UK Business Awards – The Dons

Niki Gageby

Principal Consultant, Boost Awards

Awards spotlight – UK Business Awards 2021 (The Dons)

Do you think your business, team or even a specific individual deserves recognition for outstanding achievement, resilience, ingenuity and results during the pandemic?

The UK Business Awards (UKBA) is your chance to recognise and honour this with an independent ‘seal of approval’.

Now in it’s seventh year the UKBA (aka ‘The Dons’) is back with some new features, ready to celebrate the heroic people in business in the Covid-era. This year the focus is on ‘accelerating UK recovery’ – giving recognition to those that have coped with unprecedented change and growth, sharing best practice and lessons learnt and promoting innovation and enterprise in the UK as the foundations of our economy. Beyond being a vehicle for sharing best practice, the UKBA enables organisations who enter, whether an SME or large company, to promote professional improvement, learning, and personal development.

For the 2021 edition, the categories focus on the challenges companies are facing in the wake of both the Covid pandemic and the end of the Brexit transition period. With 27 categories to choose from, including a new free-to-enter UK Customer’s Choice Award, there’s a category for everyone; from Business Transformation to Best Place to Work and Best Customer Experience, Health and Wellbeing to Diversity and Inclusion Programs, examples of all initiatives in business and industry are welcomed by the organisers Awards International.

Perhaps you’ve introduced a new health and wellbeing initiative, which has driven a wholesale culture change in your organisation? Or maybe in response to Brexit and the pandemic you’ve taken the opportunity to make exceptional business transformations which have opened new paths to profitability? Perhaps you’ve implemented innovative new technology or brought a dynamic new product to market that has impacted across a range of sectors? Have you successfully launched a new business in the last two years that deserves recognition? Or do your team deserve recognition for outstanding performance and impact?

Take a peek and have a think; do you ever read about industry gongs that competitors have won and think “it should have been us”? Now more than ever, as our economic recovery begins, differentiating from your competitors is vital. Entering the UKBA’s could be the beginning of something very special – 2021 awards success!

Many people are daunted by awards submissions and what it entails but, unusually, the organisers make sure they are there to help you every step of the way, with dedicated awards consultants, free case studies, top tips articles and webinars. You may also find it useful to look at some of the previous winners for inspiration, maybe you too can join the other credible names in the hall of fame. Finally, they also make sure you’re not left hanging at the end, with all finalists receiving a benchmark feedback report with competitors scores and judges’ comments.

“Entering the UK Business Awards was such a great experience for us, the virtual judging and awards ceremony was just as thrilling as if we had been there in person. Prior to the awards the organisers were so supportive with any questions we had, and the judges were really high calibre”

Dr Paul Phillips CBE, Principal Weston College

How to enter

With regard to the all-important final deadline date, you have until 21st May 2021 to submit your entries. As part of this year’s theme, ‘accelerating UK recovery’, the organisers are offering free entry to micro businesses and start-ups until 26th March, as well as everyone having the chance to nominate for the UK’s Customer’s Choice Award (free to enter for everyone). The standard entry fee for large companies is £399.00 +VAT, and this then entitles you to £199.00 +VAT for any additional entries. For other SMEs the cost for entry is £249 (plus £149 for additional categories) and micro businesses and start-ups under 3 years old will be charged £199 for a single entry (£99 for each additional category). There are further discounts available if you enter before the Super Early Bird deadline of 26th March or the Early Bird prices before 7th May – check the costs on their Enter Now page.

Once you’ve registered and paid, you’ll be given access to an online entry portal where you’ll find an entry template that’s the same for every category.

The categories

There are 27 categories to choose from arranged into groups of discipline specific categories, industry heroes, and a new section for business heroes in a crisis, as well as the separate UK Customer’s Award category I mentioned earlier. All categories should be considered for B2B and B2C companies, SMEs and large organisations.

Business Heroes in a Crisis categories:

Team of the Year
Leader of the Year
Heroes in a Pandemic

“Participating was a great boost for the team. Most of us were working remotely at the time, but it was nice to spend some time together, online doing something which was so much fun…and winning silver was a bonus.”

Marina Sykes, Head of B2B Partnerships, Octopus Energy

Top tips

With 100% of the overall scoring now riding on the written entry, it’s really important to tick all the right boxes. Maybe you’re wondering where to start? The best advice I can give is to make your entry interesting and make sure you’re telling a story!

The UK Business Awards shortlisted over 45 companies in 2020 – that’s a lot of reading for the judges! You need to grab their attention – and keep it. Avoid waffle and unsubstantiated claims like “we received excellent feedback”; include facts, figures and evidence that satisfy the category criteria. It’s also really common to fall into the trap of focusing on what you did and not what you actually achieved – it’s important to find a blend of the two.

Next steps?

Has my guide helped make you think “We could win that” or “Let’s do this”? Or perhaps you are looking at the entry form, not knowing where to start! If so, then I recommend you let us help with the creation of your written submission. We’ve been helping businesses enter and win business awards, including successfully winning UK Business Awards, since they first launched. Details of our award entry writing services can be found here.

Owing to the popularity of these awards we’re getting booked up fast, so please get in touch asap to see how we might be able to help. Our team would be happy to give you a call to help you double-check your chances of success and explain our pricing options. You can contact Boost via our contact form or email directly via info@boost-awards.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you.

Niki

Boost – a helping hand entering awards

Boost Awards is the world’s first and largest award entry consultancy, having helped clients – from SMEs to Multinationals – win over 1,700 credible business awards. Uniquely we have a whole team of in-house writers, graphic designers and awards experts to give you maximum support when entering awards. Increase your chances of success significantly – call Boost on +44(0)1273 258703 today for a no-obligation chat about awards.

(C) This article was written by Niki Gageby and is the intellectual property of award entry consultants Boost Awards. Images used with the kind permission of UK Business Awards, who sponsored the content.