Small Business Vibes – a “make it happen" story and a tale of “you never know what you’re starting”
Feb 17, 2025
Sometimes, when what you want doesn’t exist, the only thing to do is to create it.
Which is exactly how Small Business Vibes started.
Claire and Colette had known each other years before bumping into each other again at a local networking meeting. Over a cuppa, Claire mentioned that she had an idea for the type of networking group she wanted to go to but it didn’t exist. Many times over many cuppas over the next few months, Claire and Colette talked about this networking idea, but in true ADHD style, Claire wasn’t actually doing it! This is where Colette stepped in and gave her the push to make it happen together.
They had been to many meetings, one in particular was the final push they needed to get things started. It felt a complete waste of time and money, with a themed 60-second (tell us a random fact about you type thing) and two guest speakers, there was barely any time to actually talk to anyone. They came away not knowing what anyone did, which meant others didn’t know what they did either. They had only been able to speak to those on their table, a small portion of the attendees actually there.
They’d been out of their businesses all morning, spent £15 each on a ticket, plus parking, drinks and petrol costs to not have an opportunity to talk to more than a couple of people.
That gave them the push needed to create Small Business Vibes.
They wanted a networking meeting where you just talked, got to know people, have a safe place to rant about things going wrong, have a group of women who understood the highs and lows of working for yourself, who would nudge you along, celebrate with you and most importantly, knew who you were and what you did to be able to refer you to others.
This is why they decided on no guest speakers, no one seat policy and business owners only. They wanted to create a supportive community about collaboration, not create competition. People were quite shocked when they started inviting other networking leaders to their meetings to share their networking information. It soon became apparent that this was unheard of!
They had the format, the next big hurdle, what on earth to call it? There were LOADS of messages and suggestions, phones pinging with ideas but nothing feeling right until finally a lightbulb moment! They were becoming a partnership, so a partnership of their business names was needed and so Small Business Equaliser (Colette’s business) and The Journal Vibe (Claire’s business) were combined to create Small Business Vibes. Quite handy really as they’re all about small businesses and good vibes!
The first Small Business Vibes networking meeting, exclusively for women business owners opened at The Dog Inn, Whittington on Thursday 21st September 2023 at 9:30am. It was a great meeting and everyone had a fab time, with so much talking about business happening, sales being made and collaborations being discussed.
Online meetings were launched in October 2023 with two a month and were attracting women entrepreneurs from all over the world. Exciting times!
The original plan was to open a meeting in Lichfield, then if all goes well to open another meeting on the south coast when Claire eventually moved. However, fate had other plans and soon word was spreading about the Lichfield meetings through the private Facebook group, and online meetings, and requests for more in person meetings started to come in.
Whilst Claire and Colette had jokingly talked about opening meetings across the country, they soon found themselves interviewing women to be Small Business Vibes hosts.
The first Small Business Vibes host was Sophie Dyer and she opened a meeting on 17th January 2024 in Groby, Leicestershire. It was closely followed by meetings in Mere Green and Cannock in the West Midlands, Winchester in Hampshire, Glossop in High Peak, Brighton in East Sussex and Exmouth in Devon. Plus, a second meeting in Lichfield opened in February 2024 to add an evening option for those who weren’t able to make the daytime meeting. Within a few months of the very first meeting, SBV had 8 in person meetings, 2 online meetings and a rapidly growing Facebook community.
The second half of 2024 was just as busy, with meetings opening in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Stafford, Whitley Bay, Cambridge and Six Hills by the end of the year. The SBV family had grown to 11 hosts, plus Claire and Colette with admin help behind the scenes.
Claire and Colette have been blown away with everything in the first year and threw a special party on SBV’s first birthday, with the event selling out. Something neither of them imagined a year before.
Now, as 2025 starts Claire and Colette have launched their new monthly online subscription and increased the number of online meetings to 8 a month to give businesswomen flexibility on when to drop in.
They have a huge list of ideas and cunning plans for the future of SBV. Claire hasn’t moved back to the south coast (yet!) but plans are making progress there and she opened the Worthing meeting in January, the meeting that was supposed to be the second one to open was actually the 16th. Whitehaven is the next to launch in March 2025 and there’s currently a waiting list for new hosts opening around the country.
After that? Well, Claire and Colette have an idea or two, but you’ll just have to watch this space…
