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Creative Enterprise Female Founders

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Creative Enterprise is excited to announce another round of the Female Founders programme, an exclusive and highly-coveted initiative tailored to ambitious female founders operating screen-based enterprises.

With the growing rise of female-led companies, women in business are making significant strides toward greater equity. This programme celebrates and supports this momentum by equipping female entrepreneurs with essential skills and the confidence to scale their businesses successfully.

By fostering a vibrant and diverse network of female business leaders across regions, this initiative provides a unique platform for screen-based businesses led by women to achieve extraordinary growth and realise their full potential.

Applications for Female Founders  are Now Open.

Apply Here

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Who is it for?  

The programme is for companies led by women or those who identify as women, working in moving image for storytelling, spanning film and television, games and technology*. Companies should be registered and trading in the England, have some proven success and be ready to take their business to the next level. 

*We can support applicants working in branded content, if the company retain the IP rights of the content they produce, or are actively looking to move away from commercial work and form a creative arm of the business. 

We are aiming for a balanced regional representation across England with at least 80% of businesses coming from the regions outside of London.

What is involved? 

Female Founders programme will deliver a series of intense workshops and holistic business coaching sessions with proven industry leaders over six months where companies taking part in the programme will: 

  • Create and complete a comprehensive plan to grow and scale their businesses 
  • Get expert advice on business planning, funding and finance, taking their businesses to market, decision making and how to structure teams and hire the right talent 
  • Gain a greater understanding of revenue models, profitability and IP monetisation 
  • Learn directly from and build their network with proven industry leaders 
  • Receive one to one business coaching throughout the programme 
  • Be part of the annual Female Founders annual conference bringing together the past 4 years of cohorts.  

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Female Founders Magazine

Out of the strong network created by Female Founders have come the idea to publish a quarterly magazine – entirely edited and put together by the Founders themselves.

Current Issues Available:

           

 

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Any questions? Email our Creative Enterprise team.

Not sure if this programme is for you? Book a discovery call with a member of our team. 

***Applications are now open. Apply Here ***

Deadline for Applications is Monday 13 January 2025 at 5pm. 

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Sign Up to Our Newsletter to be kept up to date with business support opportunities, exclusive events and training and access to industry-leading expertise.

 

Eligibility & Fees

The Female Founders programme is only available to female led screen businesses based in England working in or with narrative storytelling.  

You will need to show that your business has the potential and ambition to scale up. To be considered for the programme, companies must: 

  • Be a female founder (or co-founder) of a screen based narrative business working in storytelling for the moving image (this can include film/TV, games, immersive, createch)  
  • Be registered and trading in England
  • Have successfully created a revenue generating product, reached a market/audience of scale or launched a new platform/ tech service that has enabled storytelling through moving image. 
  • You must have employed a minimum of 2 people (including yourself) at some point in the last 5 years (Covid years excluded) 
  • Have generated consistent sales revenue in the last 3 years in addition to any funding secured via grants, investment etc. 
  • Be committed to the long term development of your company 

Deadline for Applications is Friday 13 January 2025. 

Fees

The fee for participation in the programme is £250 + VAT per company. 

Creative Enterprise is a BFI Lottery funded programme  – overall, the support including group learning sessions, coaching and personalised mentoring  you receive during the Female Founders programme is valued at over £5,000 per person. There is also a bursary (contribution towards travel and accommodation) available for in-person sessions if needed.

If you feel like this fee is a significant barrier to your participation in the programme, please speak to Creative Enterprise team to discuss options.

 

Meet The Mentors

Cath Ellington

Cath Ellington spent most of her career managing radio stations and leading commercial teams. Starting her career as a sales exec at TFM (Stockton) she worked her way up to Managing Director. In 2006 she was asked to launch and run the network of charities and so was born Cash for Kids, a charity focussing on local sick and underprivileged children aligned to all of our local radio stations. Following a thoroughly enjoyable and humbling 5 years, she moved back into the core business as Managing Director of Bauer Media North East, working with some exceptional teams across sales, marketing and programming.

Following that she ran the commercial division across the whole of the Bauer Media local network.

In 2019 after over 30 years in Radio, she decided to set up her own consultancy business where she worked predominantly with start ups across a range of professions and creative industries. She has loved the challenge and variety this has afforded her, completely different to radio but what she has learnt is that most businesses have the same challenges and highs and lows so she has been able to draw on the experience of managing multiple teams.

Cath is now spending her time working with CUK across the South East; West Yorks and the North East, helping clients in the Creative Industry on strategy to ultimately grow their businesses. She also spends time coaching and training, working especially around improving the culture within companies.

Additionally she is loving working with Female Founders, where she’s met and worked with some amazing women.

Erica Wolfe-Murray

I see opportunities for creative businesses everywhere. Whether on screens, harnessing the power of audio, developing events or thinking of new products and services. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life – helping creative people build imaginative, profitable, resilient ventures.

