Awards categories

This category is chosen by the judges as the best of all our other winners; you can’t apply for it directly.

This award is for any business which is primarily online; business types we like to see in this category include web retailers, brilliant software-as-a-service companies, and cloud computing businesses. If you have started a great online business with strong potential, please apply for this category.

Whether you’re developing apps, making money from them, or are using mobile as a key channel to sell your wares, market your business, or even run things more efficiently, we want to hear from you.

Here we are looking for businesses which either offers a ground-breaking product or service, or which are using a great new approach to improve a traditional market.

This award is for a new business which produces exciting and tangible products (doesn’t necessarily have to manufacture the product) with great potential. Examples might be food or cosmetics products, toys, gadgets, furniture, clothing, or even something cooked up in a lab.

This award is for a fabulous new business operating in a service sector, such as architect, design, law or accountancy firm, therapists, engineers, gardening or catering businesses… if your firm sells a service rather than physical products, this is the category for you. And to clear up some potential confusion about what we’re after here, the quality of the service offered to customers is as important as with any other category, but no more so—a better business with decent service will beat an average business with great service.

This category is looking for a franchisee who has started in the last three years and has already exceeded targets & delighted customers, doing the franchise brand proud in the process.

Here we are looking for a recently started electrician, plumber, carpenter, builder or other trades business which is serving customers exceptionally well and has built a great, small business.

This award is to recognise the best of the many home-based businesses. You don’t need to be running a big business, just to be running a successful business which customers love – whether you do it on a freelance basis with a strong roster of clients or body of work to show for it, sell cupcakes, publish videos on YouTube, sell apps or have even self-published ebooks.

If you were under 30 years old when your business started trading and your business is successful, you’ve already accomplished a great deal – and we want to help celebrate your success. Whatever type of business you started; tell us how great it is!

Even now more businesses are started by men than by women – so we want to make a special point of celebrating the great businesses being started by women! Some top entrepreneurs the UK has produced are female, from the late Dame Anita Roddick to The White Company’s Chrissie Rucker. If you’re a founder or co-founder of a fabulous new business, apply here and inspire more women to start new businesses.

If you were over 50 when you launched your excellent new business, this award is for you. As more and more people over 50 complain of finding it hard to find employment, we want to highlight the benefits experience and wisdom brings to a new business.

We come across many people who have started a business from very tough places, whether that is illness, deprivation, disabilities or other unusual challenges. This award is designed to recognise your success if you have overcome unusual personal challenges and built a sustainable, successful business, however small.

Every year business angels and venture capitalists invest in young companies with enormous potential. This award is for young businesses which have raised money from investors and can already demonstrate signs of achieving real greatness.