After 15 years as a TV producer, working on programmes such as, Don’t Get Done Get Dom, Changing Rooms and Ready Steady Cook, Claire Richmond was regularly frustrated by how difficult it was to find relevent experts for the programmes she was making.

“If you’re looking for presenters, actors, producers, researchers, celebrities, locations, models or even audience members, there are loads of online directories for that, but for experts there was nothing,” she says.

While on a break between productions Richmond conceived findaTVexpert.com, an online resource where broadcasters and production companies can go to find a specific expert or browse through the profiles looking for inspiration, and where experts can register and promote themselves to the industry.

“UK-based programme makers are among the world’s very best in producing factual programmes and whether they’re about history, finance, food, or tearaway teens, they all need experts,” she says.

Having received plenty of positive feedback about her idea from her many contacts in the industry and after crunching the numbers, Richmond decided to turn down a ten-month production contract and to use her savings to finance her dream of making a one-stop shop for TV experts a reality.

In August last year, she commissioned an internet design company to create her website, while she started the process of registering the company, promoting the service and recruiting the experts, who pay £100 a year to register and create their searchable profile and CV pages on the site.

The site was officially launched at the end of April and has already chalked up some early successes, leaving Richmond confident that her estimate of registering 300 to 500 experts in the first year was no programming error.

www.findaTVexpert.com

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