Engage: The Client

Belfast City Council, Danske Bank & Pacem

Enrich: The Brief

During the pandemic, many people found themselves out of work through no fault of their own. Many also took the opportunity to act on a business idea within their spare time and spare room. Podiem was challenged to provide inspiration and impetus to both of the above groups and the ‘Spare Room to Stellar’ initiative was created in March 2021.

Elevate: The Outcome

• Spare room to stellar inspires by firstly sharing the stories and lessons of 3 businesses that started in a spare room in Belfast and have gone on to compete, and win, on a global scale. Podiem successfully secured the participation of BLK Box, Bperfect Cosmetics and Suki Tea and set about shooting and producing three feature length films that shared the humble beginnings, challenges and ultimate successes of these Belfast Start Ups.

• Having been inspired by the 3 films, existing and ‘would be’ entrepreneurs were encouraged to book a free consultation with Podiem at which they were signposted to the most relevant sources of support for their idea or early-stage business. This included development programmes, premises, networks, funding and other springboards/incentives.

• To date, some 1000+ unique viewers have watched the films. Podiem also created a dedicated and fully functional website – https://www.spareroomtostellar.com/ which housed all films and requests for 1-2-1 business mentoring consultations which are ongoing for the remainder of 2021. Podiem were also successful in securing promotional buy in and support from 2 principal sponsors and 15 support organisations who helped to raise awareness of the resource within the Belfast area and beyond culminating in a full support map for participants.