Sarah Gatford: Celebrating being a featured business for Small Business 100 day, today!

Small Business Saturday is an annual celebration of all things small business related and it takes place on the first Saturday in December. This year’s date is 7th December.

In the 100 days leading up to the big celebration, the focus is on 100 small businesses, one business a day. We are one of those featured businesses. We get a day when it’s all about what our business – Sarah Gatford Ltd – does and we get to shout about it with the support of the Small Business Saturday team and all the other businesses who are involved.

Friday 8th November 2019 is our Small Business 100 day.

To mark this, we felt it was appropriate to showcase Deaf performers at the centre of our celebrations. We are having a celebration of signed song and TED-style talks from 3 of the top signed song performers in the UK, Caroline Parker MBE, Colin Thomson and Rebecca A. Withey (a writer for Limping Chicken). This promises to be a fun evening at Derby Grammar School and is a unique opportunity for D/deaf people and businesses to mingle and share experiences. It’s an evening not to be missed.

Hot House Music School will be providing the interval entertainment in a unique opportunity to collaborate.

It takes place on Friday 8th November 7:30pm at Derby Grammar School, Rykneld Road, Littleover, Derby DE23 4BX.

Tickets are available by emailing hello@sarahgatford.co.uk or via the Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/76557883691

We are also running a social media campaign all the way up to December 7th sharing tips, useful information and thought provoking comment to engage with businesses who might be unsure where to start when it comes to being D/deaf aware. You can sign up here to find out more: tinyurl.com/y4n5avfd

When we submitted the application and video we knew how incredible this would be. We hugely value being part of the Small Business 100 and Small Business Saturday campaign and having the privilege to share our in depth knowledge of what it takes to build accessibility into a business.

Our work involves supporting businesses to enhance engagement with D/deaf people.

It’s the simple things that make a huge difference. Engaging with D/deaf people is an excellent business decision. 1:5 of us has some level of hearing loss and this is becoming more so with the ageing population. All of us know someone who is affected. By adapting the business environment and methods of communication to include D/deaf people, customer reach grows, as does the potential pool of employees.

We have a comprehensive step-by-step process to ensuring that businesses can achieve our ‘Gold Standard’ when it comes to engaging with D/deaf people. We are available to come along and talk to businesses about how we can support them to implement this.

We have also recently been recognised for our work and are finalists in the English Women’s Awards in the Social Entrepreneur Category.

Small businesses have so much to offer and we can be life changing for those we engage with and who engage with us. We can lead the way when it comes to being innovative in our approach to business.

 

Sarah Gatford is a Registered Qualified BSL/English interpreter, with 20 years experience, and small business owner who is passionate about bridging the gap between D/deaf and hearing people www.sarahgatford.co.uk