The Vouchers will entitle Mums, Dads, Grandparents and other carers up to ten 2 hour sessions available from independent organisations such as the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), which will cover issues such as ‘communicating and staying calm’ ‘parents working together’ and ‘different stages of your child’s development’.

The official Government website for the scheme www.canparent.org suggests that courses will also be available online in interactive sessions, and they are suggesting that parents utilise parenting forums such as Netmums and Mumsnet- some courses I looked at seem to have follow up sessions actually on the forum boards. A quick glance through the different courses available in the trial areas shows that many face-to-face sessions don’t have creche facilities, however, and there is also some controversy about the decision to distribute the vouchers through Boots, the High Street chemist. Time will tell how successful the trial will be- let’s hope the classes recommend essential bits of sanity saving kit for new parents such as the Baby Feed Wheel!

Piglet’s Boutique has a stall displaying their baby gifts and gifts for mum, (Chiggs Wheels included!) at the Ladies Night being held at Market Weighton Social Club, East Yorkshire, on Wednesday the 9th of May. Tickets are £3 and include a drink- bargain!

Hello Baby Gifts will be attending the local produce and craft market at The Carfax, Horsham, West Sussex on Saturday the 12th of May and Saturday the 26th of May. Hello Baby also make up bespoke baby baskets and nappy cakes, so get in touch if you have any specific requirements.

ABF The Soldier’s Charity Spring Fair is to be held at Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn,Wensleydale, North Yorkshire on Thursday the 17th of May and Little Pjs will have a stall selling their gorgeous nightwear and gifts including Chiggs Wheels. Little PJ’s will also be attending the Great Yorkshire Show here in Harrogate in July, but don’t worry, I’ll remind you nearer the time!

Don’t forget, if you are a stockist getting out and about with your Chiggs Wheels, let me know the details of the events for future posts.

 If you run a business and would like to purchase a bulk order of Baby Feed Wheels, Baby Medicine Wheels and/or Get Well Wheels further information can be found on the Trade and Wholesale page on the Chiggs website, and  if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

When I was pregnant nearly a decade ago now (eep!) a friend organised a baby shower for me- it was just a get-together with a group of friends for a glass of wine (orange juice for me!) to have a bit of a chat, time to contemplate the changes that lay ahead, and I was lucky enough to receive some presents- posh toiletries for my hospital bag, and a lovely snuggly snow suit (December baby!) are a couple I remember.

When my friend herself was expecting a few years later, we had upped our game, and I pointed the organiser in the direction of Chiggs stockist Shower my Baby; so we had themed games, snacks, balloons, napkins and even little advice cards to fill in, passing on our ‘pearls of wisdom’ to the mum-to-be. For my part, the day before the ‘do’  I’d read about a game where little plastic baby-shaped favours are frozen in ice cubes, placed in everyone’s drinks, and the first person whose baby floats free shouts ‘my waters have broken’.

 ’Fun fun fun’ I thought, but as I’d left it too late to buy the plastic babies, and with necessity being the mother of invention, I nabbed some of my daughter’s jelly babies to use. Reader, it was not a good idea. The sugar on the jelly babies turned our Chardonnay into a dessert wine, and the babies themselves formed a mussy sludge at the bottom of our glasses. We still drank the wine though. But learn from my error, and buy plastic babies!

As most people need little enough excuse for a party, unsuprisingly the baby shower industry continues to grow. The Baby Feed Wheel is a perfect pressie to give to an expectant Mum at her baby shower, and we have baby shower stockists selling Chiggs Wheels, with others adding Baby Feed Wheels to nappy cakes and baby hampers;- brilliant baby shower gifts.

There are over 230 comments, and if you packed every item suggested by everyone, you would need a fork-lift truck to wheel your hospital bag into the delivery suite!

Obviously, some must-have items varied according to circumstance; mums who’d given birth in winter suggested blankets and socks to keep feet warm while in labour, and mums of summer babies suggested cooling face spray and a hand held fan!

One mum who had recently had a baby suggested to the pregnant ladies that they should pack a notepad and pen so they could note down baby’s feed times- she said it was always embarassing when the midwife would come round the ward and ask what time her baby had last fed, and she couldn’t remember.

Solution:- a far easier way to keep a note of the time your baby has a feed is a Baby Feed Wheel! No worrying about your pen rolling under the bed or running out of ink- just turn the dial so the time baby has a feed shows in the ‘window’ and you’ll always have the answer when the midwife comes round to check on baby’s feeds.

