Small Business Sunday, shortened to the hashtag #SBS on Twitter, was created by Theo Paphitis in October 2010. Theo is best known for his star role in TV’s Dragons’ Den. He is Chairman of Ryman Stationery plus Boux Avenue lingerie and joint owner of Red Letter Days
Theo is also a mentor and investor to many other business acquainted via the ‘Den’ including MagicWhiteboard, Wedgewelly and Value My Stuff.
Each Sunday Theo rewards small businesses that tweet him @TheoPaphitis and describe their business in one tweet including the all-important hashtag #SBS. Only tweets made in the time slot between 5.00 PM and 7.30 PM count.
Each week Theo reviews and chooses his favourite lucky six who are then re-tweeted. As he has over 235,000 followers, this provides a massive boost to the chosen lucky businesses.
The benefits range from increased Twitter followers, to positive media publicity and crucially for many, increased sales! Of course, none of this is guaranteed as it is largely down to perseverance, hard work, and a smidgen of luck comes in handy.
Theo says, “I admire people who have passion and energy. If you cannot bore your friends to death about your own small business then something is seriously wrong. I was struck by the number of business owners on Twitter who wanted to tell me about their new products and services. Small Business Sunday was born so that people have a specific time slot to tweet and can pitch their ‘sell’ directly to me”.
