Best Youth Entrepreneur

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.

Eligibility

To be considered eligible for our Best Youth Entrepreneur Award, nominees must be 35 years of age or younger on December 31, 2020. If the business is owned by more than one individual, at least 50 per cent of ownership must be 35 years of age or younger. All nominees must have less than 50 employees.

Criteria

What Our Judges are Looking For:

When assessing the winner of Best Youth Entrepreneur, our judges will consider the following criteria:

Nominee must be 35 years or younger on December 31, 2020
Track record up to this point
Plans for future expansion/growth
Challenges that have been overcome
Proof of the individual’s leadership qualities

Preparing Your Nomination

We understand taking part in competitions like ours requires a time commitment. That’s why we want you to maximize the impact you receive from entering. Here are five tips to consider when submitting your nomination for a Small Business BC Award.

Establish Your Objectives

A great place to start is to decide upon your goals for entering the Small Business BC Awards. Maybe you want to help boost your staff recruitment, raise your profile within your industry, or improve your marketing? Our Awards program can be a powerful tool to achieve your goals. You just need to clearly define what those goals are before you begin.

Designate an ‘Awards Champion’

Throughout the years, we’ve seen businesses pass the task of administering their awards application from one staff member to the next. This results in inconsistent entries where no one person took ownership and drove the task forward. Instead, we recommend designating yourself, or a staff member, as an ‘Awards Champion’ with responsibility for handling the nomination from start to finish.

Match Your Content to the Criteria

Each of our award categories has detailed criteria you can refer to when submitting a nomination. Our judges will refer to the criteria when assessing which businesses will proceed to the next phase of the competition. It’s crucial to understand the criteria for your category and deliver an application that meets the criteria. These simple instructions provide the recipe for success. Don’t ignore them!

Speak to Previous Nominees

Each year, over 600 businesses are nominated in the Small Business BC Awards. Across the several month process, these businesses learn so much about the process, developing invaluable takeaways, experience and knowledge. Why not consider asking their advice? They’ll be able to share some of the benefits of taking part, how to prepare to present to our judges, and how to approach your community to gather votes.

Get Your Entry Proofread

Before you submit your nomination, task a friend or family member to read over it and provide their feedback. Try to find someone who will provide impartial feedback. They may notice an important element you’ve forgot to mention, or typos that have slipped under the radar. Your entry will sparkle if it’s error-free and provides a compelling case as to why you should win.