As you know Your IT are very proud to be one of the sponsors of this year’s Nottingham Post Business Awards. Entry is now open and you can enter our category ‘Creative Industries Business of the Year’ and all the others at http://nottinghampostbusinessawards.co.uk/
But why would you bother? It takes time and effort to put together a good entry and you’ve no guarantee of winning so how can the taking part help your business. Here we look at some of the positives whether you win or not!
- You’ll spend time working ‘on’ rather than ‘in’ the business
Treat the time spent on the entry as time to step back and take a good look at the business. Writing an award entry forces you to assess your business critically and look at it from an outside perspective. As well as focusing on the successes, which you can build on, it will inevitably unearth the weaknesses that you might have missed. And don’t be afraid to talk about your weaknesses. Knowing what challenges the business faces is a good thing, as you can put steps in place to improve the position, if you already have a plan in place to make things right it will be seen as a positive by the judges.
- It’s a chance for a free external assessment of your business
Your entry will be in the mix with similar businesses, whether in terms of size and sector, and an independent third party will be assessing those businesses, effectively benchmarking you against your peers. If you are successful you’ll find out what the judges liked but if you’re not ask for feedback. This can be very useful as it might highlight areas you hadn’t thought about.
- Publicity, publicity, publicity
Obviously the winners get publicity, but so do finalists and shortlisted entries. Promotion is one of the main reasons for entering one an award and getting a place on a shortlist is very newsworthy. Often the award organisers will highlight your achievement, certainly featuring in the Nottingham Post (link) is a big incentive for entering their awards. However, there are also opportunities you can take via blogs, social media and press releases to highlight your success. You can also add ‘finalist’ or ‘shortlisted’ logos to your website, blogs and email footers. This all adds to potential customers trusting that they are dealing with a high quality, reputable competition.
- You might actually win!!
It’s what you’re in it for! Excellent publicity, improved staff morale, a leap in reputation and having a new chapter to add to the ‘story’ of your business. Plus, you’ll generally get a good night out at a ceremony with black tie and evening dresses and champagne where you’ll all feel like superstars!
And don’t think the benefits stop when the awards night is over. You’ll be able to plaster ‘WINNER’ all over your website and publicity materials and you might well become the ‘go to’ company for your sector, which should lead to an increase in sales. You may also find it easier to attract new, high quality employees (who doesn’t want to work for an award-winning business).
So it may seem like a time consuming exercise but the benefits far outweigh the time you’ll spend. Have a look at the categories available in the Nottingham Post Business Awards and start your entry today!