Sound Approach
In late 1994, Nicole Dionne was 26 years old and had only eight months’ experience in the sound design industry, which deals with creating sounds to shape the mood of commercials and movie trailers. She put together a 30-page improvement plan for her employer, but found it three months later under a dusty pile of her boss’ books. When the boss heard that she and a sound designer were talking about starting their own firm, he issued them both pink slips. Over the next six months, they learned how to make people believe in a start-up they called--of all things--Primal Scream.
I took the business plan that had been ignored, built on it and started approaching investors based on the creative sound design talent of my partner, Reinhard Denke.
I found out that investors wanted 60% of the profit and 100% control. They wanted to sign the checks, oversee all the divisions and basically have me work for them.
But I wanted to run my own company, so I started shopping for a small-business loan. Most lenders said I had to have owned a business for two years and have a lot of collateral. I called 50 or 60 banks all over the country. I kept hitting brick walls, but I just kept pushing on.
Reinhard and I cashed in our retirement plans and emptied our savings accounts and came up with $15,000 each. We asked everyone we knew for advice. A lot of people tried to discourage us and they said we would absolutely never get a bank loan with a name like Primal Scream.
Finally, a former employer of Reinhard’s recommended a bank officer named Mel Merrick at City National Bank. I got into a suit and tried to look as old and as uncreative as I could. I told him all about my artist and showed him the business plan I had developed.
We asked for $70,000. After three meetings, the bank agreed to loan us $30,000. We never could have started the business without it.
The next obstacle was finding a work site. We lucked into a house in a commercial zone.
Getting equipment was another chore. One leasing company wanted us to personally guarantee a piece of equipment, but the manufacturer knew our work and they backed us up, so we got the lease.
As soon as we opened, industry publications recognized our talent and professionalism and we started making money.
Within three months, we paid off the bank loan. Eight months after we opened, we started a music company, and now we have a 4,000-square-foot studio in Santa Monica. We recently won two Clios, which are the Academy Awards of the advertising industry, and an award from AICP, American Independent Commercial Producers.
I think the more you spend time complaining about the answer “no,” the less time you have to figure out another option. Whenever I heard “no,” I immediately started figuring how to turn it into a “how.”
* More Small Business: D14
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AT A GLANCE
Companies: Primal Scream LLC, Screaming Music LLC
Owner: Nicole Dionne and Reinhard Denke
Nature of business: Sound design and music for commercials and movie trailers
Location: 1001 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica
Year founded: 1995
Number of employees: 9
Annual revenue: $1 million
