Blue Eyed Sun

Blue Eyed Sun - gorgeous greetings cards

Visiting 10 Downing Street with the StartUp Britain Bus

startup britain bus downing streetStart Up Britain Downing Street 2015I just had the most amazing day at 10 Downing Street with the StartUp Britain bus tour. Having mentored many small businesses over the years and being a Sage Business Expert, I was invited along by sponsors Sage to meet the Prime Minister David Cameron, Anna Soubry (Minister for Small Business) and Sajid David (Secretay of State for Business). 

StartUp Britain's bus tour is traveling throughout Britain until the 7th August. The bus offers free mentoring and workshops to support businesses who starting out or are looking to grow. It's similar to the The Ladder Club seminars we do in the greeting card industry each year. This kind of encouragement is invaluable for small businesses and it's great to see such strong support for it by the Prime Minister, MP's and sponsors involved. Click here to see the schedule of stops

It's always great flying the flag for greetings cards at these events. So often people seem surprised to meet someone running a successful and growing card business. I guess many assume things have changed because of Moonpig, social media and texting. The truth is we all love to receive greeting cards. Last year the UK spent £1.29 billion on single cards alone - more than tea and coffee put together! Despite technology, cards are still such a lovely personal way of connecting with friends, loved ones and with customers.

I also had the pleasure of meeting few of the other business people at the event including Gemma Price who runs Superfood Market, a company that specialises in Vegan produce. The growth of her StartUp in the last two years been phenomenal. Starting with her vegan blog, she now has a 54,000 square foot warehouse selling over 10,000 lines from her website www.superfood-market.com! I'm veggie and my diet is 90% vegan with a lot juicing, so I'm looking forward to exploring her company's beautiful site and ordering something soon! 

Carol Smillie was also there and talking pants! She too has started a business in the last couple of years called Diary Doll, which specialises in pretty underwear which have a waterproof panel to protect women against potentially embarrassing situations. As you'd expect she is as lovely in person as she is on TV. I also bumped into my good friend, Maria Allen, whose laser cut jewellery and gifts we sell on our Ivy Ellen wedding website. Maria's company has had fantastic success on NotontheHighStreet.com and it was great to catch up with her and hear her news. 

I have to say a special thanks to my lovely friends at Sage for inviting me along. I look forward to seeing them again soon when I run the Great North Run in September with Team Sage to try and #BeatTheCEO

Jeremy Corner, Carol Smillie, Gemma Price and Maria Allen