If you are following @Rugglesleisure on any of our social media channels, you may have noticed that I was a little excited on the evening of Monday 14th April. Since re-branding our hot tub showroom in Gloucester, I have religiously sent a tweet to Theo Paphitis (ex-Dragon from Dragons Den, Chairman of Rymans, Robert Dyas & Boux Avenue Lingerie) every Sunday teatime. After around 6 months of trying, Mr P finally took notice of our hot tub business – woohoo!
Why bother to enter each week? Keith has asked me this quite a few times. Theo is passionate about helping small businesses. He was being sent tweets by many small business owners, telling him about their businesses. So he came up with the idea to promote some of the small businesses that take the time to send him information about their company.
What does it mean to be chosen and re-tweeted by Theo? Apart from being in-undated with congratulations tweets and joining a friendly family of former #sbs winner, Theo invites all the winners to an annual conference; which I am told is very motivational. There is the opportunity to have your photograph taken with Theo and pitch in various business incentives that Theo sponsors. Ruggles Leisure have a profile on Theo Paphitis’ SBS website, which will remain there indefinitely.
To me the greatest thing about it all is to be chosen. Out of 1010 tweets sent on Sunday 13th April, Theo and his team read MY tweet (I thought it was pretty naff) and chose me! I’m not saying Theo will now buy a Jacuzzi hot tub. He might; in all honesty if he did, I wouldn’t be shouting it from the roof tops as we keep every customer’s order private, but it opens us up to opportunities that we didn’t have before Sunday 13th April 2014.
Stephen Leacock’s observations ring true: “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” If something is handed to you on a plate, the chances are you will not appreciate it as much as if you worked hard to get there – but we all need a few lucky breaks along the way!
We want people to feel confident that we can deliver the promises we make, we hope that with Theo behind us you will feel more confident. We hope that you will also see us grabbing every opportunity lady luck provides for us, through hard-work and dedication.