Company: Long Cat Media
Founders: Lindsay Sharman (Scriptwriting) & Laurence Owen
Company Mission: To make high quality audio fiction podcasts
Support from UEA Student Enterprise: £2000 ‘Do It’ and £7500 ‘Grow It’ funds
In January 2020, Lindsay Sharman and Laurence Owen founded ‘Long Cat Media’, a UK podcast production company specialising in audio-fiction.
Co-founder Lindsay says that what motivates her is the pride in what she’s producing and this is evident as Long Cat Media’s flagship comedy-drama series ‘Mockery Manor’ was nominated for Best Fiction at the British Podcast Awards 2020. it has also been described as “remarkably immersive” and “marvellous” by Stephen Fry.
Keep reading to hear more of Lindsay’s insights and experiences of starting a business.
What ignited the spark in you to start a new business rather than look for work from someone else?
Working for other people helped me realise I did not want to work for other people! However, it was still valuable to work for other people for a time, as it helped me identify WHY I was less happy in a traditional workplace. This led me to realise that if I worked for myself, I could design the kind of workplace I could thrive in, in which my strengths could be fully utilised, and I could delegate the rest.
How did UEA Student Enterprise help you?
It opened my eyes to what needed to be done to turn my idea into a viable business; pushed me to make detailed plans and set short, medium and long-term goals; enabled me to apply for the grants, which gave the business an invaluable head-start; and gave me the confidence to tackle things outside my wheelhouse (such as finance and forecasting).
What are the main positives of starting your own business?
Being excited to work, having control over the product and my workday, and knowing each day I’m building something and creating a body of work. Previously, the kind of work I did (writing, theatre-making) had been inconsistent, each short contract had no guarantee of further work, and I had a distinct lack of control in every aspect.
What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Identifying personal strengths and weaknesses and thus knowing when to delegate; combining attention-to-detail with ‘big picture’ thinking; bottomless enthusiasm for your product.
Written by Lindsay Sharman, Co-founder of Long Cat Media
You can find out more about Long Cat Media on their website here.
If you are interested in starting a business UEA Student Enterprise can help you with that all important funding, they have a range of grant schemes ranging from ‘Try It’– Up to a £250 grant, to ‘Scale It’ – Up to a £50,000 investment. Find out how they can financially help you here: http://bit.ly/3tRnP04
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