Small Business Saturday Blog

For the past two years the event has taken place at the Phoenix Arts Club, itself a previous SmallBiz100, in London. Of course, due to the current Covid-19 situation this was not to be this year, but we were determined not to let social distancing dampen our spirits and moved our event online.

Over a hundred SmallBiz100 showed up to our virtual event, rocking their blue tie and enjoying delicious cocktails from Bows n’ Toes, delivered in advance by post. We were also treated to some truly amazing online entertainment by the Phoenix Arts Club, Jo Porter’s ‘Kitchen Dancing’ and magician David Deanie, creator of Around the Box.

We were also delighted to announce Yvonne Gorman, owner of Essential Print Services in Derby as winner of the Francesca Kemp Award for Small Business.

Fran’s business, Crafty Revolution was one of our SmallBiz100 in 2014, and after Fran sadly passed away from cancer in 2015, the award was created in her memory to honour a small business that demonstrates an outstanding contribution both to their local area and to the UK small business community. Traditionally announced at the annual Blue Tie Ball, the award is always a huge celebration – exactly as Fran would have wanted.

Essential Print Services actually supplied the Blue Tie t-shirts worn by many of the guests – just one way in which Yvonne has supported the small business community in Derby and further afield. Yvonne was selected as a SmallBiz100 all the way back in 2013, following which she was nominated for Small Business Saturday UK Champion, which saw her visiting Downing Street not once but twice. Last year she was named as one of our 12 Small Business Heroes, making her one of the public faces of the campaign.

To add to the excitement of the evening, fellow Derby small businessman Owen Conti from Code56 hid outside Yvonne’s house throughout the ceremony so that he could surprise her with the award presentation, which was live streamed to the rest of the attendees.

Michelle Ovens MBE, Director of Small Business Saturday UK said: “Yvonne is an absolute superstar, who does so much to support small businesses both in her local area of Derby and across the country. She is always generous with her time and goes above and beyond in supporting Small Business Saturday and getting others involved each year. She is a special person who really embraces the community spirit that we see running through small businesses across the UK. Congratulations to Yvonne for her fantastic achievement in winning this award.”

We were delighted that so many SmallBiz100 past and present were able to join us, despite the unusual circumstances surrounding this year’s event: their resilience and good humour in the face of adversity reflects the strengths of the hundreds of brilliant small businesses all across the UK. And many thanks as ever to everyone who worked so hard to make the event such a resounding success.