Celebrating your achievements
Most business owners we talk to have trouble seeing the wood for the trees. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day demands of your business and forget to take a step back.
Business owners generally know the importance of forward planning but reflecting on the past is almost as valuable. When you are running from task to task and dealing with issues it is easy to forget just how far you have come. Looking at what you have achieved in the last few years, assessing what has worked and noting what hasn’t worked is very valuable for setting your values and deciding where you want to go.
When you realise how far you have come, it re-energises you, clarifies your goals and gives you extra momentum to achieve them.
Industry awards give you a good chance to formally recognise the success of you and your team while growing the profile of your business and growing staff morale. It’s well worth looking at the different awards that your business may be able to enter. Whether it be Wine Awards, Dairy Awards, Trade Awards, Top Shop Awards, the local North Canterbury Business Awards, the Champion Canterbury Awards or the many other award opportunities that exist, all of them offer a great opportunity to measure your business on the progress it has made.
90% of the entrants in the last North Canterbury Business Awards reported that entering had resulted in a positive overall outcome for their business. This included growing staff and owner morale, helping to refocus, connecting to customers and increasing work.
For example, after the 2016 North Canterbury Business Awards Holly Sterne from Patoa Farms in Hawarden said ‘‘We gained a newfound sense of direction from participating in the awards. It is incredibly motivating to know exactly where you want to head as a business. Entering the awards focuses you on what is important, motivates you to work to your strategy and reminds you of why you went into business in the first place.’’
And it’s not just for large businesses. Small businesses get as much benefit, if not more, from going through this process. Kate Florance from Beauty & You in Amberley said ‘‘It was a great way to get our name out there, and we got a lot of new customers from it. The application process is a great time to actually sit down and reflect on your business and really see how far you have come. As a business owner I think we get caught up in the day to day things and forget how far we have come and grown. I’d absolutely encourage other business owners to enter. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!’’
Awards give you the opportunity to celebrate your business and its achievements, as well as the achievements of other business owners. Entries are currently open for the North Canterbury Business Awards and for the Champion Canterbury Business Awards. It’s well worth having a look at the websites, opening up the application forms and seeing what is involved.
Miles Dalton
Business Support Manager