Horse Pool, Trebarwith Strand

I am extremely lucky to have been born in Cornwall,   and even luckier to be able to afford to still live here. I popped down to my local beach,  Trebarwith Strand,  nr Tintagel on the North Cornish coast to take some photos of the gorgeous sunset and the beach.

Horse Pool, Trebarwith Strand	Trebarwith Strand
Don't get your feet wet!	Trebarwith Strand Sunset
Gull Rock, Trebarwith Strand	Love-ly Mussels!

I quite often go ‘down Strand’ as it’s locally known,  to think about new ideas and generally clear my head.  It’s only about 2 miles by road and is definitely one of the most undiscovered areas of Cornwall.  So far…..

We both decided that we would go,  [...]]]> I was lucky enough to win a re-tweet from Theo in February and this gained me an invite to his event in Birmingham on 30th March.  After a lot of iffing and amming,  I tentatively asked Fiona from Coombe Mill,  as another Cornish winner,  if she was going.

We both decided that we would go,  mainly out of curiousity!  Not really knowing what to expect,  we booked our rooms at the Droitwich Spa Travelodge and arranged to meet up.

We arrived at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in good time,  the room started filling up with other winners,  and we soon relaxed into networking mode,  something that I find incredibly difficult.

I was thrust into this large room,  with a list in my mind of tweeters that I have built up quite a relationship with over the last 12 months of who I would like to meet in person.   I was not disappointed and met everyone that I wanted to.

1.30 arrived and we were ushered into the conference room with a stage and large screen.

I set about getting my tweet onto the screen for the other 300 or so winners to see:

The main man,  Theo Paphitis,  was welcomed by the room to rapturous applause.  He was due to address the audience of #sbs winners for around and hour and a half,  but this went on for nearly two and a half hours! Theo came across as a real genuine guy,  totally interested and supportive of small businesses.

Theo Paphitis took questions from the floor and gave out so much advice and information,  I couldn’t take it all in,  but what I remember was truly amazing. One of the main themes for me was not to be shy about my business and also if you can’t bore your mates silly talking about your business,  then you need to do something else!  With passion and determination,  it is impossible to fail in business.

Theo also launched the new #sbs website,  which will be a great source of information,  and I can’t wait to get my details onto this site! www.theopaphitissbs.com

Neil from Magic White Board was there,  he started from his bedroom with nothing in his bank until he appeared on Dragons Den and gained backing from Theo.  Last year,  he made £102,000 PROFIT and had over £500,000 in his account at one stage!  What a story! He was handing out whiteboard post-it samples during the networking,  just in case we didn’t know who he was! Lol!

All good things have to come to an end,  but before we made the long journey back to Cornwall,  we had a photo opportunity with the man himself,  I was completely overwhelmed,  but managed to hold it together for this amazing photo:

On the way out,  guess what was lurking outside the stadium:

And,  this had to be done!  Just Bunting strikes again!

I am absolutely delighted to be part of the #sbs winners family,  we will all be able to support and help each other and am looking forward to the future.

Karen xx

Following the re-tweet by Theo Paphitis,  I contacted the Western Morning News,  daily newspaper for Devon and Cornwall.  Theo made it onto the front page and I made it onto the front page of the business supplement!  Well chuffed indeed!

If anyone would like a copy of this,  please contact me.

Theo’s Small Business Sunday #sbs helps small businesses promote their products and services to a wider audience. Theo receives thousands of tweets on a Sunday evening [...]]]> BBC Dragon Theo Paphitis showed his support for the revival of handcrafted fabric bunting on Twitter by re-tweeting a message I sent to him on Sunday 19^th February 2012.

Theo’s Small Business Sunday #sbs helps small businesses promote their products and services to a wider audience. Theo receives thousands of tweets on a Sunday evening and chooses just six of his favourites to share with over 225,000 of his followers on twitter.

Based in Delabole,  Cornwall,   I set up the business making handcrafted fabric bunting in April 2011 and the business has been going from strength to strength ever since. Now supplying a shops from St Ives to Poole in Dorset including Rick Stein’s Gift shop in Padstow with an online presence with some of the major online gift retailers,  including Gift Wrapped and Gorgeous and Wood and Willow.

