Guest blog: Sam Pearce on why you should enter awards

By Sam Pearce, owner of The Potting Shed Spa and Eastthorpe Hall Day Spa in West Yorkshire

Left: Sam and the Potting Shed Spa team at the Professional Beauty Awards 2013, where they collected the Award for Beauty Salon of the Year:Three Rooms or Fewer for the second year running

The idea of entering an award can be overwhelming, but finding the confidence in your own product and believing wholeheartedly in your team, and yourself, can be all you really need.

Entering an award can be the boost you and your team need. The work needed to put together your entry can be a really positive exercise. Often, when you’re living and breathing your own business you lose sight of your accomplishments.

Then comes the anticipation of finding out if you have been shortlisted, and then the Awards night itself, which is probably the pinnacle of your year, a fabulously glamorous occasion with more glitz, glitter and hairspray than you’ve ever seen in your life.

We have been fortunate enough to win four Professional Beauty Awards since 2008, and each one we have marketed heavily. It’s free publicity if you can get local journalists behind you, and being recognised nationally for the work you do is an amazing feeling.

Remember, no-one will ever shout louder than you do about your business, so having the confidence to put it out there to be judged can reap huge rewards. My advice for anyone considering entering an award is to be honest. Honesty on an entry is palpable.

Be critical and clear about who and what it is you are. Be mindful about what you are trying to portray and really showcase your unique ability and offering. Any niggling thoughts that you aren’t good enough should be replaced with “why not?” If you don’t try, then you will never know.

The Professional Beauty Awards is without question the most prestigious awards in the beauty industry. The calibre of judges is outstanding and the whole process is judged by the crème de la crème of the industry.