Our North Somerset start-up received a business boost from retail entrepreneur Theo Paphitis. Our founder Rachel Mills, of Buttercup Learning, tweeted Theo about Buttercup Learning during ‘Small Business Sunday’ and was one of six weekly winners in September to gain a retweet by Theo. The weekly initiative, set up by Theo in 2010, now has over 2,500 #SBS winners, and it supports small businesses in the UK.
Theo retweeted Rachel’s message to his almost 500,000 followers, and as a result, we trebled our followers. We are also profiled on the #SBS website (www.theopaphitissbs.com), which is exclusive to all Small Business Sunday winners.
Buttercup Learning is developing sustainable and natural-world educational content for young children aged 4–8 years old.
We successfully crowdfunded seed money during lockdown to begin to develop our augmented reality children’s books and e-learning course content on sustainability and nature. Rachel was inspired to set up Buttercup Learning by her own daughter’s love of nature and curiosity about the world around her. She felt compelled to create a company that helped support all young children to understand the current state of our planet and our impact on it. The company focuses on positive actions that young children and their families can take together.
Rachel Mills said, “I started developing the business in December 2019 and currently work out of my garden studio. It’s great to have support from Theo because we want to raise our company profile. We are on a mission to be the planet’s advocate by providing education on sustainability and the natural world for young children and their families across the world; to build educational content that inspires a whole generation of Greta Thunbergs. I’m really pleased that Theo has recognised our hard work and helped spread the word about what we do. We are currently developing a UK-first augmented reality children’s book series that supports literacy and conservation activities for young children with a supporting e-learning platform. The first book explores insects and how we can all do our bit to protect them from further decline; simple actions like leaving patches of grass to grow in our back garden and protecting bees by not spraying with herbicides.”
Small business champion and Ryman Stationery, Robert Dyas, and Boux Avenue Chairman, Theo Paphitis, said: “We are thrilled to welcome new #SBS members every week and highlight just how important it is to support our small businesses here in the UK. My vision is that everyone who has ever won an #SBS retweet from me becomes part of a friendly club; like-minded individuals who can share successes and learnings. The website will also give a valuable profile to the winners chosen, and I wish Buttercup Learning every success.”
If you are small-business owner looking for a retweet from Theo, then tweet him about your business on Sundays between 5 PM and 7.30 PM and include the hashtag #SBS. Six lucky businesses are retweeted every Monday at 8 PM and then invited to enter their profile on the new website, attend the annual #SBS networking event and take advantage of the networking opportunities.
For further information, photos and product images, please contact Rachel Mills at Buttercup Learning on rachel@buttercuplearning.com
For further information about Small Business Sunday please visit www.theopaphitissbs.com.
