Operating A Enterprise Can Be A Actually Darkish Place 

Final week, Dragons’ Den returned to TV after a three-month hiatus. It’s been significantly longer since Britons noticed Theo Paphitis in a type of well-known black leather-based chairs (4 years since his final, transient visitor choose look).

Immediately, we’re fortunately in comfier, swivelly purple armchairs within the workplaces of Theo Paphitis Retail Group in Wimbledon, the place the elevate goes up, not down. Right here, Paphitis runs three retail chains from this penthouse boardroom: Ryman, Robert Dyas, and Boux Avenue. It’s additionally the place he manages his small enterprise community, #SBS or Small Enterprise Sunday.

It’s SBS that we’re right here to speak about. The community is lower than every week away from its fifteenth anniversary – exceptional, on condition that Paphitis began it with a single tweet. One Sunday afternoon, he posted a call-out on then-Twitter, asking for companies to leap into his mentions and inform him about their enterprises. Then, he shared his six favourites.

On the time, the thought of having the ability to attain 1000’s, even tens of millions of individuals, from a tool in your cellphone, was nonetheless new. The put up immediately took off and “bought a lifetime of its personal”, as Paphitis describes. “I simply thought, wow. I simply touched all these folks, they usually’re actually partaking with me, and I can do one thing for them.”

Social savvy and taking criticism

Now additionally operating on Instagram and LinkedIn, #SBS has to date given a platform to 4,500 winners. Each Sunday, Paphitis nonetheless hand-picks half a dozen corporations to hitch the unique membership the place they will increase one another up, community, or commerce concepts.

It may appear happy-go-lucky. However this origin story can also be a mirrored image of Paphitis’ enterprise savvy. Early on, he noticed the large engagement alternatives these platforms – at the moment additionally spanning platforms like TikTok and Reddit – might supply.

“Within the previous days of selling, you transmitted. Very exhausting to obtain. Now, you transmit and also you obtain, which is sensible for enterprise”, he says. “As a small enterprise, you couldn’t get anyplace close to that kind of attain. However you’ve got the capability now.”

However that two-way communication cuts each methods. The identical openness that permits small corporations to attach with 1000’s of potential clients additionally exposes them to real-time scrutiny and public criticism. For Paphitis, that’s not a draw back – it’s a bonus, if dealt with with the suitable mindset.

“Nothing is ideal. Some issues on social media will be exhausting to listen to should you’re thin-skinned. However I feel you’ve bought to be reasonable and discover the medium that works for you inside that”, he says.

Within the Den, Paphitis was identified for his direct suggestions. Even now, he rolls his eyes concerning the “individuals who didn’t know their numbers” who would make it onto the present. However the investor makes it clear he’s from the varsity of thought that honesty is the perfect coverage.

In reality, for individuals who stay in worry of the remark sections, Paphitis particularly warns towards solely in search of enterprise suggestions from the ‘three F’s: Household, Fools, and Buddies’.

“It’s essential ask people who find themselves going to say ‘don’t be so bloody silly’,” he implores. “Unfavourable criticism doesn’t must be unconstructive. Within the early days, I’d rely a lot on speaking to folks and what they inform me.”

After all, having the ability to tackle that suggestions and make calculated dangers, in Paphitis’ view, requires particular traits. “It’s essential have some bravery, and a constructive disposition to start out and run a enterprise. 80% of our winners are ladies. Fairly just a few steadiness a household life and different commitments round their enterprise. You would possibly solely have one part-time particular person or two folks working with you. It may be a extremely darkish place and it’s really easy to surrender.

“SBS offers [winners] power, enthusiasm, confidence, credibility, and someplace to search for solutions. It’s not all the things you want by any stretch, but it surely’s an excellent package deal that can assist you”.

AI as small enterprise sage

One other defining attribute of the SBS winners checklist is that almost all work alone – 52% are sole merchants. A lot has been stated already concerning the isolation this group feels. Immediately, it’s been extensively reported that lonely founders are turning to AI to resolve the issue. Some specialists even predict we might quickly see a future the place a startup turns into a unicorn with no workers. How does Paphitis really feel about this? Is it a prescient or ridiculous assertion?

“I by no means assume something is ridiculous”, he says wryly. “AI is a gamechanger for small companies, it’s like a sage. You may ask it any query. I’m utilizing it for my enterprise on a regular basis. I take advantage of Perplexity as a result of it doesn’t have adverts.”

He pulls out his cellphone to point out me a briefing video his group utilized in a gathering that morning. It’s fully AI-generated, and inarguably spectacular. However after I ask him for his views on distant work, it’s clear Paphitis isn’t a type of CEOs who’s advocating for the metaverse.

“Personally, I like face-to-face interplay. I like the discussions over the water cooler, the espresso machine. I like the truth that you’ll be able to convey on the following technology they usually can be taught from you”, he says. “I’m not going to decide on one or the opposite. It depends upon the enterprise and what stage it’s at. For my enterprise, it loves the face-to-face.”

The Autumn Price range

Placing his cash the place his mouth is, Paphitis has additionally grown the SBS into the offline world. Thus far, Small Enterprise Sunday has hosted 12 large-scale annual occasions, and the following would be the #SBSEvent2026 early subsequent 12 months to mark the community’s fifteenth birthday.

All of those occasions are fully free to attend, a key USP for SBS from day one. Paphitis assures me that SBS is absolutely dedicated to remaining free and accessible. “A lot of small companies spend some huge cash on a lot of issues, some good, some unhealthy. We’re not attempting to promote something. We encourage them to work on their enterprise, not of their enterprise.”

In a enterprise world the place virtually nothing now feels sure, this certainty seems like a blessing. Final week, analysis revealed that over three in 4 SME leaders have little to no confidence that the Autumn Price range will assist progress. Greater than a fifth count on profitability to fall within the subsequent 12 months.

Paphitis himself has referred to as for Whitehall to radically reform enterprise charges to assist smaller ventures (“as a society, if we simply go together with the strategy of ‘would possibly is correct’, then our Excessive Avenue goes to die”, he stresses). However he appears pissed off that he can’t reply what the longer term will appear like for his community as he waits, like many, for the Chancellor’s assertion.

“To know what’s subsequent for SBS, you’d must go to 11 Downing Avenue and ask Rachel Reeves,” he says. “As a result of the choices this authorities makes will dictate what occurs to our economic system. And we’d have a greater concept on the twenty sixth of November.”

However Paphitis is eager to emphasize that entrepreneurs don’t want to attend passively for change.

“Dragons’ Den was an incredible step change on this planet of entrepreneurship. Earlier than it, folks wouldn’t have talked about entrepreneurship. Operating a enterprise was a thriller. And the present simply fully took away all that mist. It confirmed folks the place to start out from.

“There’s that ridiculous statistic that fifty% of small companies fail within the first couple of years. However that doesn’t imply the folks fail. Tons go on to start out one other enterprise and get it proper. That’s what SBS stands for. Telling you what you don’t know, earlier than the scars and the ache.”

Need to be within the Small Enterprise Sunday neighborhood? Head to the #SBS web site to learn the way to enter by way of X, Instagram, or LinkedIn.