Harrogate businesswoman and Chocolatier Azra Sadiq has caught the eye of Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis. He recently chose her tweet about her business, Azra Chocolates, as one of the six he selects each Sunday to re-tweet to his followers on the social networking site Twitter.
It’s all part of his initiative called Small Business Sunday – or #SBS for people who know their way around a hashtag! Every Sunday small businesses can tweet Theo direct to describe their business to him in 140 characters or less. Theo reviews and chooses just six to re-tweet to his nearly 350,000 followers, which can mean a massive publicity boost for the chosen few.
Azra told us: “I heard about the #SBS initiative and thought it would be a fantastic chance to boost my profile and gain new business. I tried several times to get my tweets noticed by Theo, but the rules are that you can only tweet between 5pm and 7.30pm on Sundays and should only tweet once each week.
“So when my business was chosen for the all-important re-tweet on the Bank Holiday weekend, I couldn’t believe my luck! I’m sure Theo gets absolutely thousands of #SBS tweets every week, so I’m delighted that mine stood out and he passed it along to his followers.”
Azra Sadiq,Mum-of-three, set up her luxury chocolates business in 2009 after a career teaching English whilst living in the Middle East. She began by training with Master Chocolatiers in the UK and Belgium and mastering her craft in her own kitchen, where she created her first chocolate shoe.
On the family’s return to the UK and once they were settled in Harrogate, Azra set about making her business a real success. With her love of designer shoes - and with the encouragement of friends and family- Azra concentrated on putting together an inspired range of chocolate shoes any fashionista would love!
Since then she’s expanded her collection to include matching chocolate purses, plus miniature versions of her chocolates to be given as wedding or party favours. Every single item is hand-made by Azra herself, and each can take several days to be finished to perfection. Now, with the Theo Paphitis re-tweet, Azra’s hoping to gain even more business.
“Small Business Sunday is such a brilliant idea and I know that there are already businesses here in Harrogate that have had a fabulous reaction from being in the chosen six. I’m hoping it will be a real springboard to bring my artisan chocolates to more and more people’s attention and to help me achieve my aim of seeing Azra Chocolates stocked and sold by premier stores in the near future.”
So what was the tweet that caught the eye of business supremo Theo Paphitis?
‘Retweet if you LOVE Chocolate and Fashion! Handmade Chocolate Stilettos and Favours! Discover
http://www.azrachocolates.co.uk @TheoPaphitis #SBS’
Azra's
Twitter profile has since exploded with new followers, leads and interactions! So for her Theo Paphitis has been less of a Dragon and much more of an Angel!