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At this time of year you often see many industry awards being announced.  But how can entering awards help you build your corporate brand, your employer brand or your personal brand and help you grow your business?

Now I know you can be reticent about self promotion, but entering for an award has a number of benefits.  Here are 5 great reasons to think about entering for a business award:

• self assessment – entering an award where there is a rigorous process for submitting your application is a great way to get clarity around your thinking and your strategy – I have found the application process helpful in identifying gaps and actions I have needed to take, for example when entering into the Best Companies To Work For and being recognised as an employer of choice with a strong employer brand
• benchmarking and raising the bar – it enables you to review yourself against a benchmark of good practice and therefore you can evaluate and develop a plan about what further action you need to take to be considered best in class - remember all strong brands must evolve over time
• recognition and celebrating success - if you win an award, you and your team are recognised by peers in your industry for the work that you have done – it’s so rewarding to receive recognition and praise from others which can motivate and inspire you to move on to greater things
• building your network – attending the awards enables you extend your network and build connections with others in your field
• creates buzz about your brand – winning an awards is a fantastic way to continue to buid strength and buzz around your brand.  If you leverage winning the award it can enable you to further strengthen your brand equity with all stakeholders, including current and potential investors, clients, employees and business partners. 

So why not review what awards there are that you could enter this year – from awards that recognise your brand design, to awards recognising technical excellence and awards that positon you as an employer of choice.  What awards would be relevant for your to enter that will support you building your brand.

And if you don’t feel ready to enter an awards just yet, you can still take action and determine which award you want to be considered for and what actions you need to take to be ready to submit your entry the next time.

Entering awards is not about blowing your own trumpet; investors, clients, employees and business partners all want to work with winners – after all don’t you?

Special notice for Irish Blog Awards - if you are a blogger who is Irish or you live in Ireland and author make sure that you don’t miss the deadline for this years Irish Blog Awards as the closing date is 26 January 2007.  Details of this years awards are here and you will be pleased to hear there is no long application form.  And of course if you find Biz Growth News a blog a valuable resource that you enjoy reading and would be happy to recommend to others, as we are an Irish Blog we’d love it if you wanted to nominate us as your recommenation is how we grow.