Why Enter The Awards?
Whether your business is large or small, whether you’re striving for excellence or achieving it, we encourage you to enter!
It’s the old saying of ‘work ON your business and not just IN it’. Something we all intend to do but which often falls beside the way once we’re busy running our businesses.
By going through the entry process, entrants have a better understanding of how to run their business – they identify areas for improvement, become more innovative and can ultimately become more successful.
Ask yourself “am I prepared to do some work to take me and my business/organisation forward?”
Why enter?
Here are some of the reasons people have chosen to enter the Electra Business & Innovation Awards. Take a moment to look through and see which apply to you:
Personal Development
Small businesses and organisations are massively affected by their owners/people running them. The awards will help you to find out what you don’t know and help you to improve as a leader, manager and business person.
Benchmarking
The Awards help you to find out where you and your business or organisation sits relative to others in Kāpiti and Horowhenua. Maybe you are as good as you hope you are. Maybe you are better than you think you are. Maybe you are in for a shock – but better you know than don’t!
Free to enter / large return on investment
Compared to many other methods of working to improve yourself and your business, the awards are a low cost and offer an opportunity for a significant return on investment. It’s impossible to put a value on being an entrant but at the very least, each business receives some Judges feedback to propel their business forward, based on their entry forms. Not to mention all the PR and marketing opportunities should you be announced as a finalist or winner!
Make more money
Cut to the chase – the awards are about helping you to do what you do better, so you can get better results. That means things like growing your business, serving your customers better, making more money, working less, and having a brighter future for you and your staff.
The awards are designed to help you work out what you need to do to get better results. Find the gaps and grow your business!
Get ideas
You’ll get plenty of these. From mingling with other like-minded people at key touch points throughout the process, through to writing the entry form and finding out what you do well and what you don’t, through to the assessors visit and then the feedback report. Jot the ideas down, prioritise them and make them happen!
Lift your profile
The awards are very well recognised and promoted and your association with them will show those around you both peers and customers that you care about what you do and that you are a business or organisation of note that is willing to invest time and energy to ensure optimum performance..
Rub shoulders with winners
We like to say that everyone who enters the awards is a winner – because they are committing to improving, to moving forward. Just think; you’ll be surrounded by other people like this. And these are great people to have around you, they may inspire you by what they are doing and how they are thinking. Maybe you will inspire someone too and who knows some new collaboration may be formed. The opportunities are boundless.
Prepare for sale, or expansion, or…
Got something in mind? Entering the awards can help you to get clear about where you are and what needs to be done before you look to do it. Add value to your business before you sell; cover the right bases before expansion, etc.
Team development
Many entrants report that the team got right behind the entry. It’s a great opportunity to recognise that many people contribute to the business. The Awards may help everyone to see how you all work together as a team to deliver your businesses key objectives. Win or not, you can all be proud of who you are and that you have been prepared to stand up, back yourself, and enter!
Bragging rights
“Then there was that time we entered the business awards – all the top businesses do, didn’t you know…” You don’t get bragging rights about things you don’t do!
Get a clear view
The entry writing and assessment process force you to see two perspectives – how the little things fit together to create the business; and what the business looks like as a whole. Many business people are great at what they do, but don’t know so much about business, systems, leadership, management, etc. Entering the awards can help you gain a clearer view about what counts and when a shift in focus is needed.
Win an award
Who knows, perhaps you will become a finalist and be publicly recognised, or even win an Award! That will give you and your team a great reason to celebrate. If you use it the right way, being a finalist or winning can open significant doors and get you opportunities you may not at this stage even be aware of!