Business Planning Grants recommended consultants

Back to top

The Creative Enterprise Business Planning Grants supports companies who work in moving image for storytelling, spanning film television, games and immersive, to build meaningful connections and create opportunities for business growth.

Below is a selection of the consultants we recommend working with for our business planning grants. If you would like to work with an expert not featured on this list, please provide details as part of your application.

If you would like to work as a consultant for Creative England, please get in touch with creativeenterprise@creativeengland.co.uk

Meet the consultants

Catherine AllenImmersive media specialist & CEO of Limina Immersive

Contact details: catherine@liminaimmersive.com

Catherine Allen is most well known as a UK leading expert in creative immersive technology, expanding the audience and creator base of the medium. Her approach is playful yet heavily audience-centric and grounded in data. After working on the BAFTA-winning iPad app Disney Animated, Catherine led the creation of two of the BBC’s first virtual reality experiences in 2015 – 2016. Finding VR an incredible artistic medium, but with a frustratingly narrow audience, she founded Limina Immersive in late 2016; a VR events and research company dedicated to bringing immersive tech to broader audiences. Limina ran cultural VR events across the world to a total of over 15,000 audience members. Catherine has continuously shared findings about audience needs back with universities and the sector in the form of reports, consultancy, seminars and workshops. She has authored several public reports that have influenced policy, for instance the Immersive Content Formats for Future Audiences report, for Innovate UK and Digital Catapult. Her written work includes expert op-eds, comment and analysis on immersive tech to outlets including Wired magazine, Radio 4’s Today programme, The Sunday Times and The Guardian. She is due to receive an honorary doctorate this summer from the University of Warwick for her work in widening the appeal of immersive tech.

Phil BirchenallFounder at Diagonal Thinking

Contact detailsphil@diagonalthinking.co

Phil Birchenall is an industry professional with over 20 years of high-level experience working in the creative, digital and media sectors and a vast network of contacts worldwide.

Before starting Diagonal Thinking, Phil was Managing Director of an international media consultancy, working with some of the biggest brands in television. As MD, his role was to continually improve the operation of the business, design and implement new services for its client base, and grow the company through new business development.

He previously worked in multiple roles supporting the creative, digital and media industries, developing and managing targeted training initiatives and business support programmes, and delivering strategic development projects for the public sector.

Phil’s approach is simple, considered and effective:

  • He works with businesses to find out what makes them tick, to understand their ambitions and identify the issues holding them back.
  • He then designs and helps to implement pragmatic solutions that help them transform and grow.

Having worked solely with companies in the sector for 20+ years, Phil brings a wide range of experience and knowledge to each client he works with, from a position of genuine empathy with – and respect for – creative business owners and leaders.

Current clients include Activaire (NYC), Ear To The Ground, Creative Industries Trafford, Cloud Enterprise, Troop & Co, Cold Star Media and Tall Story Games. He is a mentor for Greater Manchester Growth Hub and is currently supporting a music start-up in San Francisco.

Angus FinneyManaging Director at Larkhall Entertainment Ltd

Contact detailsangus.finney@gmail.com

Angus Finney is an experienced film, TV and streaming business specialist, author, trainer and an executive producer.
His current work includes mentoring production companies for Creative England and executive producing for Manchester’s horror outfit Grimmfest. He is an executive producer on the upcoming Danish film, “Nothing” (in post); the anthology horror series “666”, and the long running Greenland-set series “Between The Winds.”
He is currently writing the third edition of The International Film Business: A Market Guide Beyond Hollywood (Routledge, 2010, 2015), due to be published in early 2022. He has been appointed as a Director of a new streaming fund backed by a New York pension fund, due to start business post Covid-19.
Finney managed Europe’s only Film Production Finance Market for 10 years for FILM LONDON, and is the former managing director of Renaissance Films in the 2000s, where he worked across development, packaging, financing, sales and marketing. He has raised more than £50m from private investors and public funds across his career. He has worked for HMRC as an expert witness in the £1 billion film finance tax litigation case re Ingenious Media among various expert witness appointments over the past decade.
He teaches at Judge Business School, Cambridge University, where he is a Fellow. He is currently a visiting professor to the Beijing Film Academy, and a Course Director at the UK’s National Film & Television School and the British Film Institute. He consults privately for the international media advisor the Media Xchange. He has trained and taught around the world, including New Zealand, China, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Denmark, France, Poland, Middle East and the UK. He has published four books and has a PhD in management and strategy from City University London.

