Prize bundle worth more than £1,000 up for grabs as Boston businesses team up on competition

The Boston Collaboration Project launched on Facebook last Saturday.

It sees members of the public being invited to interact with a post about the competition, published by one of the participating businesses, to be entered into a prize draw.

More than 40 businesses are involved in the initiative and have donated prizes worth in excess of £1,000 in total.

On Monday, one lucky individual will be chosen at random from all those who ‘liked’, commented on, and shared a post about the competition to receive all the items.

By day four of the competition almost 2,000 entries had been received.

The project is the brainchild of Charlotte Reynolds, of Angelic Occasions.

She said: “Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the impact of the changing high street, and more recently the impact of Covid-19 on independent local businesses. I speak to fellow business owners and their responses are always the same: ‘we can’t afford to branch out to the high street’, ‘it’s hard to get your name out there’, ‘I can’t compete with the big brands’, the list goes on. So, I decided to do something about it.

“I started by reaching out to my own personal business contacts to gauge interest. After some positive feedback, I branched out to other local businesses I followed or knew about. Within a week, I managed to collaborate with over 40 local businesses, all committed to the same cause: to promote the fantastic variety of businesses available to the residents of Boston and support fellow business owners in the process.”

As well as Angelic Occasions, Charlotte is also a secondary school teacher at Haven High Academy, teaching business studies and English.

“I hear from my students how they’d like to start their own businesses, but that Boston is not really the place to do that – I’d love to change this opinion,” she said. “I want my students to see what is available already and support their development to become the Boston business owners of the future.”

You can find the post at Angelic Occasions’ Facebook page, with a list of participating businesses – ‘liking’, commenting on, and sharing a post from different businesses counts as separate entries.