This week’s blog post is somewhat light-hearted in nature, perhaps even a little tongue-in-cheek.  It has come about from the fact that, when attending business events and networking socials, we have people continuously telling us that they’d LOVE to enter awards but are simply PUT OFF BY THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF WORK INVOLVED.

OK, so we can obviously help with that by ‘taking the strain’ and writing your award entries for you – or even just work with you to share the load, but the one thing we’d really like to re-iterate to every business owner / manager out there is that AWARDS ARE A CELEBRATION, NOT A CHORE!!!

The achievements you reference within your entry are real life events. That is to say that they were part of your business plan or part of your day-to-day activities. It’s highly unlikely that you’d significantly change your actual business practices just with an award in mind. The fact that a great innovation or a new employee engagement project you have implemented just so happens to make great material for an application is a bonus but, let’s face it, the rewards for your business go far deeper than a shiny trophy.

So let’s look at the many benefits award entry brings to you and your operation;

• You can finally prove to yourself (and your peers) that you are better than your competition. You knew it, but it’s nice to have it independently verified
• You can justify the extra hours and hard work you spend on your business. Brilliance doesn’t simply happen on its own!
• You can justify the capital expenditure which your accountant advised against. It obviously played its part in the win, even if it was just a new printer
• You can explain your daydreaming moments in the Board meeting as ’award planning’ and save yourself from the embarrassment of being caught off guard
• You can find out exactly what your employees and clients think about you. It’s easy to ask for feedback for an award entry but viewed more suspiciously when it’s seen as being for no particular reason

 

And if you get through to the finals…

• You can actually plan for a quality night out. When did that last happen?
• You can treat yourself to a new outfit (come on guys, even you like to update your wardrobe every now and again!)
• You can tell yourself it’s a great business networking opportunity (if you don’t particularly like socialising)
• You can tell yourself it’s a night out with friends (if you don’t generally like business networking)
• You get to finally update your email footer, headshot, social media profile etc. and leave the dated stuff in the past where it perhaps looks more at home

 

On perhaps more of a serious note, at The Awards People we have NEVER met anyone who has regretted the submission of an award entry. Yes, it can be a bit of extra work and yes, it can be time-consuming but the rewards are phenomenal and your focus really should be on that – just as with any other improvement project you undertake within your business or for yourself as an individual.

For this reason we thoroughly recommend the setting aside of time for the completion of the award entry as if it were a bona fide, ‘must do’ job.  From experience if it’s something which has to be slotted in when everything else is done it is more likely to feel like an inconvenience and an unpleasant chore.

Of course, if there’s simply not the time within your own schedule then delegate it to others as you would do any other important task – or seek the help of professional award writers to do it upon your behalf.  We know a lovely bunch of people who can help you out with that…