With it being Oscar season and all, what better time to talk about Awards for the stars of the business world. Entering Awards is an effective marketing tool; writing the entry helps to define business plans and goals and, if you win, you earn prizes, recognition and a good night out!

Good for business

In research carried out by awards consultancy, Boost Marketing, it was revealed that Awards influence the buying decisions of more than 80% of consumers ie if your company has won an Award, people feel entirely comfortable about buying from you.

But there are other benefits to entering Awards, including:

Know thyself – the process of writing the Award entry forces you to summarise the business, its achievements and future direction. This can be a useful exercise that reminds you of where the business is heading.

A reason to shout – what better reason for a press release or communication with customers than to announce you’ve won an Award. It offers credibility that others have checked out your business and deemed you worthy.

Meet the Judges – if there’s an Awards ceremony, this is your opportunity to meet the Judges and maybe make a pitch as to why one of them should become your investor/mentor/adviser. High level business Awards tend to attract high caliber Judges. Winning is a sure fire way of coming to their attention.

Make a start

If you’re willing to put your hat in the ring and give it a go, there’s a growing number of Awards that you can enter as a home based business:

Enterprise Nation Home Business Awards – first up, our very own Awards! Launching in July 2009 there will be new categories added to the 2008 line-up of Home Business of the Year/Home Office of the Year/ Home Business Couple of the Year/Young Home Business Owner of the Year. As well as a multitude of prizes, winners receive profile on the site and we refer their stories to journalists and TV reporters all year long.

www.enterprisenation.com

BT Essence of the Entrepreneur – we like this competition very much, simply for the prize, which is to have your photo taken by a world-famous photographer. Even if you don’t enter, it is definitely worth checking out the annual Winners Gallery. The images are striking.

www.essenceoftheentrepreneur.co.uk

Startups Awards – organised by startups.co.uk, with 15 categories, including Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Women in Business Award and Green Business of the Year. The Startup of the Year main winner collects a grand price of £5,000.

www.startups.co.uk

The basics of writing a winning entry is a topic for a whole article in its own right. And that’s something I will write as we approach July and the call for entries to the Enterprise Nation Awards begins. In the meantime, good luck in entering and may your star shine!

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About the Author:

About the Author: Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation and author of Spare Room Start Up: How to Start a Business from Home