The Small Awards (organised by Peak B), launched in 2017, targets the whole small business sector focusing on businesses often overlooked by other awards. With 5.5 million small businesses in the UK, there are huge numbers of small businesses doing great things that may not be recognised by awards due to geography, scale or even awareness of the benefits such awards can bring.
We hadn't applied for any awards in a very long time but in January we decided that we would try and attend more events and apply for awards such as The Small Awards and Small Business Saturday. With working from home we felt we needed to be pushed out of our comfort zone a bit more, meet and network with people who inspire and motivate us.
As many Small Business owners will know, a great deal (if not all) of your time is spent "in" the business rather than "on" it. So strategic long term planning, business and self development are often put on hold whilst you firefight and get bogged down in the day to day running of your business (looking at you GDPR 👀)
That's why it was really refreshing to put our application together for The Digital Star Award ⭐️ At first we didn't think we had achieved enough or were successful enough to even consider applying for this category but when we sat down and listed all the Digital things we were excelling at we were pleasantly surprised and actually thought that we might have a good shot at getting shortlisted ☺️
On the face of it our buisness may not appear to be so digital beyond the fact that we have a website but there are lots more clever things going on in the background:
-
Our website is continually evolving at the front end to respond to customer needs. Originally an information only website in 2011, we launched the first version of our ecommerce site in 2012 enabling us to take orders and process them more quickly. This allowed the customer greater choice in choosing font and font sizes for their Personalised Name Stamps providing a better user experience and helping to convert sales.
-
We have put systems in place at the back end of our website so that orders can be sent to our manufacturing team quickly and in a format that enables orders to be produced and dispatched same day. We have come a VERY long way from when we used to make the stamps ourselves every 3 weeks in Emma's kitchen!
-
After 6 months in the planning we launched a new Affiliate Programme in 2018. This enabled us to automate our previously manual and very laborious PTA Rewards Scheme making it more transparent, efficient, commission calculated and paid automatically. In just over a year we have over 1000 PTAs signed up. In 2018 we paid PTAs over £16,000 commission and handed out over £20,000 worth of fundraising vouchers.
- We created a Closed PTA & Schools Facebook Group which is an information & advice exchange network for PTA members. Currently with over 400 active members and lots of opportunities for PTAs to collect bonus fundraising vouchers from us.
-
We host a weekly event called #StamptasticBizShoutOut where each week we choose a Small Business to receive a free Customised Stamp and Ink Pad and we then promote them on our website, newsletter and across social media.
-
In early 2019 we were early adopters of new software (partnering with a major logistics company) on our website that provides international customers with a better customer experience. They all now have localised welcome messages, prices in their own currenct and multiple shipping options.
After applying for The Small Awards in December 2018 we forgot all about them until we received an email in April letting us know we had been shortlisted in the Digital Star Category and inviting us to a glittering black tie event at St Mary's Church, Marylebone.
When we arrived at the venue we were really taken aback by how beautiful the Church was. The Small Business Awards team had clearly gone to a massive effort to dress the room, it was breathtaking! They were all dress up in the most beautiful costumes themed with their brand colours. After some mingling with other guests, delish canapes and of course some fizz we sat down to enjoy the three course meal.
(📷The Small Awards)
Emma and Fran chatting with Dan Reynolds from Fred and Noah who were nominated in the same category as us. We loved chatting to him and his lovely wife Natalie about their business, family and instagram success.
(📷The Small Awards)
We heard music and to our surprise there were live singers from Phoenix Arts Club perfoming right by us amonst the guests! The song they were singing was the very apt "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen. It turned into a flash mob routine and it was absolutely brilliant. The atmosphere was electric and it was a great way to get the evening started. It really felt like we were at a wedding or a friends party not a boring Awards Evening (which let's face it, lots are!)
(📷The Small Awards)
Then we were treated to an inspirational speech from Dr Amit Patel as he talked us through the highs and lows of his sight loss journey. Everyone was moved to tears and we all fell in love with his dog Kika who even has her own massive following on twitter!
Below is a pic of the amazing Michelle Owens MBE who is the brains behind Small Business Saturday, The Small Awards and the f:entrepreneur Campaign, alongside Dr Amit Patel and Kika.
(📷The Small Awards)
It was really wonderful seeing the slideshows of the nominees, lots of whooping and cheering 🎉
AND THE WINNERS ARE.....
Best Service Channel Business ➡️ Fortis Therapy
Best Multi Channel Small Business ➡️ Revival Retro
Best Family Business ➡️ Edge Transport
Best B2B Business ➡️ Rinhamburgh and Co
Best Start Up Business ➡️ Kibble Bakery
Best Self Employed Business ➡️ Florence and Amelia's
Buisness That Contributes Most To Their Community ➡️ andKeep
Best High Street Business ➡️ Riverhead Cafe
Best Social Enterprise ➡️ Work For Good UK
Best Digital Business ➡️
Yes that's right us!!!!! We were the winners of the Best Digital Small Business in the UK!!!
Absolutely stunned! Here is a pic of us going to collect our award!
(📷The Small Awards)
Making the worlds worst speech because we were totally unprepared. And Fran may have sworn (oops sorry about that 😬)
(📷The Small Awards)
Phew, it's taken a while to sink in! What a fabulous uplifting evening (not just because we won our Category 😂). If you are thinking about applying next year, then just go for it because you have nothing to lose.
Thanks so much to The Small Awards and the sponsors (in particular Indeed.co.uk who sponsored our category)!!
Love Fran and Emma (non-perfect parents and Stamptastic founders/owners)
p.s Here we are chatting with Karen aftewards on a Live Facebook Broadcast. You can probably see how surprised we were to win by our reactions!
