James McBrearty invited to Downing Street

Last week as part of Small Business Saturday I was one out of only 100 businesses in the whole UK to be chosen to be invited to Downing Street:

When we arrived, Downing Street had been transformed into a Christmas Fair to celebrate Small Business:

There were carols outside number 11 to begin the event:

And the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, joined us afterwards and spoke of his support for small business:

While networking with the other businesses to be chosen, I also enjoyed a spiced hot chocolate and some fresh popcorn on Downing street thanks to a couple of the Small Business 100 members.

Of course, there was the opportunity for the 100 small businesses to be photographed outside both Number 10 and Number 11 Downing Street:

There was extensive coverage on the actual Small Business Saturday event the day afterwards, with features on both BBC News and Sky News.

Here's @taxhelpukcom visiting Downing Street. Did he offer tax advice to the PM? 🙂 #smallbizsatuk… http://t.co/sZqdRjd4xu

— BusinessZone.co.uk (@BusinessZone) December 6, 2014

While Small Business Saturday occurs one day each year in December, it exists to promote the value of small business throughout the year and how money spent in your local community stays in the community to support other local businesses.

There is also an increasing amount of support available for people looking to start or grow a business, and I will be covering this in the coming months.