Member Article

Theo Paphitis and Young Enterprise shine a light on young entrepreneurs

October 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of Small Business Sunday (#SBS), TV Dragon Theo Paphitis’s small business initiative. To celebrate this milestone, Theo has partnered with national charity, Young Enterprise, to celebrate young entrepreneurs and give them a chance to grow their businesses as #SBS winners. All the winners will be under 25 with startup businesses recognised in a special one-off celebration of young entrepreneurs.

Inspired by the brilliant pitches that Theo received into his Twitter DMs and emails in 2010, when he was first on Dragons’ Den, he decided to run a Twitter competition to provide an opportunity for businesses like these to grow as part of a small business network. Every Sunday since, Theo has invited small business owners to tweet him between 5-7.30pm to tell him about their businesses to try to find ways to catch his eye to be one of his six weekly winners.

There are currently 3,000 small businesses in the #SBS network, and the winners would join these like-minded entrepreneurs, have access to an annual event, sponsor perks and have their businesses shared with Theo’s 600k+ social media followers.

Theo Paphitis, #SBS creator and retail entrepreneur said: “I can’t believe it is ten years since I created #SBS at the Paphitis kitchen table and that the network now has over 3,000 small businesses in its family. I have seen many more young entrepreneurs of all ages tweeting me during the #SBS hours every Sunday, so the partnership with Young Enterprise, to give young entrepreneurs a boost, was common sense to me. It is particularly important that we support our business owners, many of whom may have launched this year in tricky times, and I look forward to seeing the young business talent we have in our midst.

So, if you, a friend, your son or daughter are under 25 and have a great business they want to shout about, then this is a call to action for them. Now is the time, in an increasingly tricky work landscape, to support young peoples’ aspirations and dreams.“

Sharon Davies, CEO Young Enterprise said: “We’re extremely proud at Young Enterprise to be partnering with Theo Paphitis and Small Business Sunday. Our alumni have frequently graduated from our programmes to found and run successful businesses when they leave education. This opportunity to work closely with Theo and SBS represents a wonderful opportunity for our alumni to grow their businesses further with the help of Theo and #SBS. Small businesses are the life blood of the economy and we need to make sure young people feel they have the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial skills and an enterprising mindset as they progress through the education system.”

The 10th anniversary is on the 10th October 2020, and the special #SBS will take place on Sunday 11th October inviting only under 25 year old business owners to enter. #SBS is partnering with Young Enterprise, a national charity focussed on motivating and upskilling young people, helping them to succeed in a constantly changing world. The partnership will reach out to young entrepreneurs around the UK who are eligible.

This special #SBS anniversary competition will also be open on LinkedIn and Instagram for this week for the first time, as well as the usual #SBS destination, Twitter. Entrants will need to tweet or post about their business on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram and use #SBS, as well as following and tagging @theopaphitis on their chosen platform. The 6 winners will be announced by Theo on Monday 12th October at 8pm across all three social media platforms. All eligible businesses must be run by someone aged between 13-24 years old, and have been running for at least three months, having also made sales.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nick Till .