Contact details: catherine@liminaimmersive.com

Catherine Allen is most well known as a UK leading expert in creative immersive technology, expanding the audience and creator base of the medium. Her approach is playful yet heavily audience-centric and grounded in data. After working on the BAFTA-winning iPad app Disney Animated, Catherine led the creation of two of the BBC’s first virtual reality experiences in 2015 – 2016. Finding VR an incredible artistic medium, but with a frustratingly narrow audience, she founded Limina Immersive in late 2016; a VR events and research company dedicated to bringing immersive tech to broader audiences. Limina ran cultural VR events across the world to a total of over 15,000 audience members. Catherine has continuously shared findings about audience needs back with universities and the sector in the form of reports, consultancy, seminars and workshops. She has authored several public reports that have influenced policy, for instance the Immersive Content Formats for Future Audiences report, for Innovate UK and Digital Catapult. Her written work includes expert op-eds, comment and analysis on immersive tech to outlets including Wired magazine, Radio 4’s Today programme, The Sunday Times and The Guardian. She is due to receive an honorary doctorate this summer from the University of Warwick for her work in widening the appeal of immersive tech.

Contact detailsphil@diagonalthinking.co

Phil Birchenall is an industry professional with over 20 years of high-level experience working in the creative, digital and media sectors and a vast network of contacts worldwide.

Before starting Diagonal Thinking, Phil was Managing Director of an international media consultancy, working with some of the biggest brands in television. As MD, his role was to continually improve the operation of the business, design and implement new services for its client base, and grow the company through new business development.

He previously worked in multiple roles supporting the creative, digital and media industries, developing and managing targeted training initiatives and business support programmes, and delivering strategic development projects for the public sector.

Phil’s approach is simple, considered and effective:

  • He works with businesses to find out what makes them tick, to understand their ambitions and identify the issues holding them back.
  • He then designs and helps to implement pragmatic solutions that help them transform and grow.

Having worked solely with companies in the sector for 20+ years, Phil brings a wide range of experience and knowledge to each client he works with, from a position of genuine empathy with – and respect for – creative business owners and leaders.

Current clients include Activaire (NYC), Ear To The Ground, Creative Industries Trafford, Cloud Enterprise, Troop & Co, Cold Star Media and Tall Story Games. He is a mentor for Greater Manchester Growth Hub and is currently supporting a music start-up in San Francisco.

Contact detailsangus.finney@gmail.com

Angus Finney is an experienced film, TV and streaming business specialist, author, trainer and an executive producer.
His current work includes mentoring production companies for Creative England and executive producing for Manchester’s horror outfit Grimmfest. He is an executive producer on the upcoming Danish film, “Nothing” (in post); the anthology horror series “666”, and the long running Greenland-set series “Between The Winds.”
He is currently writing the third edition of The International Film Business: A Market Guide Beyond Hollywood (Routledge, 2010, 2015), due to be published in early 2022. He has been appointed as a Director of a new streaming fund backed by a New York pension fund, due to start business post Covid-19.
Finney managed Europe’s only Film Production Finance Market for 10 years for FILM LONDON, and is the former managing director of Renaissance Films in the 2000s, where he worked across development, packaging, financing, sales and marketing. He has raised more than £50m from private investors and public funds across his career. He has worked for HMRC as an expert witness in the £1 billion film finance tax litigation case re Ingenious Media among various expert witness appointments over the past decade.
He teaches at Judge Business School, Cambridge University, where he is a Fellow. He is currently a visiting professor to the Beijing Film Academy, and a Course Director at the UK’s National Film & Television School and the British Film Institute. He consults privately for the international media advisor the Media Xchange. He has trained and taught around the world, including New Zealand, China, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Denmark, France, Poland, Middle East and the UK. He has published four books and has a PhD in management and strategy from City University London.

Alison GradeCEO Mission Accomplished and Author The Freelance Bible

Contact details:

hello@alisongrade.com

Alison describes her key skill as transforming creative concepts into a business reality. She accomplishes this with the films she produces, the creative entrepreneurs she mentors, SMEs she advises and in her book, The Freelance Bible (Penguin).

