Awards programs – do they really mean anything?

Awards are not just for attention-seekers. They can really help your business too.

I’m happy to admit it – I’m an awards junkie. I’ll submit my application to any awards program I even vaguely qualify to enter.

I’ve had a good amount of success too, in the Telstra Business Women’s awards, BRW Fast 100, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards and the Young Australian of the Year awards.

But does it actually mean anything? Does the fact that I won Young Business Woman of the Year mean that I was the best business woman in the country that year under 31? Of course not! But it does mean the following:

• The free publicity I got from that awards program was amazing. Cover of BRW magazine, the Today show, speaking jobs and more.
• The networks and connections I made will last a life time. Meeting other business women like Julia Ross and Judith Slocombe was my equivalent of meeting Brad Pitt.
• My team and family got to go to sensational lunches and dinners where they got to have a blast and network.
• The preparation of an awards program application is one of the most cathartic things a business person can do! It’s a business plan, goal setting and review exercise in one.

If you enter and you don’t win – you’re in no worse position than you were before – in fact you’re in a better one because you’ve had the opportunity to reap the above benefits.

Get out there and enter an awards program today! We just entered one this morning for best online blog of all things. Also – my heartiest congratulations to the recent winners of the SmartCompany.com.au awards – your profiles made for inspiring reading!

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Kirsty Dunphey, the youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books – Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can head to: www.kirstydunphey.com