The Best Immigrant Entrepreneur Award recognizes an outstanding new Canadian who has started a successful business in B.C. This individual has overcome adversity, exhibits leadership both in their community and within their business, and has strong track record of business growth.

• Overcoming Adversity: Individual has achieved success despite the challenges and barriers of being an immigrant in Canada.
• Leadership: Showcases strong leadership through both business practices and involvement within the community he/she operates.
• Track Record and Growth Plan: Business demonstrates a proven track record of financial success and is positioned for growth.

The Best Innovation Award recognizes a business that develops advanced or innovative technologies to meet the needs of industry in B.C. This business contributes to making the province a strong and rapidly growing innovation economy, and is creating a positive impact in their industry and community.

Our judges will look for three main qualities:

• Innovation: The winning business supports research and development to create advanced and innovative concepts, products, methods and services
• Adoption: The adoption of their innovation has positively impacted the way organizations or industries are doing business. This impact is demonstrated through elements such as increases in efficiency, revenue and economic development
• Collaboration: This business works with partners and organizations to promote the commercialization of innovation in BC

British Columbians possess an entrepreneurial flair that’s unmatched across Canada. Not only do we have the highest self-employment rate of any Canadian province, we also have the largest share of Solopreneurs in the country.

These hard-working individuals embrace the challenge of entrepreneurship, mastering skillsets as diverse as sales, marketing, logistics, finances and general admin. They are the unsung heroes of our provincial economy, and they deserve our appreciation and support. 

Our Best Solopreneur Award recognizes the outstanding individual that has started and grown a solo business. They have demonstrated the unique skillset required to stay focused on their long-term goals, while juggling the day-to-day demands of running a successful company. They will be assessed in three major qualities:

• Resilience: This individual has demonstrated their ability to navigate challenging circumstances while juggling the day-to-day demands of running a business
• Passion: Their long-term goal-setting and strategies highlight the passion they bring to their craft.
• Vision: This individual has demonstrated a clear plan to ensure growth, success and overcome challenges that stand in their way.

Please Note: Our Best Solopreneur category is open to businesses where the owner is the only employee.

Youth Entrepreneurs are playing a rapidly growing role in our provincial economy. Those aged 35 and under now own over 11 per cent of our small businesses, demonstrating their innovation, resourcefulness and strong entrepreneurial drive.

We created our Best Youth Entrepreneur Award to inspire and encourage entrepreneurial ambition in youth, connecting them to BC’s community of entrepreneurs. These individuals navigate a business landscape where their relative inexperience, lack of credit history and modest asset base all serve to increase the challenges they face on a daily basis.

To win our Best Youth Entrepreneur Award, nominees will be assessed on three qualities:

• Clear Vision:Demonstrates a clear idea for the future of the business in the areas of business growth, corporate responsibility and financial data.
• Track Record:Growth beyond the conceptual stage to become an active business with at least twelve months of financial data.
• Impact: How has the business made a difference? The ideal business will demonstrate social, environmental or economic impact.

It takes a community to grow a small business. It also takes a community to win our Premier’s People’s Choice Award. This unique award category, sponsored by the Province of British Columbia, is presented to a BC-based small business that can demonstrate they have the unwavering and loyal support of their community. The criteria for winning is simple: Get more votes than any other nominee.

Nominees are tasked with using any imaginative, creative or traditional tactics available to them to engage customers, clients and neighbours to vote for them. At the end of the process, the business with the most votes from their community is our winner.