As many of you may have seen on social media last week, we had the privilege of winning a Duke of York Young Entrepreneur Award, which was presented to us by the Duke of York himself – Prince Andrew.
It was a strange day in many ways, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Not the sort of event that we are necessarily used to, only being around 7 months into our journey as business owners.
Before I tell you more about the day, I’d like to acknowledge the support we have received from the Enterprise Team at Sheffield Hallam University, the advice and positivity of which has been a big help in getting us to where we are today as a business. Not only that, but their encouragement and belief in our business model was the deciding factor in us putting ourselves forward for the award.
Special thanks must go to Rob King at the Hallam Enterprise Team, who always looks to open doors for us wherever possible.
It was thanks to this support that we submitted our application for the award a few months ago, in which we were asked to explain who we are, our backgrounds, our business model and why we feel we should win the award.
We were then selected to attend the awards ceremony, representing Hallam, alongside a dozen or so other businesses who had been selected to represent the university they were receiving support from.
Not really knowing what to expect, we arrived in Huddersfield to a warm welcome and met the other businesses taking part. For security purposes, we didn’t know in advance that the Duke himself would be attending.
When the Duke did arrive, it was impressive to see his genuine interest in each of the businesses at the event. He spent a good 5 minutes talking to each business, even though by the time he got to us he’d already spoken to around three other healthy food start-ups before us – a fact that he handled with good humour. We can only assume it was a coincidence that we all ended up in the same corner of the room!
Chatting to the Duke.
The awards ceremony followed, where we were presented with our framed certificates. We were really flattered just to be asked to put our business forward, so to come away with an award such as this was a proud achievement. When we get around to feeling handy, we will be sure to display them on the walls of our office!
It’s not always easy running a start-up business - especially when you are doing it for the first time – so at the very least it does provide some affirmation and a welcome confidence boost when your commitment and your efforts are recognised in this way.
On a slightly separate note, I would just like to say a warm welcome and a big thank you to our new shoppers who found out about us through the latest Coeliac UK newsletter, or through any other means. We hope you have enjoyed your first shopping experience with us and hope that we are adding value to your lives by helping you get access to good food for less.
We are always keen to hear feedback – positive or negative – from our shoppers, so if you have something you say about your experience shopping with us or would like to suggest anything we can do better, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can drop us an email via our Contact Us page, or get in touch on social media (links below).
Cheers,
James
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