Each year Theo Paphitis puts on his Small Business Sunday winner's event in Birmingham to celebrate small businesses and give them a boost.

It's a brilliantly inspiring day where Theo and his panel of experts give so much encouragement and line up fabulous speakers to educate and inspire you.

This year, we had talks on using AI in your marketing from Google and a spotlight session from Susan Bonnar, founder of The British Craft House and a former SBS winner.

NatWest chaired a panel discussion with success stories from their Accelerator program Maxine Laceby, founder of Absolute Collagen, Sanjay Agarwal, founder of Spice Kitchen and Shalom Lloyd from Naturally Tiwa skincare.

The fireside chat this year was Stacey Solomon who brought the house down, and was mobbed by fans bringing her gifts and sharing how she'd transformed their businesses with her endorsements.

In this podcast episode, I'm sharing my ten takeaways from the event.

Key topics and timings:

0.20 - What to expect from this episode.

2.00 - Why the SBS community is such a special place to be a part of and how Theo gives you the reassurance we all need.

2.30 - What is SBS and how it started.

4.45 - How the SBS network can help you and provide support.

5.34 - Takeaway 1 - Keep getting up - there will always be setbacks.

7.30 - Takeaway 2 - Stop and sense-check your activities.

9.05 - Takeaway 3 - Don’t be afraid to change.

10.35 - Takeaway 4 - Why it's important to plan and look forward.

12.20 - Takeaway 5 - Use AI as inspiration and a helpful assistant and not to do everything for you!

16.11 - Takeaway 6 - You have to make money.

20.11 - Takeaway 7 - Say yes to things even when it feels huge and scary.

23.45 - Takeaway 8 - Let yourself off the hook with social media and be social put your community first.

26.57 - Takeaway 9 - You need to be seen and the impact of a shout-out from Stacey Solomon - leading to £100,000 of sales for Stamptastic.

29.41 - Takeaway 10 - Why it's ok ask for help.

Links mentioned in this episode:

How Theo Paphitis' Small Business Sunday award can raise your pet business profile

Theo Paphitis launches SBS invest

How the NatWest accelerator can help your pet business

Finding support for your pet business in Pets Get Visible

The rollercoaster that is running a small business