9th Anniversary of Theo Paphitis #SBS win

I won Theo Paphitis #SBS (Small Business Sunday) a year and a week after the competiton was first started by Mr P after his kitchen table eureka moment in 2010, at the time I was finding my feet on social media and stumbled upon a tweet with another small business tweeting about the competition.

So after four and a half months of getting involved, missing some weeks due to family committments and sometimes forgetting.. I won on Sunday 16th October 2011.

Follower numbers on Twitter went a bit crazy and after the first week I gained an extra 800 followers. I was so concerened about getting to know all the businesses that had tweeted and followed, I spent the whole week tweeting back and completely forgot about any sort of press release for weeks after, thankfully I did at least get some press attention. Interview on Imagine FM and a small mention in the Stockport Express.

Time moved on and was happily getting to know more winners, getting involved in other networking on Twitter (which you can read about on earlier blogs), follower numbers were going up and fun was being had.

#SBS Badge
At the time of winning there was no ‘official’ badge so winners were just making up their own, so decided to do the same. This has led to more things than I can ever dare image.

First #SBS Event
30th March 2012, now that’s a day to remember. The first ever event at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham. There must have been around 200-500 winners on the day, hosted by Kypros and sponsored by Ryman Stationery. Met loads of winners, lots of conversation, utterly shattering and not only got a photo with Theo but got a mention by him to attending winners too.

My first project working with a fellow winner
Was approached by Scottish winner Cluny Bank as she was wanting a logo for the restaurant and rooms.

Updating my #SBS badge
As I previously mentioned there was no official badge, but post event a new winners website was set-up and badges were available. So to my branding they didn’t really fit, so just updated my version of the badge.

By invitation
Was invited by Tina Fotherby, the then PA of Theo Paphitis to attend a day of filming of Dragons Den at Media City UK along with Crewe winner Red Shift Radio who was also conducting an interview. Met Peter Jones and Hilary Devey too.

Winner Spotlight
I make no apologies for supporting winners and seek no reward, we’re all small businesses. It is however nice when other winners put my name forward and got a month spotlight on the winners website.

The month got even better that an email I sent to #SBS Crew got turning into a graphic along with other winners and was spotlighted on Twitter by Theo Paphitis.

#SBS Events
So much to talk about and I’ve written other blogs about past events but here is the snippet version.. fun, inspiring, networking, friendship building, support and lots of laughter.

#SBSevent2017

#SBSevent2018

#SBSevent2019

#SBSevent2020

#SBS Way Award Shortlist
As I’ve previously said on this blog, I never seek rewards for what fellow businesses should be doing to support one another. But was shocked to discover at #SBSevent2020 that I was one of four winners shortlished for the new #SBS Way Award.

Updating my #SBS badge – Official
Decided to do this for two reasons. The present downloadable badge is shocking and instead of printing mugs and other winners goodies using the existing JPG I decided to re-create the official badge with better clarity and during lockdown it gave me something to do. Though I’m still using my Gold style badge on all my marketing and on social media.

Bullying and trolling
Was hesitant to mention this but given the issues that are still around it needed to be mentioned. Due to other networking and networks I was getting involved in across Twitter (mentioned in other blogs) and some fellow winners notion of my ‘influence’ within the Facebook group (set-up by Ryman Stationery) for winners and my activity within the group as a whole I was targetted by a small group of winners. Was even trolled by one winner for two days as the business had won a competition on different accounts a week apart.