Guest blog: 3 top tips to enter and win business awards

As the deadline for entering the Professional Beauty Awards draws near, previous winner Susan Routledge offers some top tips for entering and winning 

1. Just do it
You have no idea how many people think of entering their business, team, or themselves into business awards and then do absolutely nothing, year after year. I constantly hear..."I think we will do it next year, when we've got more time!" When in business do we have more time?? Never. There is always something to distract you.

If you are passionate about your business, then you owe yourself, your team, and your clients the chance to get it noticed, and to show how proud they are. Your credibility, business worth, client and staff retention all naturally increase just by the fact that you enter awards.

2. Understand why you are entering
So why enter awards? Well, it is probably one of the best and most structured times that you will get to spend and think in-depth about your business and your plans. You start to question all that you do, and think about what you could do better, and how you could tweak those little areas to perform better.

I would recommend that everyone fill in an entry form, even if you don't get to press the send button, because by the end of the application, you will have a great structured business plan which you would probably never have spent the time doing, and will have had valuable time to look at different areas of your business, and to start natural planning as to what and where you want to take your business in the future.

Hopefully, you will push the button, and then the magic begins. From that moment, the anticipation builds. The way you need to look at and promote your initial entry is that you're now involved with awards. Your business has just catapulted from any old business to a new prestige, even if you don't get any further.

3. Follow the exact criteria
It always amazes me as a judge, how many times someone doesn't read the criteria, and just gets carried away putting down lots of unneeded information or forgets to attach the pictures or additional documents requested.

Unnecessary information makes it harder for a judge to get a good feel for your concept, and can be frustrating. I suggest making your own notes of each key point listed in the key brief of the entry criteria, and then re-reading the requirements again at least twice to make sure that you fully understand what is required for your written entry.

Comply as closely as possible with the specified word counts as they are a true indication of how much detail is required for the particular section you are answering and extra won

For another seven great tips, download Susan’s free ebook "10 Top Tips to Successfully Enter and Win Business Awards" via her website

Susan Routledge has been in the beauty industry for over 30 years. She is owner of Finishing Touch Clinic in Consett and has won many awards including Professional Beauty Awards for Beauty Salon of the Year: Four Rooms or More and Employer of the Year. She now helps judge the awards and also runs a business consultancy for salons.

Entry deadline for the Professional Beauty Awards 2016 is Tuesday, June 23, 2015. Enter for free here.