We are absolutely delighted and proud to be have officially met Theo Paphitis at the Small Business Sunday awards at the ICC Birmingham on 23rd February.
The Design Hive received a business boost from Retail Entrepreneur Theo Paphitis in December 2017. Melanie Downing, owner of The Design Hive in Highbridge, tweeted Theo about her business during ‘Small Business Sunday’ and was one of six weekly winners to gain a retweet by Theo to his 505,000 Twitter followers. The award, set up by Theo in 2010, supports small businesses in the UK.
The Design Hive is one of 2000 successful winners since the awards were set up in 2010.
As a result of winning the #SBS, The Design Hive’s social media accounts have seen an extraordinary rise in retweets, interaction with other businesses and new followers. They are also profiled on the #SBS website that is exclusive to all Small Business Sunday winners.
The Design Hive were delighted to be invited to the annual SBS Event to take advantage of the networking opportunities and collect their official winners certificate from Theo Paphitis.
There was almost two hours of business advice and a quickfire Q&A session from Theo and AO.com’s John Roberts, with some fantastic questions on how to progress their business to the next level. Winners found out about John’s journey from betting a friend £1 in a pub to an IPO worth 1.2bn! John offered advice on advertising, marketing and customer service even saying that the #SBS winners should treat every customer like their Nan!
There was a specific focus on brand, with SuperBrands expert Stephen Cheliotis taking to the stage to teach the winners about the importance of brand within business.
The eight #SBS sponsors Ryman, Robert Dyas, DHL, iLaw, 123Reg, Square, Western Union and HP were all in attendance, giving the attendees the opportunity to ‘Meet the Experts’ in one-to-one sessions, visit their stands and network with like-minded winners. 123Reg also held workshops throughout the day on creating great content for your social media, the seven essential steps in SEO and a digital marketing trouble shoot session. PR expert Tina Fotherby, from Famous Publicity, was also at the ICC and shared her knowledge on how to best promote a business.
Owner Melanie Downing said “The day was inspirational and we left buzzing full of excitement for the future. We feel very privileged to have won the SBS and been given the incredible opportunity of all that is on offer to us. Being selected by Theo from 329,000 applicants is fantastic and of course, meeting Theo, was the highlight of the day. A day we will never forget.”
If you need help with upcoming branding, graphic design or web design projects, call us on 01278 783273 or email info@thedesignhive.co.uk for advice.
