I run an award-winning specialist interior shutter company called Just Shutters Surrey, with my husband Simon. We are based in Walton on Thames and operate across Surrey, Middlesex and South West London. We design, manufacture and install premium custom-made shutters and our products are in high demand as popularity continuously grows in this market. This is our fourth-year trading and we have built up a loyal clientele with high levels of repeats orders and recommendations. We also work closely with several developers and interior designers and have established relationships with a hand-picked list of affiliates. Our business closed when lockdown started, as our supply chain was frozen. We furloughed our 2 Fitters and that is where my story begins.
Since the lockdown started, I have been working a major passion project. Lobbying the government for fair and equal support for small business owners who have been shut out of government business support packages created in a response to CoVid19. It started on 9th April, when my path crossed with Philippa Lurcock in a Facebook support group that Philippa had founded, for business owners like us who didn’t qualify for any meaningful support. We decided to start a public lobbying campaign and #ForgottenLtd was born. What started with two of us, quickly grew and we are now a part of a hugely passionate, dedicated and talented team of 10 volunteers spanning the UK. We have generated major news coverage including BBC1 10pm News, The Sun, ITV, The Express, LBC, Daily Mail, Sky News and made short films and some fantastic animations and social media assets. We have already trended on Twitter in the UK and have over 5.4k followers on Twitter and over 7k followers on Facebook. We have received pledges of support from many MPs and gained endorsements from trade bodies, chambers and corporate stakeholders.
But what exactly is #ForgottenLtd? It is a grass roots campaign calling for fair and equal support for small business owners, who have fallen through the cracks of the government support schemes launched in response to CoVid19. Small companies do not qualify for any meaningful government support and we believe that taking on debt is not a viable solution. Without support for small businesses and their owners we run the risk of catastrophic negative impact on our local communities across the UK. Currently many business owners are surviving on zero personal income and if they are home based, mobile or work from a shared space they will not have qualified for a grant either. It is fair to say that this project has genuinely renewed my faith in humankind. Our community of like-minded entrepreneurs continues to provide almost every skill and contact we could require. I am astounded at the generosity and dedication of the team. We all feel empowered and realise that you really can achieve great things with focus and passion. Working with a remote team of strangers has its major challenges but we have found our rhythm now.
Organisation is imperative and we learned early on that it is not about ‘To Do Lists’ or you all become busy fools. Instead we carved out a strategy and identified core goals, which we review and refine regularly. Lastly make sure every goal or project has one named owner to avoid confusion, duplication or missed opportunities. If you do just one thing after reading this article, please sign the parliamentary petition, if this reaches 100,000 signatures it will be debated in parliament. Please don’t forget to verify your signature, the email confirmation often ends up in a junk folder, and without that all important click you signature won’t be counted https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/310515 If you would like to find out more about the campaign, visit www.ForgottenLtd.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @ForgottenLtd. You can book a no obligation design visit with Just Shutters Surrey. We are offering home measuring kits and virtual design visits if you would prefer at this time. www.JustShutters.co.uk. 01932 500 270.