Sincerity Gifts Meets Theo Paphitis for the #SBS Winners Event

On Friday 30th March 2012 - Sincerity Gifts was invited by Theo Paphitis to his inaugural #SBS Winners Event at the Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham.

Theo Paphitis is best known for his role in Dragons Den and is Chairman of Rymans and Boux Avenue Lingerie 

#SBS stands for Small Business Sunday and every Sunday on Twitter Theo chooses 6 of his favourite businesses to retweet to over 234,000 followers, and thus giving your business huge exposure .

We were chosen as one of his winners a year ago and have always been proud to be part of such a fabulous group of winners and have gained many 'twitter' friends along the way.

So we were really excited to be invited to meet not only the Man himself but also finally get to meet all the other lovely winners.

On the Friday morning Maria came to pick me up and we went on to collect the very lovely @AllyAtkins from The Ultimate Baby Shower, also a winner and very local to us. The three of us set off with a mixture of butterflies and excitement for our two hour journey to Birmingham.

On arrival at the Conference Centre we were greeted by a very shiny car on the forecourt. This could only belong to one person...and he was here!

We made our way into the reception were there were lots of people were mingling and enjoying the flow of drinks. We spotted a few of our twitter friends we recognised and caught up with as many as we could.

 

The time came to meet Theo Paphitis. We went into the Conference room were Kypros Kyprianou CEO of Rymans and Sponsors of the event gave us a brief introduction before Theo came on to talk to us. 

Theo talked about how #SBS started and his visions for the future, he then told us about a new website that Chris Wheeler from  Metal Frog  @MetalFrogst and a previous winner had designed especially for #SBS winners.

After Chris and Theo talked us through it,Theo held a Q & A session for everyone, which ran overtime, but Theo wanted everyone to have a chance to speak. He then wanted to know from us what we would like to feature on the website and what we would like to see develop for #SBS 

Chris Wheeler, Kypros Kyprianou and Theo Paphitis


Theo then told us we would all be receiving a certificate and will be having an official photo with him!

This would be done in alphabetical order and Theo would have to stand for at least an hour and a half with a big smile to get through everyone! But he was such a gentleman and gave everyone his time. He even took time out to personally sign Maria's name (with a kiss) on the Certificate as only one was given out.

Photograph courtesy of Tas Anastasi 

A joint one taken with Ally Aktins 

Photograph courtesy of Tas Anastasi

Small Business Sunday #sbs runs on twitter every sunday between 5 -7.30pm with @TheoPaphitis If you want to know more about #SBS and how to participate go to the new website www.theopaphitissbs.com   -

'WOW' we became one of Jacqueline Gold's Winners!

On  Wednesday 23rd November we became one of Jacqueline Gold's WOW winners!

 So what is this #WOW I  hear you ask?

Well #WOW stands for "Women on Wednesday" and every Wednesday between 1-3pm  on Twitter Jacqueline Gold - Chief Executive of Ann Summers and Knickerbox invites women to submit their business to her via a tweet, she then 'retweets' her favourite 3 to  well over 16,000 of her followers and leaves an lovely personal comment about your business!

This is what we submitted:

 @Jacqueline_Gold #WOW 2 hardworking mums building a Stylish and Gorgeous Gifts and Homewares Business. Supporting Handmade & Eco-friendly x

and these are the 3 business she chose this week:

" Some fantastic entries to #WOW this week ladies - well done! My winners this week are @rubyandginger @VictoriaLovesB @SincerityGifts."

This is what Jacqueline said about us

The phone did not stop with congratulation messages and we gained many more followers on Twitter and interest in our Business has grown overnight. Jacqueline also sent us a winners badge which we proudly have on our website. A big congratulations to fellow winners @rubyandginger and @VictoriaLovesB and a massive thank you to Jacqueline for taking the time to visit our website and choosing us as one of your worthy winners! We are grateful and honoured.....and have not stopped smiling :) - Thank you also @Shellibobbins for the screenshot xx

Jacqueline Gold is one of Britains most successful Businesswoman. Chief Executive to Ann Summers and Knickerbox creating an empire run by Women for Women. She’s been voted the second Most Powerful Woman in Retail by Retail Week, the Most Inspirational Businesswoman in the UK (Barclays Bank), one of Britain’s Business Icons (Nat West Bank), and one of Britain’s Top Businesswomen by publications including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Woman, and Good Housekeeping.

The Daily Mail listed Jacqueline as one of Britain’s 100 Most Influential Women and she was made Business Communicator of the Year 2004 by the British Association of Communicators in Business.

She is a columnist for Retail Week, New Business, Kent Business and Women Mean Business magazine.

A week of Celebrations

Posted on Tuesday Apr 5 17:58:00 BST 2011

Wow....What an eventful and exciting week it has turned out to be!

It started with the launch of our fabulous newly re designed  website by Amanda Farren at Qwerty Cow Design,

The week continued with my 'Big Birthday' Celebrations. With two wonderful surprises, one being my cousin arriving from Cyprus to be with me (which of course ended with the obligatory shopping trip to London the following day) and the second, a parcel on my doorstep wrapped in cellophane and a big bow (and a group of giggly friends hiding around the corner) - which on closer inspection I discovered was my good friend from Switzerland hiding beneath it, who had also come over to surprise me!

The evening and party that followed was made all the more memorable by the friends and family who made sure my Birthday was special . I feel blessed. 

 With Mother's Day approaching, I felt in a reflective mood as I remembered my dear mother who I had lost to Cancer 3 years ago. We shared a birthday and its always a difficult time of the year. However, on Mother's Day, my 4 children whose ages range from 22, 20 and twins of 14 showered me with love and reminded me what being a mother was all about. 

I didnt think the week could get any better, when that Sunday evening, We entered our Business on Twitter for@TheoPaphitis #sbs (Small Business Sunday).  Every Sunday between 5-7.30pm on Twitter you can enter your business  adding @Theo Paphitis  #sbs  He then chooses 6  Businesses to retweet and thus giving them great exposure. 

Well, you can imagine our great excitement and surprise to have been picked! 

So Mr Paphitis -  from One Greek-Cypriot to another ευχαριστώ πολύ !!  You have made two Mums on Mother's Day very happy indeed! 

Thank you also @ShelliBobbins for our screen shot,  @whoatemycrayons for our new badge! and to all the wonderful messages from all our twitter friends :) xx