
How to Win Awards as an Entrepreneur
Industry Insights
By Donna O’Toole
If you’re serious about raising your profile as an entrepreneur and raising your brand profile too, then first of all, you’ve got to start with raising your personal profile so that you can shine a light on the projects and the purpose-driven opportunities that you are passionate about.
Awards judges want to know about the person behind the project. They want to know what it is that you are doing to make a difference and why it makes a difference to you.
I’m sure that when you started out in the world as an entrepreneur, you didn’t necessarily think I want to be an entrepreneur.
You probably thought, I want to solve this problem, or I want to do this faster, or smarter or cheaper or better, in a way that’s more accessible or in a way that does more good.
Award judges want to know that. They want to be able to distinguish the difference between your entry and another award entry, and that will really enhance your opportunity to win the awards you enter.
I once judged an award where all of the entrants were very similar, they were all startup organisations and they were all in the financial sector. And by the end of that judging process, I couldn’t really tell one from the other. They were all entrepreneur led, but none of them had thought to tell me about the USP of that entrepreneur.
Donna O’Toole, International Awards Judge
What was their unique selling point?
What were their unique insights that had gone into the business from their personal and world experience?
What is it that really struck a chord with their purpose or their passion for why they wanted to achieve this in business?
If Donna had known that, it would’ve been much easier to pick out a winner.
So think about when you are creating your award entry;
Are you really helping the judges to get to know brand You?
Can judges really identify the difference between you as an entrepreneur and any other entrepreneur entering the same competition at the same time?
Start your roadmap to recognition by recognising brand You first and bringing that to life in all of your award entries. Take our Win Business Awards scorecard to start your journey today.
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