Pet Retailer of the Year Not Just Pets has picked up another award, this time from former Dragon's Den star Theo Paphitis.

The Bath-based company won a Paphitis-backed 'Small Business Sunday' award and was invited to a special winners' event at the ICC Arena in Birmingham this week.

"It was a brilliant networking event," said Not Just Pets owner Janine Tozer. "We learned lots on the day and gained insight from other like-minded retailers. Theo himself was a great speaker and a wonderful inspiration - we loved his passion and enthusiasm. 

"He even unveiled a surprise which only #SBS winners were privy to - a chance to pitch for £50,000 for our business in the New Year."

Each week Theo rewards small businesses that tweet him @TheoPaphitis and describe their business in one tweet including the all-important hashtag #SBS. Only tweets made in the time slot between 5pm and 7.30pm each Sunday count. Theo reviews and chooses his favourite lucky six who are then re-tweeted. As he has over 400,000 followers, this provides a massive boost to the chosen lucky businesses.

The benefits range from increased Twitter followers, to positive media publicity and crucially for many, increased sales. Of course, none of this is guaranteed as it is largely down to perseverance and hard work. 

Theo says: "I admire people who have passion and energy. If you cannot bore your friends to death about your own small business then something is seriously wrong. 

"I was struck by the number of business owners on Twitter who wanted to tell me about their new products and services. Small Business Sunday was born so that people have a specific time slot to tweet and can pitch their 'sell' directly to me.

"All my businesses are privately owned and entrepreneurial in spirit. My stationery firm Ryman has thousands of small business customers, which is why they are now kindly sponsoring #SBS. I want to offer benefits to #SBS winners, past and present and the link with the stationery retailer allows me to do this, so thank you CEO Kypros Kyprianou and Co.

"My vision is that everyone who has ever won an #SBS re-tweet from me becomes part of a friendly club. Like-minded individuals can share successes and learnings. This website will give a valuable profile to the winners chosen to date and should help those who have not yet won but want some tips on how to do so. You will find news about the latest winners plus events and activities of interest.

"I know I have been lucky in business and I am keen now to spread goodwill to others, of course not forgetting that very often, you make your own luck by making use of every opportunity."