Fast Lane: Why you should enter this year’s Smart50 awards

Entries have just opened for this year’s WFI Smart50 awards and 2015 is the year you really should enter your business.

Being recognized as one of Australia’s fastest growing SMEs is a boon for any business, just look at what some of our previous Smart50 winners have gone on to do.

Being a part of the Smart50 is a fabulous marketing tool for your business, well-deserved recognition for you and your hard working staff and a great networking night out to boot.

What’s more unlike many business awards, entry to the Smart50 is free, so it won’t cost you a cent.

So what’s holding you back?

Many entrepreneurs would love to win a business award but they never actually enter them.

That can only be described as a defeatist attitude.

Admittedly, there is a time cost to entering business awards like the Smart50.

Smart50 entrants are required to fill out a detailed entry form in order to ensure the final 50 businesses really are deserving of the title.

But the benefit of filling out this form is that it requires you to really examine your business, reflect on what you have done that has worked well, and understand why it has been good.

It’s also a chance to reflect on areas you could improve.

Entering an award can really be a learning experience – particularly if you get your team involved like Gen George.

The founder of OneShift.recommends tackling an entry form with your entire team.

“Everyone has a different perspective on the business, so putting down those varying perspectives certainly makes a much more colourful entry, which stands out,” she says.

Of course Smart50 is not the only business award out there.

The entry you pull together for the Smart50 could also be useful for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards and the Telstra Business Woman of the Year awards.

Remember, you’ve got to be in it to win it.