Last week I announced Beth Coslett of Glamour Fix as the winner of the first Young Woman of Business Winner, and on Friday evening I won an award of my own.
The Powys Business Awards selected me as their 2012 Entrepreneurship Award winner, which is immensely flattering, but will also help to lend even more credibility to the Young Woman of Business Award.
Whilst receiving any award is always really exciting, there are so many available to both individuals and businesses alike, that it can often be a case of "what's it worth?"
Some organisations (a quick Google search will find you plenty) seem to exist only to hand out awards that seem to cost quite a large amount to enter. The validity or value of these awards is of course entirely undermined by the apparent lack of investigation, judging or award through merit.
- Awarding 'authority' must be meaningful
- Award must have been judged in an impartial manner
- Judging must have been based on consistent criteria
- All finalists must be capable of winning the award
The Powys Business Award for 2012 Entrpreneurship Award is sponsored by the Welsh Government, and the criteria are clear, defined and are judged by an independent panel (who all came to visit me in the office and stayed for some hours!)
The advantage of both the Welsh Government sponsoring the award, and the judging being quite so onerous is that the award itself then becomes much more relevant.
Anything that demonstrates how others view what I am doing can only benefit this years winner of the Young Woman of Business award - which ultimately is infinitely more important than my ego!
Beth, this years winner, has been working hard since the amazing Press coverage that her win received last week.
- Secretary of State David Jones issued a congratulatory Press release
- Jacqueline Gold (Head of the Gold Group including Ann Summers and Knickerbox) sent a personal note of congratulations
- Daily Post's Martin Williams wrote a superb article
- BBC Radio Wales featured live interviews with Beth and myself on their Wales@Work program
- LOTS of places across the internet carried the story
- Young Enterprise carried news and blog coverage from Beth, reflecting her first taste of the business world at the hands of this extraordinary charity for young business people
- Sian Lloyd Tweeted her support for Beth's win
Beth is reassuringly 'feet on ground' however, and has made it clear that she knows that her work has hardly started to achieving success for her company. I have already spoken to her repeatedly on the telephone, we've met, she has met with Richard from wispa Limited to start planning the push to her launch event, and the amount of emails generated between us all is best described as an avalanche!
I know that Beth is keen to crack on and work hard as her blog post for Young Enterprise signed off with:
"Off to roll my sleeves up - apparently it is still hard work from now on!"
Which is a clear message that she is up to the challenge and ready to work hard
Awards may come, and they may not - but when I look at a woman with a good head on her shoulders, a cracking business idea, and the determination to make it work through hard work and sheer effort... well, I know I picked the right winner for MY award