WHAT’S THE POINT IN SPONSORING A BUSINESS AWARD?
Last month I had the pleasure to attend The Best Business Women Awards in London. I sponsored the Best Solopreneur award. Not that surprising given that I am a solopreneur myself.
Cat Crossley of Clavis & Claustra, who runs a business creating Stationery and gifts for feminist warriors was the winner and until the moment that she won – I’d never met her and we had no idea who we both were. We do now!
Each year, I try to sponsor an award to celebrate members of the small business community as it’s a vibrant, varied and valuable community which often gets overlooked by big business and those in power. This is the way in which I stand up for my professional community.
During the evening I met another soon-to-be winner of the evening, Dawn Brown, who runs an amazing doggy day care business in Derbyshire. She took the award for Best Business Woman in Animal Services. She is now on my list of contacts and business friends and I hope I am on her’s!
Why do I do this?
I’m certainly not swimming in money, but I enjoy investing in somebody else’s success, even though it’s highly improbable I’ll know them.
Here are my reasons:
- I know how hard it is to run your own business and be successful. It’s a complete deeply emotional, full of ups and downs and with all of the pressures of the last few years – even harder. By celebrating others, I’m recognising their achievements, and also my own, by being able to sponsor an award. I don’t need to know the winner or finalists to know this.
- I encourage my clients to enter awards – particularly those that are relevant and right for them. And I walk my talk by entering awards too, and back in 2021, won award of top PR Adviser for SMEs 2021 to 2022, that was after being named one of Enterprise Nation’s Top 50 Advisers for that year. Entering awards puts you and your business on the map in your local – or national – business community. It gives you recognition and if you’re lucky, PR coverage in local business press.
- It’s difficult for someone like me to actually ‘win’ an award because I’m a micro business owner by choice, I don’t employ people and I’m not scaling up. These are sometimes the things that judging panels are looking for in the criteria for entrants. There is an expectation that all businesses want to grow a great deal. Often this means that micro businesses are overlooked and considered of less value.
- It’s an investment in celebration. We all need to celebrate every success we make in our businesses, however small. And because it can be lonely working in business on your own, it is even good to create ‘success’ moments that you can share with other business buddies. This is why I’m holding a 15thBirthday Bash celebration with my bestie, to celebrate being in business for 15 years – which is no mean feat!
- You are investing in relationships. I see this as the most important aspect of sponsorship. It cements existing relationships and it allows new ones to emerge in a non-pressured, fun and exciting environment – as I mentioned earlier. I met new people with whom I can start a business relationship. I also met up with some people I’ve not seen for ages.
I had a wonderful time at the awards, celebrating alongside other people like me. People who have staying power, who run a micro business and who have value in the SME community. All in all, a win, win situation – or celebration!
Next year I’m one of the sponsors for a local International Women’s Day event, that I’m very much looking forward to.
I see sponsorship as an investment in my future. What about you?