Ep 20: The Queen's Awards for Enterprise 2021: Who won and how to enter the 2022 competition - with DONNA O'TOOLE.

In this inspirational episode, Donna discusses The Queen's Awards for Enterprise and explains why these awards are widely regarded as the world's most prestigious.

Learn more about this year's winners and find out how the entry process works, so that you're armed with the information you need to get started on your Queen's Awards journey.


Donna O'Toole is the Founder of August, and she has had the pleasure of supporting entrepreneurs, business leaders and teams to win the most prestigious awards in the world. She has seen, first-hand, how receiving awards and recognition has motivated teams, solved problems, supercharged brands and raised their profiles, helping businesses to grow and do even more good things for their employees, their industry and their community.

Transcript

Donna O'Toole: 0:09

Hi, I'm Donna Rachel, and you're listening to my exclusive winning awards podcast. Over the years, I've had the pleasure of supporting entrepreneurs, business leaders and teams to win the most prestigious awards in the world. I've seen firsthand how receiving awards and recognition has motivated teams, solve problems, supercharge brands, and raise profiles, helping businesses to grow and do even more good things for their employees, their industry and their community. In this podcast, I'll be sharing valuable awards, insights, tips, and inspirational stories to make sure that you get the recognition that you deserve, so that you can go on and achieve your dreams. So what are you waiting for, it's time to start winning. Hello, and welcome to another edition of the winning awards podcast. And today I'm here to tell you about the Queen's award for enterprise. So the 2021 Queen's awards have recently been announced. And there was over 200 Awards actually given out to outstanding UK businesses. So I think now's a good time to tell you a little bit about how the Queen's awards works, and what kind of businesses are winning, where they're winning how it all happens, and how you can find out more about whether your business could be eligible to enter a Queen's award for the next round, which is also now open. So on the occasion of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 95th birthday, she announced 205, businesses were given her royal stamp of approval, and awarded what we all consider to be the Queen's award, which is the most prestigious Business Award in the world. I mean, who wouldn't want an award from the queen? Hey, and so five of these companies were even successful in scooping awards for two separate categories, because you can enter more than one category, which is hugely impressive. So we want us to shout out our congratulations to all of those winners. And to just break it down a little bit for you. Because I know that sometimes people can find the process, a little bit unknown, and they wanted to know a bit more information. So first of all, there was 122 winners in the international trade category. So that's the most winners in that category. And every year, you'll always find the most winners come from the international trade category. And that category is to celebrate businesses that are based in the UK, who are exporting their business products or services overseas in some way. And obviously, there's been lots of them doing very well is a hugely competitive category. And so it's fueled by great growth in business, but also a really strong international trading strategy. There's lots to the entry, but I'm super positive. So congratulations to those 122. So you can see it's, it's an award that's not just giving out one or two awards, it's giving out laws. And then there's the innovation category. And this year, there were 48 winners in the innovation category. So again, lots of great businesses in the UK, who have won awards for their innovation. Now, innovation is something that's often debated whether something is innovation or not. And you can see some great case studies actually of that on our website, some innovation winners for you, and some international trade ones, too. So congratulations to the innovation winners. And don't forget, you know, innovation can be seen in different ways. So it might be that you've created something entirely new. Or it might be that you've taken existing concepts or products, and put them together to create something new so that we can showcase innovation in different ways. And you'll see throughout those innovation winners, that they have done things differently. But some things will be entirely new, some things will be a new way of doing something existing. And then the promoting opportunity through social mobility category, which is a relatively new category was launched a few years ago, there was 18 winners that is arise from previous years. So that category is all about businesses who are using themselves to promote social mobility in some way. And there's a great example of that, that I'll bring you on to later. And then there were 17 winners in the Sustainable Development category. A sustainable development is, as it said, does what it says on the tin, it's all about operating in a way that sustainably brilliant. Now with those winners, they all are businesses that are based in the UK. And the eligibility criteria is such that even if your business only has two people in it, you can enter so that's the minimum number of people in a business in order to enter. So even tiny companies who are very innovative and different and relatively new can be entering the Queen's awards. every category has a different amount of years in which you can enter for Summer to summer three, some of for some of six Even so, but I'll tell you more about that in another session that I'm going to do and drill down into a bit more information there for you. But you will need a minimum of two years operational figures showing some growth in order to enter. Now across the regions of the UK, winners are taken in different places. So I think it's quite I like to have a look at the regions and see who's won from where. So obviously, London is going to be a big place for winning, because so many companies are based around there. So 38 of those winners came from London 26 came from East Anglia. And then we've got different numbers all on our website, you can have a look at and see if there's anything 13 winners from Scotland 11 from the northeast six winners from Wales and five from Northern Ireland. So what that says to me is come on Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Northeast, let's get your numbers up, let's get more entries in this will all be relative. So although there will be more winners in London, I would could put money on it that there was also a lot more entries from London as well. So, you know, there's always looking for entries to come from any part of the UK and to celebrate what you're doing in your region or across the nation or even internationally. And over the years, we've supported a number of clients to win the Queen's awards, and every year, we have success in the awards. And we absolutely love to support people to do that and to drill down into their business story, their figures, their strategy, their CSR, which is a really important factor for the Queen's awards as well. So if you're a business, it's doing the right thing, and you could be a role model business for others, it doesn't matter on your size. As I said, a minimum of two people is absolutely fine. And you're you know, you could showcase the growth in your company and, and really stand out then entering the Queen's Awards for Enterprise competition could be hugely, hugely important to your business. The great benefits of there's lots of benefits with the awards. But just to give you some examples of what comes through for the winners is if you win the award, you are entitled to use the Queen's awards emblem on your business materials. So that could be your your marketing materials, your emails, your website, you can even get a flag to fly at your premises, you can put it onto your work vans and lorries. I'm sure other people will have seen the logos all over the place when you're going around. I've seen them on all sorts of different adverts. So you can use that for up to five years, which is fantastic. And obviously it gives great credibility to your business. One of our case studies actually said that within three months of putting their Queen's award logo on their website that actually increased their sales volume by 30%, within three months, that's huge. And that's because of the credibility and trust that the award brings with it. Obviously it's such a robust procedure to go through that if you're winning an award like that, you know, your customers, your clients, your contacts, everybody knows you must be a credible business, they must be able to trust you. So it's, you know, it's great to have that to be able to put on your website. We also have clients who've literally fly a flag at their premises, which is such a proud occasion for their teams as well and really raises the morale of their employee and their employees and their workforce. And the other benefits that come for winners are in a non pandemic situation, being invited to a lovely business event at Buckingham Palace, which with other winners so I know there's been garden parties and parties in the past which you know, is a fabulous PR opportunity and a great networking opportunity. And I wonder how many people are going to get the opportunity to go to Buckingham Palace for an event. So that's a great one and often the Lord lieutenant of your county will actually come and award you your trophy as well which can be a great opportunity for PR and I know that clients we've worked with have actually used that to get all their local contacts their team involved have a big party, make cake. I've seen cakes with the Queen's awards, emblems on I've seen all sorts. So this fund is a fantastic award really one of our favourites, but as I say super robust, so you definitely need to be prepared to enter. The entries are open now. So we're in May now and they will stay open until September. Then you will have a deadline and then finalists are usually announced to the finalists in October when you have an opportunity to then where you have to actually update some figures and things. And then the winners are announced the following year for the Queen's Birthday, so if you think about it, it's quite a long process from now until then, which is great for your pre planning for things IPR. But you know, first of all, You do need to find out if you're eligible, the Queen's awards, government website has lots of information on it. So do feel free to go there and have a look, I'm also going to be you know, we've obviously working within their remit and their criteria. We support lots of businesses every year to enter the awards and to win. And so in that case, we're going to be running a free Queen's award strategy session. And that's going to be on the 11th of June, and everybody who thinks that they might be eligible, would just like to find out more about the process is very welcome to come along to that. And that's going to be on zoom. And if you email us at Hello at crafted by august.com, you will be able to request to sign up for that session, and we'll send you a link to sign up absolutely no obligation whatsoever. We just want to share more information about the tools to help you to unpick the process and understand what it is that you need to do to enter. So please do join us if you can, and at least you know, don't think oh, I don't know my business might not be good enough to enter it might not be good enough to win. It's a fantastic process to go through to really dig deep into your business and analyse what you've been doing. So it's a great business development process in itself. And goodness, you might actually be in a position to win. So have a look at the Queen's awards. Have a look at some of the case studies on our website, have a look at the Queen's awards poster as well because they share some wonderful stories of winners which could inspire you. And you'll see that really there's winners in all different shapes and sizes. So long as you're based in the UK and you have a minimum of two people in your business, you could be eligible to enter. So I hope to see you at our free strategy session soon. And and, and good luck with entering Awards In the meantime, and I'll see you then thanks very much. Thank you for listening to this episode of my winning awards podcast. If you enjoyed it or found it helpful, please share it on Twitter and LinkedIn. And if you have any questions please head over to crafted by auguste.com where you can find out more about winning awards and contact me. On the website. You can also take our free awards test, which will identify your award strengths and tell you how likely you are to win. I really hope you've been able to take away some ideas today so that you can go ahead and win awards have an even bigger impact on the world and achieve your dreams.