Women's Enteprise South East

Dominique (‘Dom’) Oliver has always been a very enterprising young woman.  In her early teens she decided she wanted to work in children’s TV, so she wrote to the main production companies about work placements.  By the time she left school, she had worked for all of these: LWT, Children’s BBC, Disney Channel.  She even chose her degree course because she was told it was one that TV channels looked for when recruiting trainee producers.

However, when she left university Dom became disappointed with her prospects.  She worked for a short period at the BBC, but became frustrated at the slow pace of progress up the career ladder.  She had encountered a different form of ageism – if you were under 30, you were too young to be a producer!

Help in Starting Out

Setting up her own business was a natural evolution for Dom.  She had run market stalls, made jewellery and sold it.  She went to the Slough Young People’s Centre which was associated with Business Link.  Using their advice, Dom set up business as a sole trader in 2000, filming and editing short films and videos for voluntary groups in the local area.

For the first four years Dom’s business quadrupled its turnover year on year.  In 2005 she was based in offices in the SEEDA Slough Enterprise Hub (now the Enterprise Centre at Thames Valley University).  Believing she needed to take her business to the next level, Dom spoke to the Enterprise Hub and they helped her to set up as a limited company – Resource Productions.

As well as youth and community videos, Resource Productions make professional corporate videos.  They also work in collaboration with others on producing drama for the festival circuit, such as the National Young People’s Festival.  Now Resource Productions has four staff members and up to 10 others they call upon when the needs of various productions arise.  More recently, Dom has diversified into a range of subsidiary businesses and her current aim is to also grow these to increase her profits.

A few surprises

Dom has found that some aspects of running her own business were pretty much as she expected, mainly because she had quite a lot of work experience beforehand.  She hasn’t been fazed by the long hours and has coped well with areas of bureaucracy, such as finance, legal, and health & safety.

However, some aspects have not been quite so straightforward.  The hardest thing Dom found was going from being a one-person business to being an employer.  Initially, she found the people management side very difficult, but this has become easier with each person she recruits.  Now, Dom trains young people and finds this is a useful talent pool to draw on when she is looking for new staff.

Finally, an unexpectedly positive side of running her own business has been the financial rewards.  “I didn’t expect to generate so much profit!” exclaims Dom.  

The Female Factor

When you ask Dom Oliver if she feels she has had to face specific challenges in business because she is a woman, the answer is a firm “No”.  Dom believes her stubbornness and single-mindedness have stood her in good stead and these are personal characteristics rather than anything to do with gender.

However, she has one special trick up her sleeve – her name.  Her name has always been shortened to “Dom” and she decided to keep using this when she went into business.  “People don’t know that I’m necessarily a woman until they get to speak to me,” she laughs.  “And by the time they find out, it’s too late!”

Because Dom and her partner are thinking of settling down and eventually finding the time to get married, she is now trying to work out how the company could operate without her.  She has never had to deal with this before as the longest she has been off sick in the last seven years is three days.  However, solving this problem will surely present only a small challenge to a woman who has achieved so much by the age of thirty.

You’re Not Too Young

Dom’s advice to other women who want to get started in business is “Just get on with it!”  She realises that, like her, many women are risk-averse.  They don’t want to put their homes on the line when it comes to setting up an enterprise.

Dom believes that a good way for women to develop their own business is to pilot their idea and slowly grow the business alongside a day job and/or motherhood.  This removes the risks associated with capital investment and giving up existing income streams.

Dom’s final message to other budding women entrepreneurs is “You are not too young to start your own business.  You can do it at any age – 14, 16, 18, 21…”

www.resource-productions.co.uk