Tackling the stigma of mental health in the workplace - Meet the UoB entrepreneurs behind 'Bloomwise'

After almost two years with a global pandemic affecting our lives, it is perhaps fitting to start 2022 with a blog about a start-up that focuses its attention on wellbeing. Bloomwise is a business created by University of Birmingham postgraduate students Frankie Lewns (PhD IMPACT Dentistry) and Paris Lalousis (PhD Psychology) and the pair are one of 30 businesses based at the start-up incubator at The Exchange in
Birmingham city centre. They look back to the inspiration behind the business and the support they have had along the way.

Frankie and Paris: Bloomwise is a mental health consultancy business that provides B2B mental health strategies in the form of a framework based on solid principles underpinned by research. This framework allows businesses to develop a Mental Health Plan with clear objectives, realistic timescales, early intervention strategies, and informs the preparation of contingency plans to address mental health issues. As well as this, we provide workshops to improve mental health awareness and wellbeing within businesses and communities. Our overall aim is to make mental health actionable and to reduce the stigma associated with it. 

A chance meeting....

We first met through the Virtual Consultancy Challenge which is an online training programme and team competition for Postgraduate Researchers from all disciplines to solve a real-life problem with a client. Our client was Centre for Mental Health, and our brief was to come up with a policy and/or practice to help improve employee mental wellbeing and health in small businesses. We ended up winning and cue the birth of Bloomwise! 

Back in June, we became aware that B-Enterprising within the University of Birmingham’s Careers Network have funding to allow you to turn an innovative idea into a working reality. We applied for the £500 B-Enterprising Ideas Fund and then were lucky enough to be successful in obtaining it. The fund for us was a game-changer. Both of us, (Frankie and Paris) are full-time PhD students and so did not have the funds to be able to inject into our business. 

We were able to use the fund for numerous things, it went a long way for us! Our initial reason for applying for the money was because we wanted to get a website for Bloomwise. The fund meant that we could pay someone else to design a website for us, something that we would have otherwise had to take time out of our studies to design and most certainly would have taken far longer.

 We then proceeded with legal costs such as contracts and Companies’ House registration. It allowed us to purchase public liability insurance to take on our first external worker through a government-run programme. When we got the fund, we didn’t have a single piece of marketing material and now we both own business cards, as well as a company banner and flyers that we were able to take to events to attract clients.

Then in December, we took advantage of another funding opportunity that B-Enterprising offered, designed to reimburse start-up businesses for the costs they have already incurred – this is up to £500. We had made a lot of progress over the last 6 months, developed our product, and needed to spend more money to digitise our Mental Health Plan and so paid £500 for a business TypeForm account. We then realised that we could actually claim this money back – which we did. This means for us that it took the pressure off our personal and business funds, meaning that we can use this money elsewhere in the future.

Both of these funds were an amazing opportunity that has helped us propel Bloomwise much faster than would have been possible if we didn’t have the money. By having a website, we are able to present ourselves professionally and have an online presence. The marketing material helped us network with lots of prospective clients, as well as making us feel more confident and established in the world of business. Visit the Bloomwise website here.

With thanks to Frankie Lewns and Paris Lalousis.
Arranged by Kerry Brunn.