After what has undoubtedly been the most difficult year we’ve experienced in recent times, ending with a toned-down Christmas that saw us all separated from our families and loved ones, plus another national lockdown to start the year, it’s always great to hear some positive news from our Extra Help family.
This week, we’ve learned that our very own Nealem Stephens, owner of Extra Help Maidenhead & Windsor, has received a very exciting award!
Nealem is one of the first winners in 2021 of the Small Business Sunday (SBS) Award. Small Business Sunday is the brainchild of Theo Paphitis, who is best known for his appearance in Dragon’s Den. He is the Chairman of Ryman Stationery, Boux Avenue Lingerie and Robert Dyas and also owns the London Graphic Centre.
Each week, Theo reviews small businesses he engages with on Twitter and chooses his favourite, lucky six businesses, who are then re-tweeted to his 500,000 followers, providing positive media publicity to the winners and helping to raise their profiles.
This week, Nealem was delighted to discover she was one of those six winners!
She says, “I am thrilled to receive this recognition after only two years of trading. It’s such an honour to receive this entrepreneurial award after the most challenging year for humanity, let alone businesses!”
Nealem recalls the words of one of her team members on the 23rd March, when the first lockdown was announced, who said,
“Nealem, we know you won’t let this ship go down.”
From that moment on, Nealem was determined to maintain a winning mentality. She says running her business has been a long, hard journey of perseverance, resilience, innovation and intrinsic motivation, which has involved a lot of organising, planning, leading from the front, growing and motivating her team and keeping her customers delighted.
Nealem admits that running a small business can sometimes be a lonely job, even with her fantastic team in place. However, waking up to all the congratulatory messages from thousands of strangers on Tuesday gave her an enormous boost and was highly inspirational for her.
“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve achieved,” says Nealem. “Bringing individual personality to the brand and creating the WOW factor has been our motivation; it’s echoed in all our 5-star reviews. A HUGE thank you to my team and clients! I’m so grateful for your support. This one’s for you!”
Congratulations to Nealem and her team in Maidenhead and Windsor for doing an amazing job and receiving the recognition they deserve!
If you’d like to run a rewarding business like Nealem’s, offering home-help and cleaning services to your local community, get in touch using the button below to find out more.
