A SWEF Enterprise Fund grant from Dorset Community Foundation helped photographer Morgan Reeves focus on growing his business.
The fund helps young people aged 18 to 30 to overcome financial challenges and other disadvantages to develop their business and a £1,500 grant was enough to transform Morgan’s.
The 29-year-old from Poole had planned to save enough money to leave a job in credit control and start his own photography and videography business but when the company he worked for went into administration his hand was forced.
“I had been in various credit control jobs for ten years and I knew I didn’t want to stay in it, so when I was told I‘d be made redundant I figured it was probably the best time to start my business,” he said.
He expected the firm’s winding up process to take a year so he began building up his business with photographic jobs at weekends and evenings and on his annual leave. “I was starting to get a few jobs and then I was commissioned to take photographs at a Champions League event in London, hosted by Heineken,” he said. “I went to book a day off and my boss told me I only had one more day left. That was in April and I had expected the job to last until about November.”
When his redundancy came earlier than expected last May he turned Salterns Creative into his full time job.
But he only had one camera, a relatively basic model he’d owned for several years. He had planned to save more of his wages to add to his equipment but now he needed his redundancy money to live on while the business grew.
“I’d been offered a job shooting a client’s online teaching course that required a lot of video,” he said. “My camera was a little bit above entry level but by no means a professional camera. This job was a week of shooting everything at different angles so having just one camera would have exacerbated the recording – and my camera kept overheating.”
It has been game changing because about 80 per cent of my work is now video and making that jump from one to two cameras just unlocks another layer of production
He discovered the client had himself received a SWEF Enterprise grant and he encouraged Morgan to apply. The community foundation’s fund awards grants of up to £2,000 to established businesses or £500 to start-ups to help with the cost of training, product development and equipment or stock that will help launch new products or services.
Morgan had to submit an application form and then attend an online meeting. “The whole process was super easy,” he said. “The online meeting was intimidating at first because I’ve never done anything like that and I wondered if they would understand my vision. I told them how I wanted to scale into more of a production company so we can do pictures, video and interviews to tell a story.
“Once I started talking it was relaxed and actually really enjoyable. A couple of weeks later I got a message to say I’d been accepted, which was amazing. I had the camera saved on my laptop and was able to order it straight away and tell the client I could do the job.”
He said having a second camera that is much more adept at shooting video has transformed his business. “It has been game changing because about 80 per cent of my work is now video and making that jump from one to two cameras just unlocks another layer of production,” he said. “I am taking on so much more work that I wouldn’t have been able to accept before.”
Among Morgan’s regular clients are Bournemouth restaurant Rockwater, building contractor Ecosafe and motoring product distributor Sonax. He has also worked with mountain bike company Knollie and been shooting motorsport.
“I’m incredibly grateful for the grant because with this camera I feel confident in accepting and agreeing to jobs, knowing I have equipment that’s capable.
“The last six months has probably been the hardest, most tiring and sometimes very lonely six months of my life but I would make the decision again ten times out of ten and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.”
See Morgan’s work at salternscreative.com or on Instagram at @salternscreative and find out more about SWEF grants and how to apply here.
Pictured: Moragn Reeves, centre top, and some of his photography work
