Eight Connacht Companies Celebrate Business Awards

Eight leading Connacht based companies celebrated success at the Connacht final of the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards, which took place on 21^st October at Meyrick Hotel, Galway. The eight winners will now progress to the national final in December to compete with winners from Munster, Leinster and Ulster.

A total of 676 companies entered the Awards – the highest number ever, reflecting an increase of 7.8% on last year’s awards, and 72 of these entrants were Connacht businesses.

The Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards provincial winners for Connacht are as follows:

Business Start Up – The White Hag
Small Business – Team Horizon
Established SME – LotusWorks
Established SME – Chanelle Group
Social Enterprise – SCCUL Enterprises Ltd.
Food & Drink – Gilligan Farm Fresh Meats
Agri Business – Corkamore Dairies Ltd
Women Led Business – Specialised Sterile Environments

Speaking at the Connacht awards, Brendan McDermott, Ulster Bank Regional Director, said: “The Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards are a mainstay in the Irish Business calendar. As well as finance, we are determined to help create a better environment for doing business in Ireland. Our mission to be number one for customer service, trust and advocacy is proven here today in our support for each and every one of these excellent businesses. I’d like to congratulate each of our winners and wish them the best of luck at the national final in December.”

The 2015 Ulster Bank Business Achiever will receive a comprehensive prize package including a €50,000 publishing bursary with the Irish Independent, business mentoring from Enterprise Ireland, a full service communications workshop, as well as national and regional PR coverage.

For further information on the 2015 Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards and the provincial winners, go to www.businessachieversaward.com. You can also follow all the action on Twitter using @ulsterbank_baa and #businessachievers.

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Eight Leinster Companies Celebrate Business Awards

Eight leading Leinster based companies celebrated success at the Leinster final of the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards, which took place on 20^th October at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin. The eight winners will now progress to the national final in December to compete with winners from Munster, Connacht and Ulster.

A total of 676 companies entered the Awards – the highest number ever, reflecting an increase of 7.8% on last year’s awards, and 260 of these entrants were Leinster businesses.

The Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards provincial winners for Leinster are as follows:

Business Start Up – DP Financial Ltd. t/a Rye River Brewing Company
Small Business – The Grafton Barber
Established SME – Integrity 360
International Business – Netwatch
Social Enterprise – Grow Dome Project
Food & Drink – Clonarn Clover
Agri Business – McCormack Farms Ltd
Women Led Business – Polar Ice

Speaking at the Leinster awards, Olaf Fitzsimmons, Ulster Bank Regional Director, said: “The Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards are a mainstay in the Irish Business calendar. As well as finance, we are determined to help create a better environment for doing business in Ireland. Our mission to be number one for customer service, trust and advocacy is proven here today in our support for each and every one of these excellent businesses. I’d like to congratulate each of our winners and wish them the best of luck at the national final in December.”

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Provincial Winners of Ulster Bank Business Achievers Award Announced

Ulster’s top achieving companies were crowned this morning at a prestigious event in the Ulster Museum, Belfast.

Eight impressive firms were named category winners of the Ulster section of the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards, from a record list of entries. Run in partnership with Invest NI, InterTradeIreland, the Belfast Telegraph and SmallBusinessCan.com, the awards seek to celebrate the achievements of local companies across a wide range of sectors.

This year’s winners, selected by a high-level panel of judges, were:

Business Start Up: Environmental Street Furniture Ltd (Newtownabbey)
Small Business: AJ Power Limited (Craigavon)
Established SME: Novosco Ltd (Belfast)
International Business: Market Resource Partners (Belfast)
Social Enterprise: Bryson Charitable Group (Belfast)
Food & Drink: Lynn’s Country Foods Limited (Downpatrick)
Agri Business: Hannan Meats / The Meat Merchant (Moira)
Women Led Business: Amelio (Belfast)

Each of the Ulster winners will now go forward to compete against provincial winners from Connaught, Leinster and Munster in the all-island stage of the competition. The overall Business Achiever and all-island category winners will be announced at a gala evening in Dublin in December.

“Cream of a very impressive crop”

Congratulating the Ulster winners, Richard Donnan, Head of Ulster Bank Northern Ireland, said: “With over 200 entries from Ulster to the awards this year, the winners and shortlisted companies today can be sure that they are the cream of a very impressive crop. The standard was truly exceptional and I am extremely confident that the eight category winners will do Ulster proud in the all-island final”.

“The Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards is a flagship programme for us, helping us communicate our support for businesses – sitting alongside other initiatives such as our overall sponsorship of the Balmoral Show and our Entrepreneurial Spark Hatchery that will open in Belfast early next year. The Awards recognise and reward entrepreneurship, one of the most important components of any economy. The businesses here today have differentiated themselves from their peers and demonstrated exactly what’s needed to grow and succeed in the demanding conditions of today’s markets,” he adds.

Judges for the Ulster stage of the awards included Nigel Walsh, Ulster Bank; Janet Toal, InterTradeIreland; Sarah Little, Belfast Telegraph; Ian Murphy, Invest NI and Sean Mahon, Janse Consulting.

To impress the panel, companies were required to demonstrate strong financial performance and a flair for innovation, indicate company milestones and achievements and outline strategies for future business development.

Great benefits for winners

In recognition of their provincial success, category winners each receive an award trophy and significant marketing opportunities including a specially commissioned company video, a prominent profile page on the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards website and entry to the all-island stage of the awards.

