Busy Books, a small bookkeeping and accounts business from Wiltshire has been named as the UK’s Small Business of the Year at the inaugural Small Awards in association with Facebook.
The company was also named as the nation’s best service business by the Small Awards judges. Busy Books founder Natasha Penny, who set up the business from her kitchen table in 2012, collected the company’s awards at a ceremony in London hosted by television personality, Sue Perkins.
In their citation, the judges described Busy Books as “an exceptional small business, going an extra mile for its customers, creating an out of the ordinary experience, using multiple channels and supporting its local community”. They went to say that few accountancy firms “offer such a personal experience, and this has led to consistent growth, accolades and customer loyalty. This business exemplifies what small businesses should aspire to be”. Over the last five years, the business has developed into a four-woman team supporting around 200 local clients mostly through personal recommendation.
Other award winners on the night included Birkenhead-based chocolate business, The Chocolate Cellar (Best Multi-Channel Small Business); Revival Retro, a London-based retro-style boutique (Best Use of Music in A Small Business); Katie Cardew Illustrations from Peterborough (Best Online Small Business); Grimsby’s Red Herring Games, which provides murder mystery games (Best Small Exporting Business), whilst Anja Potze, an award-winning retailer of fine diamond and pearl jewellery in Worcester, won the ‘Heart Of Gold’ award for the Best Community-Focused Small Business. Made In Nottingham, a contemporary design store, was named as the UK’s best small High Street Business; Exmoor Zoo, near Barnstaple, Devon, received the accolade for the UK’s best small family business; Bournemouth-based curry business Easy Curry was recognised as the UK’s best small business start-up, and Circuit Electrical Testing, a small husband and wife-run electrical testing business based in Halifax was named as the UK’s best Business-To-Business small company.
