The competition season is now in full swing. There’s still time to enter some of the bigger awards. And on a smaller scale there are also a couple of quick-to-enter competitions with useful small prizes from Paypal and from printing firm Moo.
1. Your Big Year
Your Big Year is a free competition to encourage global citizenship and social responsibility through entrepreneurship. It is now open to applicants.
Thousands of enterprising entrants will compete for the prize of a 12-month trip around the world by raising as much money as possible for a group of short-listed charities.
PRIME is one of the 24 charities that have been selected to receive support from the funds raised by the fundraisers in this competition.
If you see yourself as an enterprising individual who would like to travel the world and help out in local communities, Your Big Year could be just what you’re looking for.
Winners will be given the opportunity to meet World Leaders, celebrities and inspirational entrepreneurs. They will live in different communities, learn leadership skills and join volunteer projects – from teaching children in South America to conservation work in Asia. They will be given the tools and support to share their experiences via the global media.
For more details – and to register your interest – visit www.yourbigyear.com
2. Moo Business Card Project
More a competition than a fancy award, cult printer Moo is offering to redesign the business cards of 500 small businesses. To enter you send them a photo or scan together with a hundred-word plea, and if they don’t like your card they’ll redesign it for free and print you 50 free cards. Yes it’s a marketing ploy and really a clever offer, but Moo does boast some wonderful designs. Though the offer site looks American Moo is a British-based company, and the competition is open to businesses in the UK.
3. Win £100 with Paypal and Enterprise Nation
Closing date for entries: November 2010
This one is really quick to enter – you just tell home-business site Enterprise Nation what you’d spend the £100 on, using this uber-simple form. You don’t have to wait long either, as 20 winners are announced each month. The competition promotes Paypal as you must have a Paypal account to collect your winnings, but these are easy to set up and already genuinely popular with small businessess (Paypal is the standard payment mechanism used on eBay.
4. Other awards
There are many other awards aimed at larger companies, and some significant awards that apply to just one region or industrial sector. There’s a good list maintained by Boost Marketing at www.boost-marketing.co.uk/awards/.
Note that some awards charge an entry fee. The ones we feature above don’t. Fees can be large – the “Green Business Awards” and the “Internet Business Awards” each cost £250 to enter, while entering the “National Business Award” will set you back £175. Unless you expect to get shortlisted there are probably better ways of spending your promotions budget.
See also elswhere on the Internet:
Business awards – are they worth the cost and effort?
How to win awards (advice on the benefits and costs from Smarta)
Though it takes time to enter an award it can be a useful exercise in presenting your business to others. And if you get shortlisted or win one of the categories you are likely to get publicity for your business – and usually also a prize.
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