The overall winner will walk away with a comprehensive prize package comprising a €50,000 (just under £40,000) publishing bursary with the Belfast Telegraph, expert business mentoring from Enterprise Ireland, a full-service communications workshop and significant media exposure.

You can keep up to date with all of the action form the 2015 awards using #businessachievers on twitter.

More information is available at www.businessachieversaward.com

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Opportunity Not to Miss: 5 More Days to Enter Business Achievers Awards

Here are some good reasons why you might want to consider adding ‘must enter business competition’ to your ‘to do’ list!

The application process is an opportunity to reflect on what your business is all about and clearly articulate your USP.

It’s an opportunity to work on your business rather than in it by stepping back to look at achievements, challenges, market trends and areas for improvement.

As such it gives you an opportunity to dust off and update the business plan.

Competitions are also about PR, marketing, selling…spin. They’re an opportunity for you to raise the profile of the business for free. Entering the competition will get you into the local press. It’ll probably get you into the regionals and it could get your business national and even international profile.

Marketing opportunities

By working the competition – filling in the forms correctly, engaging with local Ulster Bank reps for the competition, turning up at the networking events, volunteering to give quotes and elbowing yourself into photos, you will get marketing material that’s ‘independent’ for your website and other marcomms. If you progress through the competition there are programs such as Ulster Bank’s Business Achievers Awards that produce corporate videos for all of the short listed companies. These are done by professional companies with editors and designers. You probably cannot afford to produce these yourselves! They are given to you after the competition for your website and other marketing material, and they will impress!

Let your business grow

Working the competition will also give you access to a big network of people that can help your business grow. For obvious reasons the politicans always turn up. You’ll have access to state agencies. You’ll meet all the local and national enterprise support agencies. Bankers, funders, journalists, other successful businesspeople…the big national Awards are a veritable who’s who of the great and the good in business. And you’ll be one of the stars of the show…just by entering. And if you win…!

When you sit down and take the time to apply to a competition, you’ll realize that you have a team supporting you. It illustrates the importance of the support of family and its role in moving your business forward. You’ll see the staff that have and are stepping up to the mark.

You’ll probably get your management involved. Sometimes just by reflecting and internally acknowledging what you’ve achieved together is a major win in its own right.

Superb packages

There are many different competitions out there from local and regional awards to national events. Aside from all the benefits listed above, the winners often benefit from superb packages which may include cash prizes, mentoring, free PR and much more.

Look here, we wont deny that it takes time to enter. We’ve worked with Ulster Bank in particular to get the form down to a fairly slick 20-30 minutes. But even if it takes more time, you owe it to yourself, your staff and your family to give it your best shot.

Even if you’re not short-listed you will benefit from working ‘on’ your business. You can use the knowledge to plan future strategies and identify weak areas. It’ll help you make your business stronger and better. And that’s what it all, eventually, boils down to!

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The Business Achievers Awards 2015: Open For Entries

As many of you know we at Small Business Can are big supporters of business competitions: anything that gets you thinking about your business and working on your business rather than in it. And if you can generate publicity, link into a great business network and meet bankers, politicians, founders and journalists along the way, that’s even better.

Enter The Business Achievers Awards

The Business Achievers Awards competition is probably one of the biggest and most broadly based competitions on the island with categories to appeal to most businesses of all sizes across sectors. The application form is here and will take no more than 30 minutes to fill in. It could be 30 minutes well spent because there are great benefits to entering.

Here are some good reasons why you might want to consider adding ‘must enter business competition’ to your ‘business planning to do’ list!

The application process is an opportunity to reflect on what your business is all about and clearly articulate your USP.
It’s an opportunity to work on your business rather than in it by stepping back to look at achievements, challenges, market trends and areas for improvement.
It will give you time to reflect on new angles and perspectives to overcome obstacles or to plot new strategies for growth.
Competitions are also about PR, marketing, selling…spin. They’re an opportunity for you to raise the profile of the business for free. Entering the competition will get you into the local press. You could get your business national and even international profile.
By working the competition – filling in the forms correctly, engaging with local reps for the competition, turning up at the networking events, volunteering to give quotes and elbowing yourself into photos, you will get marketing material that’s ‘independent’ for your website and other marcomms.
If you progress through the competition there are some programs such as Ulster Bank’s Business Achievers Awards that produce corporate videos for all of the short listed companies. These are done by professional companies with editors and designers. You probably cannot afford to produce these yourself! They are given to you after the competition for your website and other marketing material, and they will impress!
Working the competition will also give you access to a big network of people that can help your business grow. The politicians always turn up. You’ll meet the local and national enterprise support agencies. Bankers, funders, journalists, other successful businesspeople…the big national Awards are a veritable who’s who of the great and the good in business. And you’ll be one of the stars of the show…just by entering. And if you win…!
When you sit down and take the time to apply to a competition, you’ll realize that you have a team supporting you. It illustrates the importance of the support of family and its role in moving your business forward. You’ll see the staff that have and are stepping up to the mark.
You’ll probably get your management involved. Sometimes just by reflecting and internally acknowledging what you’ve achieved together is a major win in its own right.
Even if you’re not short-listed you will benefit from working ‘on’ your business. You can use the knowledge to plan future strategies and identify weak areas. It’ll help you make your business stronger and better. And that’s what it all, eventually, boils down to!

Don’t miss your chance!

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