A Ten Year Overnight Success – Happy Birthday Boo!

Our Founder and Director shares some highlights from our birthday party and reflects on 10 whole years of Team Boo…

I have started this blog so many times over the last couple of weeks!

I just haven’t been able to finish it because I either start balling my eyes out or I distract myself with other stuff…so in true Becci style I have left it to the very last minute to write this on the actual 10th anniversary of when I decided to leap into freelance work!

I will be stealing some (most) of the fabulous Maura Jackson’s words from her brilliant speech from our party last Friday night. Maura is the CEO of Backup North West and one of our dearest friends. I knew that I would cry if I tried to do the speech so we left it up to Maura to say a few words and those words were ace!

Come with me on a journey back to 1st August 2012…

Back in August 2012, during the London Olympics and off the back of a career in the NHS and a great job within the Co-operative Group, I made the decision to launch Boo. According to Maura’s research, Florence & The Machine were at number 1 in the charts and there were quite a few Team GB golds! As far as setting up Boo was concerned I really didn’t know what to expect. I was confident that I could coach and teach others to coach and I had a few ideas about what I wanted Boo to become but none were as brilliant as what it has actually become!

I genuinely thought I would do a bit of coaching and see what happened…

**Celebrating our TINth anniversary…**

Again (according to Maura’s research) the 10th anniversary is traditionally symbolised by tin – Maura says…

Tin sounds fairly underwhelming really for a celebration of this kind BUT it’s qualities are interesting and I think could be very similar to Boo…

It’s strong
Easy to shape, difficult to break
Resistant to corrosion
It can be stretched without tearing
It’s used to store or protect
It is good value for money

Our connection to Bolton..

I purposely chose to move back to Bolton when my daughter Lily was very small – it felt like the right thing to do. I grew up in the town and feel a strong sense of pride and commitment to my community. I made the decision to run my business here and give back where I could. Initially that meant me scraping the cash together to become a patron for the Bolton Lads & Girls Club in those early years whilst also mentoring through the club’s mentoring scheme. Those were the early days of what has now become our social value time bank – which we all know has taken on a life of it’s own!

In the last couple of years we have achieved the following;

Sponsored the Bolton Wanderers Under 15’s girls squad
Become headline sponsor for the world premiere of The Book Thief at the Octagon Theatre
Sponsored a range of events for our charity partners at Backup North West
Won a Living Wage Champion award
Became a GM Good Employment Charter member (let’s not forget how our friends at the Bolton News ‘corrected’ our spelling and told everyone we had Good Employment Character)
I became the Chair of the Bolton Family, which is a collective of socially responsible businesses working together to create a healthier and happier Bolton.
Launched a beauty bank

What did Maura have to say about our connection to Boltont?

Is it a coincidence the name Boo is 50% of the name Bolton? I think not! They have been on the inside, supporting Bolton for a long time.

Thank you so much!

Today, right now, I want to celebrate our achievements! Building this organisation has been a rollercoaster, often joyful and often completely terrifying! Often we race forward, chasing the next goal, trying to secure the next contract or planning the next event. Today I want to honour where we have come from and all those kind and lovely folk who have helped us, cheered for us and kept us going.

The team I lead are a treat to work with! The shiny prizes we have won, the customer feedback we have received and the reputation we have built is down to these amazing women who are collectively known as Team Boo!

Amy, Helen. Karen, Patti, Priya, Saffron and Shin I cannot thank you enough for all you do for Boo! Looking around at all the smiling faces at our party last Friday was a total joy! A room filled with love and laughter…I told you I would start crying if I spent too long here 🙂

I will be writing more in the coming days about Team Boo and what’s next as we stretch out our celebrations over the summer but for now I am off to dry my eyes and maybe have another cheeky glass of fizz!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

All my love

Becci xx

A Ten Year Overnight Success – Happy Birthday Boo!