Pembridge, NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and the DBA (Design Business Association), today announced the final list of companies selected for Small / Medium / Large, a pioneering initiative to accelerate business growth in design businesses.
Small / Medium / Large is a new UK wide initiative specifically designed to grow micro and small design businesses by offering free business advice and training on developing strategy and management capabilities. £50,000 worth of tailored business advice and training will be shared by the 10 companies over the next six months.
The initiative is a collaboration between the Design Business Association, Pembridge Partners LLP and NESTA, the fusion of which offers a unique combination of strategic consultancy and business mentoring. The aim is to give the chosen companies a boost to make the most of the opportunities they face.
The 10 companies selected for Small / Medium / Large are:
- 442 Design, Edinburgh
- The Alloy, Farnham
- Black i Design, Tunbridge Wells
- Elfen, Cardiff
- Mode, London
- Northbank Design, Bath
- Reach Design, Bristol
- Rodd Industrial Design, Hampshire
- Seachange Creative Partners, London
- Vivado Limited, Chelmsford
Mark Fenwick, Business Support Manager at NESTA, said: "Small / Medium / Large is an extension of NESTA's commitment to developing new models for growth and investment in the creative industries. We hope that these ten companies can become role models and help build up an understanding of how micros and small design businesses can grow. We will be working with DBA and Pembridge to ensure that all ten companies in the pilot Small / Medium / Large initiative are given every chance to accelerate and sustain company growth."
This pilot scheme is only funded to work with 10 companies so the selection process focussed on those that already had most of the basics in place and whose financial performance showed they could walk the walk as well as talk the talk. The selection team looked not just for past track record but also indicators of genuine potential.
Deborah Dawton, Chief Executive, DBA comments: "The process of selecting the final 10 companies has been fascinating. We have already gained an insight into a cross section of small design consultancies and feel that we now better understand the requirements of the sector."
The research carried out by Pembridge Partners LLP to select firms threw up a number of interesting issues:
- The majority of directors in the group (60%) had no business training and 25% did not use management accounts to run their companies. Pembridge Partner Hugh Mason comments: 'On the face of it there seems to be a significant number of design companies who could benefit from training in these basic business factors - issues that are addressed through the DBA training programme.'
- A majority of firms (75%) had thought about their commercial goals and could start to put financial targets on their ambitions. This shows the design industry in a good light: a similar recent survey of independent film and TV companies conducted by Pembridge found that most companies in that sector felt uncomfortable even defining their goals in terms of money and virtually none had a business plan. Pembridge Partner Hugh Mason comments: 'While many people enter the design industry to pursue creative goals, it's clear that there are a significant number of firms that really do want to accept the discipline to be successful commercially too.' 72% of companies in the survey were asking very focussed questions like 'How can we find new ways of making money from our existing customer base?' and a good fraction of firms are innovative about the way they do that: 56% had come up with a new source of revenue in the last six months.
- On the down side, almost a third of the firms appeared to have no structured marketing process by which they let the world know about themselves and their services. Again this shows that the industry could benefit from training on the basics of selling and marketing themselves.
Schemes similar to Small / Medium / Large have been run successfully by Pembridge in other creative industries, such film and television, and provided this initiative can show that the same approach works in design too there is every indication that public funding agencies who recognise the contribution of design companies to the UK economy will back it by extending it in the future.
