A question we hear on a regular basis here at The Awards People is ‘Is my story actually good enough to win?’

Well, the obvious answer is that it will ultimately be up to the judges to decide, but that’s not very helpful to someone who‘s trying to determine whether or not they should put aside the time and expend the effort into getting their award entry in before the deadline approaches.

Being nervous about your chances of success is not unusual, in fact, it’s an entirely typical human response (and, dare we say it, a good example of the humble nature of us Brits). There always seems to be a real nervousness about standing up and shouting ‘look how great I am!!’ and, whilst that might be what makes us nice people, it does little to bolster our confidence when it comes to taking bold steps like entering ourselves for awards.

So, how can you tell if your business story really IS strong enough to win that award you have your eyes on? Here are a few top tips as to how you can find out: –

1. Take the time to think about and write down why you think you deserve the award in question – stick to the brief and make sure you are considering the things relevant to the award entry questions, but include how your attitude / reason for doing what you did is as important as your actual achievements. You may find that the strength in your story (and therefore why you deserve to win the award) has more to do with why you did what you did rather than simply the end result
2. Look at your competitors – and these could be those in your market and those entering for the same award – and think about what differentiates you from them. You have reasons for doing things your way (and we bet those reasons aren’t to do with taking the easy route!) so remind yourself why your way is better and ask yourself if you think you could convince others of the same
3. Ask a good friend or business associate you admire if they believe that your story reflects an ability or desire to go ‘above and beyond’. No-one who cares about you would let you set yourself up to fail, so they should give you an honest, independent opinion; and if they do indeed like what they hear there’s a very good chance that the judges will too!

These are only three very brief suggestions to ‘sound out’ your story prior to setting it down on your entry but, individually or as a combined test, they will help to give you the confidence you need to put those niggling little voices in your mind to one side and take the next step to getting the recognition you deserve.

At The Awards People, we are always meeting people who, when confronted with the need to put their modesty to one side, fear that what they do is little more than ‘ordinary’. When we start to get into the detail and expose how far from ordinary their achievements are, we begin to expose their true greatness – and it is our job to then allow that greatness to shine as brightly as possible.