Small Business Sunday Award

Carmarthenshire based Sarah Lou Crafts receives small business award from Dragons’ Den’s, Theo Paphitis.

An Ammanford based crafter has received a small business boost from Retail Entrepreneur Theo Paphitis. In September 2023, Sarah Skilton owner & founder of Sarah Lou Crafts, messaged Theo about her business during ‘Small Business Sunday’ and was one of six weekly winners to gain a repost by Theo to his over half a million X/Twitter and Instagram followers. The weekly initiative, set up by Theo in 2010, now has 4,000 #SBS winners and supports small businesses in the UK. Sarah recently attend the annual SBS Event at the ICC in Birmingham along with over 1000 other winners to meet Theo Paphitis and be presented with her official SBS certificate. 

Business and retail entrepreneur and self-confessed Shopkeeper, Theo re-posted Sarah’s message to his over 500,000 Twitter and Instagram followers and as a result, @SarahLouCrafts has received 100s more followers on Instagram and extra orders for her sustainable eco-conscious handmade gifts. Sarah is also profiled on the #SBS website (www.theopaphitissbs.com) that is exclusive to all Small Business Sunday winners.

Sarah said, “I cannot believe that I have won the #SBS Small Business Sunday award from Theo Paphitis. It is an amazing opportunity for my small business and self development. I am excited to be a part of the networking community and for this next chapter of Sarah Lou Crafts”. I actually won the award in 2020 with my previous business Adventure Accessories, but never got the chance to meet Theo and get my certificate due to the coronavirus pandemic. To win for a second time with my new business Sarah Lou Crafts is a fantastic achievement that I intend to make the most of going forward as I would love to stock my notebooks in gift shops around Wales.  

Small business champion and Ryman Stationery, Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue Chairman, Theo Paphitis, said: “We are thrilled to welcome new #SBS members every week and highlight just how important it is to support our small businesses here in the UK. My vision is that everyone who has ever won an #SBS re-tweet or Instagram re-post from me becomes part of a friendly club; like-minded individuals who can share successes and learnings. The website will also give a valuable profile to the winners chosen and I wish Sarah Lou Crafts every success.”

SBS Event 2024

On Friday 23 February 2024, I attended my first SBS event at the ICC in Birmingham. Every winner is invited and permitted to bring a plus one with them. I chose to take my small business owner friend Tash, owner and founder of Rubba-Bubba baby massage and yoga classes. Tash is working hard to win SBS herself so she was an obvious choice to take with me. 

Each year the event hosts a day of networking and talks for small business winners like myself. The annual event offers unparalleled networking opportunities and is packed to the brim with must-have advice from leading industry figures and on the day activities.

The day begins at 9am for registration and refreshments with time for Networking, Meet the Expert sessions, Breakout presentations and Speed Advice Sessions. 

Kypros Kyprianou, CEO of the Theo Paphitis Retail group opened the event with a welcome speech and introduced Theo the man himself, who then went on to explain more about the day and gave us some amazing facts about the 4000 SBS winners. 

The stat that stood out most for me was that 80% of all winners are Female and that 53% of winners are Sole Traders. That means it is just them running their small business. This information gave me such a confidence boost to know that I am worthy of being a winner after all. 

Screenshot from SBS event 2024 showing 80% of winners are Female and 53% are sole traders. 

The rest of day consisted of a talk by Google to learn about AI powered marketing tools and how to supercharge our digital marketing strategy. 

Susan Bonner, #SBS winner and founder of The British Craft House and Buyindie gave an inspirational session on how she turned her dream into reality. 

NatWest held an interesting panel session where #SBS winners and NatWest Accelerator business shared their insights on how they achieved their milestones. Chaired by Debbie Lewis with Absolute Collagen founder, Maxine Lacey, ~#SBS winner and Spice Kitchen founder Sanjay Aggarwal and Naturally Tiwa Skincare co-founder Shalom Lloyd as panellists. 

After lunch we heard from Theo again as he gave an update to the pioneering #SBS Invest opportunity that was announced at the event in  2023 and the highlight of the day was the fireside chat with Stacey Solomon and Theo Paphitis plus time for questions and answers with the audience. 

What Is The SBS Award?

The SBS Award is a weekly business initiative in the UK created by retail entrepreneur and former Dragons' Den star Theo Paphitis.  He launched the initiative on Twitter in 2010 to shine a spotlight on UK small businesses and since then it has expanded across Instagram and LinkedIn, growing into a thriving network of thousands of small business owners.  

How It Works

Every Sunday between 5:00 pm and 7:30 pm, small business owners "pitch" their business to Theo Paphitis on social media by tagging him and using the hashtag #SBS or by replying to his post on X, Instagram or Linkedin.

Then on Monday night at 8:00 pm, Theo announces the six winners for that week.  

What Winners Get

While there is no cash prize, the real value of winning the SBS award comes from the massive visibility and networking opportunities:  

Theo reposts the six winning businesses to his hundreds of thousands of followers, which typically triggers a massive spike in social media followers, website traffic, and sales.  

Winners are welcomed into the SBS community, an exclusive, supportive network of fellow entrepreneurs to share advice, collaborate, and support each other.  

All winners receive an invite to the annual #SBS Winners Event in Birmingham. It’s a massive networking day where winners get to meet Theo in person to collect their certificate, take an official photo with Theo and their certificate, listen to industry-leading guest speakers, and attend business workshops.  

Tips for Winning

Winning the SBS award requires standing out from thousands of weekly entries. Theo Paphitis and his team review the pitches manually, so the aim is to grab their attention within seconds.  

• Submit your pitch within the timeframe on X, Instagram, or LinkedIn. 

• Include the essential criteria in your post. Either reply to Theo's post or make your own post but you must tag @TheoPaphitis and include the hashtag #SBS. 

• Include your Unique Selling Point (USP) and don't just say what you do, tell your story but be concise. Theo reviews thousands of entries and won't read a novel. 

• Theo frequently mentions that he looks for passion and energy so let your personality shine through, and share a tiny snippet of your story or "why" if space permits.

Tips to Avoid

Only entry one time per week per platform. Sending multiple identical pitches clutters the feed and will likely get you disqualified or muted.  Pick one platform to enter don't copy your entry to all 3. 

Keep it professional, but don't use jargon, acronyms or terms that are too niche, also don't use AI, be autentic, be you. 

Don't give up, many winners pitch every single Sunday for months (or even years) before getting selected. Persistence is part of the game, and even if you don't win it is a fabulous free advert for your business every week. 

Bonus Tip: If you win, take time on the Monday night after the 8:00 pm announcement and Tuesday morning to engage with the #SBS community, the networking value begins straightaway and make use of the SBS Facebook group too. 

Final Thoughts

I won the SBS award from Theo Paphitis on 18 September 2023. At the time, I went into a major imposter syndrome moment of feeling completely unworthy for winning, but being a part of the amazing SBS community has helped my confidence and the other amazing small business winners are inspirational. The incredible Annual Event hosted by Theo and meeting him to collect my certificate was unreal, and I totally fluffed speaking to him on the day. The Facebook group is full of daily help and support for all things small business riding the lows and celebrating the wins together. It is definitely the highlight for my small business so far. 

Over To You

Have you won the SBS award or are you trying to? I would love to hear from you and will hopefully see you at the next event too. You can connect on Instgram & Threads @SarahLouCrafts.

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