I hereby nominate the Chiggs Baby Feed Wheel as an essential item to pack in a hospital bag!

It seems that the excitement may well be set to continue, as Mr Paphitis has announced that  there will be an event for all the businesses he chose as SBS winners to get together and network, to be held at Edgbaston Stadium on March the 30th. I’m very much hoping to attend, and will let you know how it goes! www.twitter.com/ChiggsLtd

 A business facebook page is really easy to set up- if you go to any other facebook business page, underneath the information, about, likes etc listed on the left hand side is a category ‘create a page’- click on this and follow the instructions through! Make sure you fill in the ‘about’ section, and have a link to your website (if you have one) near the beginning of your paragraph, so visitors to your page can see it at a glance without clicking on the ‘more’ button. The same thing applies to the ‘info’ section, this is a great place to really tell people about yourself and your business. Don’t forget to add photos if you can, they will appear in a row under the name of the page and will make your page pretty.

So far so good- and now for the hard part, attracting ‘likes’. You can just use your personal profile page to ask people to ‘like’ your page- friends and family in particular may well be willing to help out spread the word about your business. When trying to reach a larger audience, however, it’s not really enough just to ask people to like your page- you have to give them a reason (such as discount codes if you sell stuff) or make your page appealing- plenty of (though not too many!) interesting and relevant posts, and interaction with people is a good start. It’s not easy- heck, I’ve had a business page for Chiggs Wheels for yonks and I only have a couple of hundred ‘likers’, but it’s fun to do, and the only cost is in your time- so a great place to begin for start-up businesses who are watching the pennies!

For content I comment about Chiggs Wheels, and anything happening in the business like changes to the Chiggs website or new stockists. I also want to use the page to help Chiggs Wheels stockists, so I have ‘liked’ their facebook business pages, and will share their posts on the Chiggs Wheels page eg if they have sales, discount codes, are attending any events etc.

I also have this blog feeding onto my business facebook page, so that this blog post about facebook for business will automatically appear on my business facebook page, with a link back to the Chiggs blog. A case of social media literally making you go round in circles!

Feel free to come and have a look at the Chiggs Wheels Facebook Page, and leave a comment to say hello!

Given the press coverage Mary Portas’s recommendations received, and the interest in small businesses and the future of the UK High Street, it seems pertinent to mention an email I received this week giving advance notice of Independent Retailer Month 2012, which will be running throughout July this year.  This campaign aims to encourage people to ‘shop local’ by highlighting the important role that smaller, local, independent retailers play in the communities they serve and the local economy they contribute to.

And in Chiggs’s unofficial role of Independent Retailer Cheerleader (self-appointed) we’ll be running a new series of blog posts- “Stockist Spotlight”- to give an insight into the businesses we are fortunate to work with, and supply with Chiggs Wheels. We hope it will encourage our readers to visit, support and buy from local or online ‘Indies’, or even provide the inspiration for someone to start their own business!

I’d like to wish a very happy and healthy New Year to everyone, and a very very big thank you to our customers, to friends and to family, and to our wonderful Chiggs Wheels stockists- a myriad of amazing and inspirational people running an incredibly diverse range of businesses- who have helped make 2011 a fantastic year for Chiggs.

Friday 2nd December, Hello Baby Gifts will be at the Pavilions in the Park, Hurst road, Horsham, West Sussex

Piglet’s Boutique will be selling their lovely gifts for little ones at a  Christmas Fair in Hull at the David Lloyd Leisure Centre on Saturday the 3rd of December (10am til 4pm)

Durham City’s traditional Christmas Festival is on Friday 2nd December: 10am – 6pm, Saturday 3rd December: 9am – 5pm and Sunday 4th December: 10am – 4:30pm. There is huge craft and gift marquee on Palace Green featuring over 180 stalls selling a wide variety of Christmas gift ideas, and Little Pjs will be selling their lovely nightwear and gifts including Chiggs Wheels, (perfect gifts for parents of December babies!) for the 3 days of the festival.

On the 11th of December, Lulabells will be at Cockermouth Market, in Cumbria with their lovely selection of gifts.

And the 15th of December is the 6th birthday of Chiggs! We’re not sure what the celebrations will involve- mainly cake and jelly, I suspect- so watch this space