‘Don’t be a busy fool’: Theo Paphitis’s top tips for small businesses

“It’s very lonely being a small business owner sometimes,” says Theo Paphitis. It’s the central insight that led him to start Small Business Sunday way back in 2010 - a move that’s seen him become one of the UK’s top champions of these dynamic entrepreneurs.

In its earliest form, #SBS was a weekly chance for Theo to boost some small businesses on his Twitter account. Now, it’s grown into a 4,000 strong community. Theo still offers #SBS winners social media promotion to his hundreds of thousands of followers, but now they also get marketing, access to a closed Facebook network and the chance to meet like-minded businesses at the annual #SBS Event. FreeAgent is proud to support these #SBS efforts.

“It’s nice to talk to someone in a similar environment,” Theo adds. “They could be having a great time when you’re having a difficult time, or they could be having a difficult time and you’re able to show them there are better times ahead.”

Theo is certainly an inspiration for better times ahead. Since starting his career as a filing clerk, he’s turned struggling retail businesses into huge success stories. In 1995, he bought 100-year-old stationery brand Ryman from the receivers after its parent company collapsed. The chain now has more than 200 stores across the UK.

The Theo Paphitis Retail Group also includes lingerie shops Boux Avenue, hardware stores Robert Dyas, and creative suppliers London Graphic Centre. He’s also advised dozens of small businesses during his time on iconic entrepreneurial reality TV show Dragons’ Den, where he invested in 20 companies over eight seasons. 

There’s nothing quite like learning from someone who’s been there, done that and got the T-shirt! As a busy business owner, Theo knows exactly how important it is to use your time well. Here’s his hard-earned advice on how to save time and see the bigger picture for your business.

You’ve run so many businesses over the years, how do you balance the day-to-day with making time to see the bigger picture?

It’s not easy. When you’ve got your head down and you’re up to your elbows in muck then you’re not going to be looking for many new opportunities. But once you get to a situation where you feel comfortable and your management team is in - then you can take a bit of breathing time and look at the helicopter view, as opposed to the details.

How do you choose the most valuable tasks to spend your time on?

It’s important you don’t become a ‘busy fool’. And lots of small businesses suffer from this. They get dragged into something they have to solve but their effort doesn’t actually make that much difference. Or they’re putting their energy into growing sales but they’re not profitable sales.

It is important to take some time to step back and assess the benefits of what you’re doing.

How can you tell it’s time to step away from certain jobs and bring in a specialist? 

You either want to scale up or you don’t want to scale up. If you want to scale up, you want to employ other people to do certain jobs because there’s only one of you. If you’re the business driver, you don’t have to be bogged down in admin.

It’s really one of the toughest questions for small business owners. Is your business scalable or are you destined to be a one-man or one-woman band? Some businesses are not scalable. Some businesses just give a really good income for the founder and operator and that’s all they’ll ever be and they’re happy with that.

Do you have any tips to help busy business owners save time?

Use technology. Do not be a Luddite. The world is changing at a rapid, rapid pace and technology is affecting everybody’s business. If you don’t embrace it and upskill yourself, then I think you’re working at a disadvantage.

Take AI. Lots of small businesses don’t really understand AI, but I implore them to make the effort. I would treat it like a digital assistant - having a very clever grad working for you who can do a whole raft of work very quickly. You do need to give it very clear parameters of what it is you’re after. Don’t just ask it one question, follow up with another question and another, really narrow it down. 

We’re really very blessed as business owners to have all this technology to back you up.

What does a good work-life balance look like to you?

Being a small business owner is not a job, it’s a way of life. It touches every aspect of what you do. So you have to embrace that, there’s no clear line of where it starts and stops.

But I am a great believer in holidays. I used to do it, even when the business was just me and an assistant because you do switch off.

Because I had loads of kids, holidays had to be school holidays. It was in my diary. But you have to build it in. It’s the easiest thing for a small business owner to say, “I don’t know what things will be like then,” and put off planning anything. And then it’s too late. So you have to build it in.

What inspired you to create Small Business Sunday?

When I was a small business, Sundays were when you spent time with the family, and the minute you put the kids to bed, that was it. I’d go to the study or the corner of the living room and I’d be planning for Monday.

I remember Twitter (now X) had just started in the UK and I joined and ended up with about 50,000 followers. It was amazing. What I wouldn’t have given to have 50,000 contacts to sell to when I was a small business! 

So I thought, you know what? I’m going to share them. I said, “If you’ve got a small business, send me a tweet about your business and I’ll retweet the best six.” I expected to get about 10 people and I had hundreds! I thought that was brilliant.

How has Small Business Sunday evolved?

Now, of course, they tweet on a Sunday, and we announce the winners on a Monday. We have a network of over 4,000 small businesses. And we have massive events once a year - we had the 15th anniversary one in Birmingham, which had over 1,000 small businesses there. They get free tools, networking, lots of advice and help with their businesses.

We’re really proud to have FreeAgent as a partner because it gives small businesses the ability to skill up, and the technology to do things for themselves in their day-to-day working.

What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to small business owners?

To be an entrepreneur and run a small business, you have to have passion for what you do. If you can’t bore your friends in the pub or a coffee shop talking about what you do, do something else. You’ll need that passion to get you through the ups and downs of running a small business. 

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#SBS Small Business Sunday celebrates 15 years of supporting the UK’s small businesses this year. If you would like to be part of the community and gain access to all the benefits - as well as receive a free ticket to the annual event - you can find out more here.