Yes, you can win that business award!

Everybody likes the thought of winning business awards, it’s just that writing business award submissions can be such a pain. Why is that? Surely talking about one’s achievements can’t be that hard? Well, over the snags at a weekend BBQ, it’s not. But putting it out there for judgement by colleagues and industry peers can be a different thing altogether. Make it easier on yourself to win a business award with the following advice from Award Writers’ expert award writers.

Choose well

Not every business award is going to be the right one for you to showcase your talents. Take the time to choose wisely or you’ll find trying to manipulate your story to fit can be enormously frustrating and dispiriting. There could well be several categories that might suit your achievements. Consider the criteria for each carefully and choose the one or more that will best allow you to demonstrate why you should win. Remember though, it’s better to enter one category really well than three categories ho-hum.

Be familiar with the criteria and questions

When submitting business award entries, be sure to understand the criteria of every single business award you’re entering. Ignoring the small print can have big consequences. Thoroughly read through every bit of the award entry kit to ensure you know exactly what is required. Some awards have limits on what category you can enter depending on the size of your business; others require you to have a certain level of turnover. Awards for achievements may be limited to specific timeframes or involve membership of an organisation to qualify. Award questions can be multi-layered and will require an initial response backed by evidence. There may be pointers in questions that suggest that you should provide additional points, such as questions that contain the phrase ‘examples may include…’, so be sure to understand the questions and stick to the word limit. This is where the professional award writers at Award Writers can give you extra support.

Word counts

Possibly the most frustrating aspect for anyone to deal with are those pesky word counts. Yes, it can be difficult to cram what you want to say into 400 words, but a word count limit does have the effect of making you focus your response, which is no bad thing. If you think word counts are indicative only, think again. Anything over the limit will be disregarded for that section or, worse still, invalidate your whole award entry. Be ruthless in weeding out unnecessary words. For example, ‘in order to be able to’ is the same as saying ‘to’. See? Five words saved right there.

Be original

If you want to win a business award, you’ve got to stand out from the competition. There could be hundreds of entries to the same category as you. But rather than talking about the same services that you and your contemporaries offer, you need to focus on what you do, but how you do it differently. You may think it’s difficult to separate yourself because you are essentially doing the same thing as everyone else. But the judges want to see how you are producing better results. You should never be afraid to highlight exactly what is special about how you do things in your business award entry. Winning business awards is about being different and original. This is your perfect opportunity to craft awards submissions that showcase your originality.

Be truthful

Admitting to challenges along the way to your achievement isn’t a sign of weakness, it actually makes for a far more convincing narrative. Judges look for a good story and if successfully overcoming problems is part of that story, then more power to you. It’s how you dealt with the challenges and setbacks that could really make your award entry the winner. Blitzing the field or surging to great heights without any kind of hurdle in the way sounds unrealistic, and probably is.

Do yourself a favour

For most people, writing an award entry is not their paid profession. They’re probably far more at home designing a washing machine that can actually detect tissues before a wash than putting pen to paper. So, do yourself a favour and consider drafting in a professional award writer to give your entry the edge. You provide all the background detail and it’s their job to put it all together in ways that nail all the criteria and make it a really compelling read. Best of all, you get to talk freely about what you’ve done and why it’s such an amazing achievement. Bit like being at a weekend BBQ, really.

Get help from professional business award writers

Winning business awards is about making sure you are running a strong business. Proving this is all to do with writing business award entries that make a massive impact. If you are looking for extra help in crafting an outstanding business awards submission, contact us or ring us on 02 8036 5532 or 0448 566 377.