Greetings winners help celebrate 15 years of Small Business Sunday
Fifteen years of #SBS support for small businesses and showing how working together pays off was celebrated in Birmingham on Friday, 21 February, thanks to Ryman owner and entrepreneur Theo Paphitis.
And the greeting card industry was represented in the packed audience at the ICC, with recent winner Mantons Cards in attendance alongside old hands Olivia Goddard Designs and Border In A Box, as well as Sunshine No1.
Chris and Deb Beards, from Mantons Cards in Port Erin, got to meet former TV Dragon Theo at the event as part of their award for being picked as one of the six weekly Small Business Sunday winners back in December 2023, for reposting to the continually growing network.
Olivia Reilly, who runs Little Boat Gifts in Brightlingsea, has been attending since she won for her greeting card publishing business Olivia Goddard Designs back in 2020, and enjoyed the programme which included Theo, who also owns retail chain Robert Dyas, chatting with Richard Harkin, who grew HomeServe then sold for £4.1billion a couple of years ago.
There was also a reunion with The Hakim Group founder Imran Hakim, one of Theo’s BBC Dragons’ Den investments back in 2007 for the innovative iTeddy edutainment cuddly toy who is now a partner of #SBS, and Olivia said: “There were lots of great speakers, it’s always so inspiring and motivating!”
Sunshine No1 owner Suzi Nicol headed down from Glasgow for the event, and can be seen talking about the day in the reel below, commenting: “As a small business owner it can be a lonely job so it’s exciting to be in a room with hundreds of other small businesses! The speakers and breakout sessions inspire us in our businesses.”
Border In A Box’s Nikki Hollier, whose garden template business also sells seeded greeting cards, planners, journals and calendars, has got so much out of #SBS since her 2017 win that this was the sixth time she’s attended the annual conference.
“There’s so much going on and around the main stage,” Nikki said. “In previous years, I’ve met with people from Robert Dyas to talk about my Border In A Box ready-made garden design kits. When we first met, they told me my ‘baby is ugly’ and I was crestfallen. However, it wasn’t said with malice, it was said to help me.
“It really got me thinking and so I changed the packaging and did a re-brand and sales increased. This conversation has led to meeting the team every year at the event and helped my business to develop.”
Having created #SBS in 2010 so small businesses could pitch to him every Sunday between 5-7pm – originally just on Twitter but now also on Instagram – Theo now has over 4,000 winning members, of which 52% are sole traders, 80% are female, and 59% have been running for over five years, beating the statistic where half of businesses fail within two years.
Around 1,000 turned up for the 2025 conference with Theo commenting: “Fantastic to see so many #SBS winners here. It was such a fantastic day. Lots of chat about the highs and lows in business but the positivity and optimism was great to see.
“You’re going to do things sometime that are not going to work out – it doesn’t mean it was a waste of time. Use the experience to chisel out your path and don’t make the same mistake twice!
“Great Q&A with #SBS winners afterwards and so good to hear the positivity in the room, it really was a great day out the office.
“Never underestimate the impact of connections, putting yourself out there and showing the passion you have about your business. No one likes being out their comfort zone, but it’s where progress is made. Make introductions and ask questions – you never know where it may lead!”
To be in with a chance of becoming an #SBS winner, businesses can enter via Twitter, where they should tweet Theo on @theopaphitis between 5-7.30 pm on a Sunday using the hashtag #SBS, then he picks six small businesses a week to retweet to the growing network. On Instagram companies can enter by posting on their feed or commenting under the #SBS open Instagram post, and need to follow and tag @theopaphitis with the hashtag #SBS.
