

Amariyah grew up in Manchester in a large Muslim family of 14, where money was always tight. As a teenager, she started to rebel against her family and when she left home to move to London, she soon became pregnant and homeless. She spent the next few years in hostels and temporary accommodation, was mugged and became very concerned for her safety. Without any family to rely on, she fell into a depression and became agoraphobic.

She said "I felt like I was never going to amount to anything. I felt like everyone was waiting for me to fail."

Things started to look up when she met Jason and was re-housed near the Emirates Arsenal Stadium, a residential and retail area. Together, they started to think about the idea of a hair and beauty business when they found it difficult to get what they needed for themselves in the local area. Amariyah said "I was finding myself travelling miles just to have my hair done".

She undertook some training in styling and creating hair extensions and started to do some basic research into likely customer demand in the area. When a retail outlet became available, the pair moved quickly to secure it and started to look for business support.

Why BIT supports La Bella?

BIT supports the La Bella business because we see it as a model of how courage, determination and drive can enable young people overcome enormous difficulties in their personal lives.

Amariyah and Jason came to us with a well thought through business proposition and had documented this in a business plan. They had also secured good quality premises and have developed some initial momentum for their business, including arranging seed capital from a number of sources.

Amariyah says, "We never thought coming from our background that we would ever own our own business - it really is a dream come true. For me, it's hopefully something to pass on to my children."

She continues, "I hope I can be an inspiration to young people everywhere. Although you do go through bad times, you can still come through it and make your dreams a reality. Neither my difficult background or the current economic conditions have stopped me fulfilling my dream."