Small business owner Chris Jackson got to meet businessman and former Dragon Theo Paphitis at his annual winners event after being chosen just a few days before.
Every Sunday for three years Chris from Let Me Drive You has been Tweeting Theo Paphitis as part of his SBS competition with the hope of being one of the lucky six winners that catches Theo’s eye and gets re-tweeted to all his 400,000 followers.
The event is known as #SBS which stands for Small Business Sunday and takes place every Sunday on Twitter between 5.00pm and 7.30pm with the six chosen winners announced via Twitter on the Monday evening. The winners are then invited to attend the annual SBS networking event and meet all the previous winners along with Theo himself.
“I was very lucky” said Chris. “The annual event was on the Thursday in Birmingham and I was only chosen on the Monday so had to juggle the diary around and get to Birmingham!”
“The day was the best of my life as I met so many nice people, all with the same in common and Theo’s speech was so inspirational. We all left the event in a motivated mood and even more passionate about our businesses” he added.
Talking about his business, Chris said: “The service I offer was always going to be different from my competitors, and I wanted to do other things than just drive people to and from Airports and the like. So, I went into hosting and looking after overseas visitors whilst they are in England and I take them to lunch, show them sights like Stonehenge and generally make sure that they can capture the English culture whilst here.”
“I have lots of future plans now and aim to launch other aspects of my business via a new website and work alongside other SBS winners too.”
Talking about his early life, Chris said: “Sadly I have never really had much family – my Dad left my Mum when I was just two and my Nan and Grandad looked after me most of my life. My Nan is 94 years old and I never really got over the loss of my Grandad who passed away in 1991 – the year of my exams so I didn’t really do too well at school.”
“However my Grandad taught me to be a hardworking gentleman and that stuck with me – although I have missed out on a family I now have an SBS family and that means the world to me.”
Chris smiled when asked about his future plans.
“I can’t really say too much at this stage” he said “other than bookmark my website or follow me on Twitter @letmedriveyou and watch this space!”
See the website at www.letmedriveyouprivatehire.co.uk
