January felt like a long month for many of us, with a chance for reflection and to welcome the possibilities of the new.
Traditionally a time of resolutions and fresh starts, we took the time to work back stage and plan ahead for our next Pop Up Shopping Events which will start from April at Denbies Wine Estate and run monthly up until December. Add the dates to your diary!
21st April - Shopping Market
19th May - Homeware Market
2nd June - Sustainability Market
7th July - Summer Market
18th August - Family Fun Day & Market
15th September - Lifestyle & Wellbeing Market
20th October - Autumn Market
10th November - Winter Market
Jason took a new approach to getting know some of our new businesses, this time using the boardroom space at Denbies for a morning with 24 new faces, all with stories to tell about their business, product and brand. Watch this space to hear more about them!
Following on from our inspirational visit to the Start Up Show hosted by Enterprise Nation last year, we were excited to be part of the actual event this year.
For both aspiring and existing entrepreneurs to discover everything needed to start a business, and to connect with advisers and business experts who can help take your enterprise to the next level, there was a real buzz throughout the day.
We were asked to bring together 3 Curated businesses who work with us to exhibit and sell in the Small Business Zone and to give advice :-
Rob and Jason - Dapper & Suave
James & Dan - Coffee Flamingo
Astrid - Mary P Jewellery
Jason was on the panel to discuss 'How to start a creative craft business'
with Dan Goode from Making Goode to share the Dapper & Suave journey and how Curated by Dapper & Suave has evolved. With the session sponsored by GS1 it was a brilliant session in a packed schedule. We're already looking forward to 2025!
For those of you who follow our social media, you will see it was a very different birthday this year for Jason. He was invited to attend a Breakfast Reception and Business Connect event including over 100 entrepreneurs at 10 Downing Street.
There was a very interesting panel interviews headed by the Prime Minister with 3 different people, each with a passion and back story to tell.
The whole morning felt an absolute privilege and very surreal entering the door and seeing all the Prime Ministers pictures framed on the wall - think Love Actually and the coffee was very good too!
We are also looking at new ways to promote small business and looking at how we do this on our socials and will be sharing lots of top tips and gift ideas as seen this week with Gifting on Valentines.
Finally, do head over to our website and check out our latest refresh.
Having spent the day at Enterprise Nation telling the story of our almost nine year old Dapper & Suave business, we wanted to make sure that new and regular visitors to our product range and Pop Up Shopping Events understood how things fit together.
Now you get to see the original photo that inspired us to set up the brand, and how and why we started, plus separate Products & Events pages.
And in case you were wondering, we did manage to get some down time for Jason's birthday - here we are in lovely Bristol!
Thanks for reading!
Jason & Rob
Jason & Rob