Alison has formal academic training (INSEAD MBA) as well as being an entrepreneur who has established her own businesses. She has worked at senior level in many media companies – predominantly in international television and film production, rights management and strategy.

Currently Alison owns Mission Accomplished, a consultancy offering training, mentoring and strategic advice to start-ups and established SMEs in the Creative Industries. As a Nesta accredited Creative Enterprise trainer and mentor Alison has delivered international programmes in association with the British Council.

During her career, Alison has produced over 7,000 minutes of film and television productions on both high and low budgets. Her non-media experience includes founding Girls Angels, a motorcycle training school that specialised in training women.

Alison Grade is the fourth generation of her family to work in media. She has been a professional freelancer all her career. Writing in The Guardian Mark Lawson described her as being one of the most influential people in TV when, as a schoolgirl, she persuaded her father to repeat Neighbours at 5:35pm so she and her friends wouldn’t miss it.

Gavin JamesCo-CEO of G2 Global Media Group BV

Contact details: gavin.james@filmtvhouse.com

Gavin James is Co-CEO of G2 Global Media Group BV (and its subsidiaries GEM Entertainment Kft (Hungary), Batrax Entertainment BV (The Netherlands), Film & TV House Limited (UK) and Protocol International Kft (Hungary)) and Freeway Entertaiment Kft (Hungary), an established film licensing business.

He has over 25 years of executive management and consultancy experience in the global film, television, music and computer games industry.

He supports UK film and television production companies on a bespoke basis, helping prepare business plans and make them ready to make the next steps in their business;

Additionally, he supports producers and film and television investors by providing structuring and modelling services to enable them to evaluate risk and potential earnings from a single or slate investment.

Gavin has a degree in Banking & Finance from Loughborough University, and an MBA from School of Management, University of Bath.

Graham Niven Business Funding specialist

Contact details:

Website: www.tandemfs.co.uk

Email: graham.niven@tandemfs.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-niven-9ab9b61a/

I am a Business Funding specialist based in the North-west. I originally qualified as a chartered accountant and have worked in industry in a variety of Director positions– Finance, Operations and Customer Services, and across many industry sectors.

For the last 15 years I have been working for myself focussing on:

  1. Raising finance for businesses – mainly debt and equity – from banks to business angels and everything in-between.
  2. Preparing the Profit and Loss / Cash Flow / Balance Sheet forecasts and Business Plans that support funding applications
  3. Acting as a consultant to assist companies with profit improvement strategies.
  4. Selling businesses in the range £1m-£20m

I have worked with Creative England on a number of  projects including investment appraisal and due diligence and spend a lot of time with Creative businesses in the North West, both those at an early stage of inception, all the way through to those looking to sell up.

Contact details:

hello@alisongrade.com

Alison describes her key skill as transforming creative concepts into a business reality. She accomplishes this with the films she produces, the creative entrepreneurs she mentors, SMEs she advises and in her book, The Freelance Bible (Penguin).

Alison has formal academic training (INSEAD MBA) as well as being an entrepreneur who has established her own businesses. She has worked at senior level in many media companies – predominantly in international television and film production, rights management and strategy.

Currently Alison owns Mission Accomplished, a consultancy offering training, mentoring and strategic advice to start-ups and established SMEs in the Creative Industries. As a Nesta accredited Creative Enterprise trainer and mentor Alison has delivered international programmes in association with the British Council.

During her career, Alison has produced over 7,000 minutes of film and television productions on both high and low budgets. Her non-media experience includes founding Girls Angels, a motorcycle training school that specialised in training women.

Alison Grade is the fourth generation of her family to work in media. She has been a professional freelancer all her career. Writing in The Guardian Mark Lawson described her as being one of the most influential people in TV when, as a schoolgirl, she persuaded her father to repeat Neighbours at 5:35pm so she and her friends wouldn’t miss it.

Contact details: gavin.james@filmtvhouse.com

Gavin James is Co-CEO of G2 Global Media Group BV (and its subsidiaries GEM Entertainment Kft (Hungary), Batrax Entertainment BV (The Netherlands), Film & TV House Limited (UK) and Protocol International Kft (Hungary)) and Freeway Entertaiment Kft (Hungary), an established film licensing business.

He has over 25 years of executive management and consultancy experience in the global film, television, music and computer games industry.