Starting my creative sector career in an international ad agency working on British Airways, London Transport and Newsweek, I moved role and industry to work as the in-house copywriter at the Conran Design Group, before being headhunted to build the B2C arm of a south London design studio. After winning clients like NatWest and Next, two years later I concurrently set up my own design businesses and an indie doc production company with a partner. The former launched its own home furnishing & garden accessory range whilst also doing project work for clients such as Historic Royal Palaces and London Zoo. Meanwhile the latter won awards for BBC and C4 work filming in difficult locations around the globe, before internationalising the business with commissions from NatGeo and A&E, with me as the FD up until 2011.

At the start of 2012, I set up Lola – an innovation studio focused on helping creative, cultural and tech sector clients to harness the potential of their existing intellectual assets and IP to generate new audiences, revenues, products and services across the spectrum, combining both creative and financial perspectives. I’ve worked on projects with Disney, NatGeo, UK Parliament, NotontheHighStreet, Marriott, Puma, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and 400+ ventures across the breadth of the creative industries. I led Creative Enterprise’s Female Founders Scale-up Programme for 3 years combining talk-the-talk workshops involving leading industry figures with 1-2-1 walk-the-walk hands-on business growth coaching with each of the 38 company founders. I am on the advisory board of 3 companies encompassing VR, games, scripted/unscripted, podcasts, createch and branded content, work closely with a virtual production incubator and am a trustee of the Gordon Russell Design Museum.

In 2020 my book Simple Tips, Smart Ideas: Build a Bigger Better Business was a finalist in the Business Book Awards, I have an IP for Creative Entrepreneurs course on 8 million+ creative platform Domestika and am an advisor on US investor platform Tegus.com.

Vanessa Chapman

Vanessa Chapman runs VJC Media, a creative and business agency that works internationally with IP owners, media companies, brands and investors.  

An award-winning senior media executive, Vanessa has developed, produced, commissioned and acquired intellectual property across multiple platforms and supports a wide variety of clients on corporate strategy, business planning, fundraising and M&A activity.  

Vanessa sits on the advisory board of several companies, working with founders and management teams on their day-to-day business as well as growth and investment planning.  

With nearly 30 years’ experience in the entertainment industry, Vanessa is a frequent speaker/panellist at major industry events in the UK, Europe and the US, a juror on BAFTA panels and the Rose D’Or and acts as chair and content director at numerous Cartoon Europe conferences, including Cartoon Business and the innovative CartoonNext. 

A former Controller of Children’s & Family Programmes at ITV, where she ran a £40m+ production and acquisition budget, Vanessa went on to help develop and spearhead the strategy for the LEGO Company’s entry into the global television and movie industry. She then became MD of the business.  

Vanessa started her career as a national newspaper journalist, before joining BBC Radio and then London Weekend Television’s current affairs and popular factual department. She rose to be a senior programme editor before joining the ITV Network Centre in the 1990s as a programme commissioner.  

Cath Ellington spent most of her career managing radio stations and leading commercial teams. Starting her career as a sales exec at TFM (Stockton) she worked her way up to Managing Director. In 2006 she was asked to launch and run the network of charities and so was born Cash for Kids, a charity focussing on local sick and underprivileged children aligned to all of our local radio stations. Following a thoroughly enjoyable and humbling 5 years, she moved back into the core business as Managing Director of Bauer Media North East, working with some exceptional teams across sales, marketing and programming.

Following that she ran the commercial division across the whole of the Bauer Media local network.

In 2019 after over 30 years in Radio, she decided to set up her own consultancy business where she worked predominantly with start ups across a range of professions and creative industries. She has loved the challenge and variety this has afforded her, completely different to radio but what she has learnt is that most businesses have the same challenges and highs and lows so she has been able to draw on the experience of managing multiple teams.

Cath is now spending her time working with CUK across the South East; West Yorks and the North East, helping clients in the Creative Industry on strategy to ultimately grow their businesses. She also spends time coaching and training, working especially around improving the culture within companies.

Additionally she is loving working with Female Founders, where she’s met and worked with some amazing women.

I see opportunities for creative businesses everywhere. Whether on screens, harnessing the power of audio, developing events or thinking of new products and services. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life – helping creative people build imaginative, profitable, resilient ventures.

Starting my creative sector career in an international ad agency working on British Airways, London Transport and Newsweek, I moved role and industry to work as the in-house copywriter at the Conran Design Group, before being headhunted to build the B2C arm of a south London design studio. After winning clients like NatWest and Next, two years later I concurrently set up my own design businesses and an indie doc production company with a partner. The former launched its own home furnishing & garden accessory range whilst also doing project work for clients such as Historic Royal Palaces and London Zoo. Meanwhile the latter won awards for BBC and C4 work filming in difficult locations around the globe, before internationalising the business with commissions from NatGeo and A&E, with me as the FD up until 2011.

