TV AND FILM LIGHTING.
NORWAY.
Stigebilen is a company that rents out lighting for TV and film production. They have mounted a generator and what is apparently the world’s largest lamp (175kw) onto an old fire truck. The lamp is attached to a turntable ladder and is a very flexible tool for lighting locations.
However, the founder, Terje Røkke, did not start life as an entrepreneur with a fire truck. With an education in electronics he started working with lighting 13 years ago. After his education he worked for five years at Norsk Filmstudio and only after this did he start Stigebilen.
Talking about his time on the job he emphasises how important the networks and connections he made there were, and are, for getting new jobs. Moreover, he picked-up and developed many of the skills his company is based on at Norsk Filmstudio.
Starting a business in lighting is not cost-free and he needed money to start his firm. He is financed through Terra Finans, which is owned by 78 Norwegian savings banks. In his opinion the financing process went relatively smoothly. He developed and presented a traditional business plan, and had a history of revenues from previous projects before he went to the bank where he was warmly received.
The loan he used to finance his firm is similar to other types of bank loans: it was secured against a physical asset. The asset in this case was the vehicle but since vehicles’ value quickly diminishes the loan had to be paid back in five years. Lending money to buy cars is something banks do a lot of and he thinks this is why the financing process went so smoothly. Thinking about what assets loans can be secured against is an important part of bank financing.
The business has gone very well, and they now have three trucks and are planning to expand into gyro technique. They are carefully considering getting another truck.
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This is the eighth part of Volante’s series Creative Business. The series is a complete version of the book ”Creative Business: 10 lessons to help you build a business your way” (Volante, 2010). The book is available for purchase in an ebook version on Amazon or Lulu (Kindle, ePub or PDF), a paperback version distributed directly from the publisher and soon also a print-on-demand version distributed globally.
