On Friday 25th February I headed down to Birmingham to meet TV Dragon Theo Paphitis!
Rachel from Nose to Trail with Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis
#SBS or Small Business Sunday was created by Theo Paphitis in October 2010 (in Mrs P’s kitchen he told us!) and is one of the leading small business communities in the UK.
Each week, Theo rewards small businesses that tweet him @TheoPaphitis and describe their businesses in one tweet including the all-important hashtag #SBS.
Every Monday night at 8pm, Theo reviews and chooses his favourite lucky six who are then re-tweeted. As he has around 500k followers, this provides a massive boost to the chosen lucky businesses.
I had been entering for a while but I finally won while I was away celebrating my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary on the 7th of November 2021! Huge celebrations all round.
The tweet which helped me win was: “Hi @TheoPaphitis @NoseToTrail should win #SBS as our online teenage tearaways course helps dog owners from all across the U.K. to navigate the difficult adolescence period with their dogs and provides a support network from other dog owners. Ideal for those pandemic pups!” and included an image of a client review (you know who you are but thank you again!).
Although I won in November the #SBS winners event is held yearly. I was probably a bit too excited (or nervous) and didn’t really sleep much on Thursday night which meant that I ended up heading off to Crewe station before 6am to get the train to London. Theo wasn’t even due on stage until 10:30 but I didn’t want to be that person embarrassing themselves and sneaking in late!
What a day!
Fascinating talks and stands to learn more about business and the opportunity to network and meet more #SBS winners. Several of which are also pet businesses!
I finally got to meet:
Rachel Spencer (journalist) in person after over 2 years of chatting about dog press releases!
The wonderful Becky Baker from app K9 Nation who has kindly had me on as a guest on her podcast before to talk about rescue dogs.
Super Lisette van Riel from DoggyWarriors – DoggyWarriors who has raised over £46, 000 for dogs in need since July 2020! And so many more wonderful business owners too.
The highlight for me was when Theo was joined on stage by fellow dragon Touker Soleyman.
Touker chatted to Theo about his road into business the highs and some pretty interesting lows! Although clothes and fabric aren’t a problem in my line of work, one of the things they mentioned was that sometimes we have to put ourselves into situations that make us feel uncomfortable. It was interesting as although they meant in a business sense and they were actually talking about properties at the time, I couldn’t help but think about some of my clients who tell me they cannot do X, Y and Z with their dogs. Sometimes we just need to break things down into smaller steps and over time you can do things with your dogs that previously you would not have felt possible. Those reactive dogs where the owners have been avoiding walking in busy public places but then I get a photo of the dog settling in a pub – those are my small business wins!
The thing I did on Friday that was out of my comfort zone?
Having a “professional photo” taken. While I’m quite happy being on social media to my followers, I control what you see – I can pop a filter on, do another take if needed but that was not an option on Friday and my goodness there was a long line of people watching. I did it, and you never know when it may be needed! Maybe in the marketing of a new course that I have planned for 2022….. you better watch this space to find out.
In the meantime, if you would like to find out why Teenage Tearaways was worthy of a #SBS win, then you better move quickly as there are just 2 spaces left in the course that starts this Wednesday (2nd of March) at midday. Email info@nosetotrail.co.uk to find out more or to book your slot.