At the start of 2012, I set up Lola – an innovation studio focused on helping creative, cultural and tech sector clients to harness the potential of their existing intellectual assets and IP to generate new audiences, revenues, products and services across the spectrum, combining both creative and financial perspectives. I’ve worked on projects with Disney, NatGeo, UK Parliament, NotontheHighStreet, Marriott, Puma, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and 400+ ventures across the breadth of the creative industries. I led Creative Enterprise’s Female Founders Scale-up Programme for 3 years combining talk-the-talk workshops involving leading industry figures with 1-2-1 walk-the-walk hands-on business growth coaching with each of the 38 company founders. I am on the advisory board of 3 companies encompassing VR, games, scripted/unscripted, podcasts, createch and branded content, work closely with a virtual production incubator and am a trustee of the Gordon Russell Design Museum.

In 2020 my book Simple Tips, Smart Ideas: Build a Bigger Better Business was a finalist in the Business Book Awards, I have an IP for Creative Entrepreneurs course on 8 million+ creative platform Domestika and am an advisor on US investor platform Tegus.com.

Vanessa Chapman runs VJC Media, a creative and business agency that works internationally with IP owners, media companies, brands and investors.  

An award-winning senior media executive, Vanessa has developed, produced, commissioned and acquired intellectual property across multiple platforms and supports a wide variety of clients on corporate strategy, business planning, fundraising and M&A activity.  

Vanessa sits on the advisory board of several companies, working with founders and management teams on their day-to-day business as well as growth and investment planning.  

With nearly 30 years’ experience in the entertainment industry, Vanessa is a frequent speaker/panellist at major industry events in the UK, Europe and the US, a juror on BAFTA panels and the Rose D’Or and acts as chair and content director at numerous Cartoon Europe conferences, including Cartoon Business and the innovative CartoonNext. 

A former Controller of Children’s & Family Programmes at ITV, where she ran a £40m+ production and acquisition budget, Vanessa went on to help develop and spearhead the strategy for the LEGO Company’s entry into the global television and movie industry. She then became MD of the business.  

Vanessa started her career as a national newspaper journalist, before joining BBC Radio and then London Weekend Television’s current affairs and popular factual department. She rose to be a senior programme editor before joining the ITV Network Centre in the 1990s as a programme commissioner.  

 

 

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Programme delivery schedule

Final Delivery Schedule TBC

The programme will consist of 3 in-person sessions and 4 online sessions. We’ll announce the final dates as soon as possible.

In person sessions will be decided once we know where the cohort is based and will be a central location. Subsistence contributions are available to help those who need it for travel to access in person sessions. These funds are limited and are at the discretion of Creative Enterprise.  

Participants will take part in:   

  • 7 x day long workshops  
  • 5 x one-to-one coaching sessions 
  • 1 x Female Founders annual conference 

The workshops are intended to give you an overview of the subject matter in question. You will hear from industry experts as well as other company founders in the cohort, learning from their experiences.

The 1-2-1 coaching supports you to apply the right thinking and models for your business growth

Broad topics will include:  

Planning for growth   

  • Understanding your journey  
  • Market assessment  
  • Defining your vision statement  
  • Reviewing your business model and assessing additional options  
  • Identifying the barriers to growth 
  • What does success look like?  
  • Building your growth plan    

Finance & investment  

  • How to structure your finances for growth 
  • Funding options  
  • Private & public investors  
  • What do investors look for?  

Confidence & Self promotion   

  • Self-promotion tool-kit 
  • Challenging the stigma of self promotion 

Pitching   

  • Identifying the USP  
  • The sell (yourself, your company, your product)  
  • Effective communication  
  • Pitching to different audiences 
  • Practical factors   

Market Reach  

  • Knowing your audience/consumer  
  • Product & IP  
  • Identifying and optimising market opportunities  
  • Marketing skills  
  • Testing the market  
  • Growing your customer base Talent & Infrastructure  
  • Balancing personal and business needs  
  • Leadership & decision making  
  • Allocating roles and addressing the talent gaps  
  • Creating the right culture  
  • Structure & flexibility 

At the end of the Female Founders programme you will –  

  • Have received 121 business and personal growth coaching, improving your mindset, confidence and ability to apply new skills learnt to your business 
  • Understand your business better, its potential revenue models, profitability and IP monetisation 
  • Have identified your current barriers to growth that can be unique to female business owners, and the knowledge, confidence, and skills to overcome them
  • Be more confident in yourself, your business and your product, and have the skills to sell and pitch them
  • Be able to master difficult conversations when negotiating and pitching
  • Hone your leadership skills and have the confidence to apply them to your business
  • Have created a comprehensive plan to grow and scale your business 
  • Know how hire the right team and talent for your future growth 
  • Have an extensive network of empowering female leaders in the industry for support, advice and encouragement.  

_________________

Any questions? Email our Creative Enterprise team.

Not sure if this programme is for you? Book a discovery call with a member of our team. 

***Applications are now open. Apply Here ***

Deadline for Applications is Monday 13 January 2025 at 5pm. 

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If you would like to discuss any accessibility requirements prior to applying for the programme, please contact creativeenterprise@wearecreative.uk

The Female Founders programme is part of Creative Enterprise, which has been developed with National Lottery funding from the BFI, to increase the sustainability of the moving image sector by optimising business opportunities through connections, training, expert advice and strategy support.