The idea for Just Bunting emerged from my 10 year old daughter’s request to make some bunting for her bedroom and I  soon realised that this would be a viable business and set out to make it a full time venture.  Receiving free business start up support from Outset Cornwall was a great bonus and helped me focus on what I needed to do.

Just Bunting is now truly embracing the British handmade revolution,  and has recently added appliquéd cushions and canvas fabric art pictures to the collection of handcrafted products.

In addition to providing bunting for weddings and events,  we also run a series of sewing workshops from Just Bunting HQ and pop up workshops across Cornwall for events such as hen parties,  baby showers or groups of friends who want to come together for some crafty sewing time.

Delighted with being chosen as a winner by Theo Paphitis,  I have also been invited to the exclusive #sbs winners party in Birmingham at the end of March.

We had a great chat,  Holly was very interested in my story of how I set up [...]]]>

Wow! what a day!  I was running a cushion workshop on a Monday afternoon at Just Bunting HQ and the doorbell went. It was Holly Day from local Radio Station Pirate FM bringing cakes to my workplace!

We had a great chat,  Holly was very interested in my story of how I set up the business and how it is expanding at quite a rate.

I gave Holly with some Pirate Bunting to take back to Pirate HQ,  which she was delighted with!  I will definitely be listening to Pirate FM in my workplace every single day!

And the kids enjoyed the cakes too,  thanks Holly!

When I arrived,  the store was stacked and it [...]]]> Driving down to Truro in the rain,  late on a Sunday afternoon was not my idea of fun! I was heading to the Invictus Trust Christmas Market which was being held in the undercover car park of Sainsbury’s in Truro after the store closed at 4pm.

When I arrived,  the store was stacked and it was hard to imagine that the car park would actually clear for the market to take place in around 50 minutes time! So,  I duly took full advantage of the facilities available and loaded up two trolleys with my tables,  bunting, a chair and all the paraphenalia that goes with holding a stall,  including my trusty thermos flask!

After finding out where my shop would be located for the next couple of hours,  a supermarket sweep style dash took place to find the location and I duly got on with setting it up. It used to take me around 90 minutes to set up,  but I have now got this down to a fine art,  good job as we had around 40 minutes before the shoppers arrived!

The highlight of the day was the decorated shopping trolley,  it had to be done,  Just Bunting strikes again!

It always amazes me at the end of the fair,  of the speed which stallholders dismantle their stalls and disappear,  it was like they were never there!  That’s another christmas fair ticked off the 2011 list,  only one more to go!

Crooklets Beach, Bude

This was a bit strange! I went to set up my stand at the conference and discovered a 3 foot photo of myself waiting there on the table! Should I hide it,  but realised there was no getting away from it!!!

Outset Cornwall [...]]]>

So strange, taking a photo of a life-sized me!

This was a bit strange! I went to set up my stand at the conference and discovered a 3 foot photo of myself waiting there on the table! Should I hide it,  but realised there was no getting away from it!!!

Outset Cornwall is a fab organisation that help people like me to set up their own businesses in Cornwall.  We underwent an eight week intensive training course which was unlike any other business course or training I have ever attended! And it was free!   The advisors were really top class and I can’t thank Jan,  Mary &  Pam enough for the support,  encouragement and self-belief that they passed onto me and the other participants. Highly,  highly recommended,  even if you don’t know what business you would like to start up,  they will talk you through the ideas,  no matter how silly they seem!

Anyway,  back to the conference! It was held at the Royal Cornwall showground, Wadebridge.  The speakers were amazing,  although by lunch time I was feeling rather hungry as we had learnt all about Burt’s Chips from Nick Hurst and Jill Stein gave an interesting Q&A session on branding and the history of her businesses,  in partnership with Rick.  Did you know that Rick Stein first opened a discotheque in Padstow,  before he learnt to cook at Camborne College? Unbelievable!

More networking over lunch,  I’m getting used to this now! In the afternoon,  I was totally bowled over by an inspirational presentation by Jack Russell,  you couldn’t wish to meet a more positive individual.

By the end of the day,  I was on a real high and am looking forward to the next stage of my business journey with Enterprising Women.