Wagging Tails franchisor Lisa Suswain recently met up with Theo Paphitis after winning the #SBS small business initiative set up by the former star of TV show Dragon’s Den.

Small Business Sunday (shortened to #SBS) takes place each Sunday between 5pm and 7:30pm with business owners asked to describe their business in one tweet including the hash tag #SBS.  Theo then reviews and chooses six businesses which he then re-tweets following day at 8pm.

Lisa’s tweet about her business Wagging Tails, a dog boarding company which places dogs in family homes instead of kennels, was re-tweeted to Theo’s 400,000 followers making her a winner and she received an invite to the annual #SBS event which took place on Thursday 28th November 2013. 

As a result of the win Wagging Tails received hundreds of new followers and traffic to the company website trebled within hours of Theo’s tweet. Lisa got the chance to catch up with Theo at the #SBS annual networking event at the ICC in Birmingham.

“It is great to have support from someone of Theo’s stature especially as Wagging Tails are the first pet care company to win this award. Having the opportunity to meet him was fantastic and gave me the chance to thank him for recognising our hard work and for his help in raising awareness of our business to his followers.”

The Award marked one of many highs in what has been a stellar year for Wagging Tails. The company also won The 2013 Franchise Marketing Award for Best Franchise Marketing Support in March and Franchisee Teresa Bowers won Franchisee of the Year at the 2013 EWIF (Encouraging Women into Franchising) Awards in May. 

In contrast to the slow recovery being seen in the UK economy Wagging Tails continued its rapid growth with network turnover increasing by 69% year on year as the company’s franchise network expanded by 50% during 2013. The company now operates nine franchised branches across England and Wales with Lisa keen build on the success of the past year and find more dog owners to launch new Wagging Tails branches in their local areas.

“We know how much British owners care for their dogs and we want to continue to grow and provide our exclusive service to even more dog owners throughout the country. We already have dogs booked in for holidays as far in advance as December 2015 and there is a huge demand for more branches across the UK. It really is a fantastic way to make a living working from home and we have opportunities throughout the country for dog lovers to take on and run Wagging Tails franchises in their local area.”