He supports UK film and television production companies on a bespoke basis, helping prepare business plans and make them ready to make the next steps in their business;

Additionally, he supports producers and film and television investors by providing structuring and modelling services to enable them to evaluate risk and potential earnings from a single or slate investment.

Gavin has a degree in Banking & Finance from Loughborough University, and an MBA from School of Management, University of Bath.

Contact details:

Website: www.tandemfs.co.uk

Email: graham.niven@tandemfs.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-niven-9ab9b61a/

I am a Business Funding specialist based in the North-west. I originally qualified as a chartered accountant and have worked in industry in a variety of Director positions– Finance, Operations and Customer Services, and across many industry sectors.

For the last 15 years I have been working for myself focussing on:

  1. Raising finance for businesses – mainly debt and equity – from banks to business angels and everything in-between.
  2. Preparing the Profit and Loss / Cash Flow / Balance Sheet forecasts and Business Plans that support funding applications
  3. Acting as a consultant to assist companies with profit improvement strategies.
  4. Selling businesses in the range £1m-£20m

I have worked with Creative England on a number of  projects including investment appraisal and due diligence and spend a lot of time with Creative businesses in the North West, both those at an early stage of inception, all the way through to those looking to sell up.

Alison NorringtonFounder, Creative Director & Storyteller

Contact details:

http://www.storycentral.com

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alisonnorrington

http://www.instagram.com/storycentral_storyworld

My experience as a consultant/mentor is something that makes up 50% of my company, storycentral Ltd.  storycentralLABS was launched in 2012 and blends Game James and Hackathons into one experience, aligning it with an active commercial property with tangible goals, an innovative brief and a ticking clock.

Participants form multi-disciplinary teams to prototype story extensions and digital experiences that integrate intuitive technology with a sustainable strategy – all around a series from a mainstream studio, network, brand or publisher. Teams develop cross-platform IP that is story-centric and experience-led with specific commercial deliverables that will embrace and explore virality and long-tail ramifications.

Phil ReesBusiness Funding & Growth Consultant

Contact details: LinkedIn 

One of the UK’s truly independent consultants to the business market, Phil draws on over thirty years of experience in company management and funding.

Having helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and boards in developing their businesses, he is widely consulted in addressing company needs and supporting associated financing requirements, specialising in the production of strategic plans for growth, survival and tactical implementation.

Phil’s passion is the enhancement of business planning support in the creative sector, liaising closely with accountancy firms, banks and lenders in addressing funding requirements and being available under Creative England’s mentor/consultant initiative since 2018.

He is renowned for his solutions to challenging situations and is regularly recommended for involvement in facilitating both growth and trading needs.

Contact details:

http://www.storycentral.com

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alisonnorrington

http://www.instagram.com/storycentral_storyworld

My experience as a consultant/mentor is something that makes up 50% of my company, storycentral Ltd.  storycentralLABS was launched in 2012 and blends Game James and Hackathons into one experience, aligning it with an active commercial property with tangible goals, an innovative brief and a ticking clock.

Participants form multi-disciplinary teams to prototype story extensions and digital experiences that integrate intuitive technology with a sustainable strategy – all around a series from a mainstream studio, network, brand or publisher. Teams develop cross-platform IP that is story-centric and experience-led with specific commercial deliverables that will embrace and explore virality and long-tail ramifications.

Contact details: LinkedIn 

One of the UK’s truly independent consultants to the business market, Phil draws on over thirty years of experience in company management and funding.

Having helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and boards in developing their businesses, he is widely consulted in addressing company needs and supporting associated financing requirements, specialising in the production of strategic plans for growth, survival and tactical implementation.

Phil’s passion is the enhancement of business planning support in the creative sector, liaising closely with accountancy firms, banks and lenders in addressing funding requirements and being available under Creative England’s mentor/consultant initiative since 2018.

He is renowned for his solutions to challenging situations and is regularly recommended for involvement in facilitating both growth and trading needs.

In partnership with the BFI, Creative Enterprise was developed three years ago to grow screen businesses in the English regions. Through intensive programmes and bespoke workshops led by industry leaders and mentors, Creative Enterprise provides expertise and training to futureproof the next generation of moving image companies. By bringing together companies who work in moving image for storytelling, we build meaningful connections and create opportunities for business growth. The programme set out to support moving image entrepreneurs and businesses to develop new business models, products and services.