Independent Business Awards (2024)

The Business Concept is thrilled to launch the inaugural Independent Business Awards. Like many, we want to do our bit to support this incredible community by recognising and celebrating the achievements of independent businesses across a variety of sectors.

About the Independent Business Awards

The Business Concept is thrilled to launch the inaugural Independent Business Awards.

Like many, we want to do our bit to support this incredible community by recognising and celebrating the achievements of independent businesses across a variety of sectors.

Businesses and consumers alike are increasingly inspired to look at independent options when shopping around for products and services. By focusing exclusively on independent businesses, The Business Concept aims to provide a platform for these companies to gain valuable recognition, boost their credibility, and of course attract new customers. We’ll pinpoint the most innovative, resilient and hard working independent enterprises and celebrate their success by distinguishing them from their larger counterparts.

In our bid to ensure a broad representation the awards will cover a diverse range of industries; these will include construction, food & beverage, health & wellbeing, hospitality, professional services, real estate & property, retail, and other specialist services.

Within these industries, we’ll be examining firms that deliver upon the desires of their customers, whether that be personalised services and unique products, sustainable and ethical practices, boosting local communities and economies, or supporting innovation, creativity and diversity. The Independent Business Awards 2024 are designed to have a significant impact on the independent business community, we aim to celebrate quality and facilitate growth by helping to foster an improved, more visible brand image.

Key dates

Entries Open:
Monday 4th March 2024
Entries Closed:
Monday 8th April 2024
Winners Announced:
June 2024
Team Photo Meet The Team
Need Help With Your Nomination? We can point you in the right direction.

The Nomination Team can assist with answering any queries that you have regarding a nomination, or the process involved in taking part in one of our award programmes.

Please get in touch with us via email or over the phone if you have any questions - we are happy to help!

Methodology

The researching of nominees

The The Business Concept team work ardently to identify the firms that are truly delivering and achieving great things for their industry sector. We drive many of the nominations ourselves and also encourage external nominations via subscribers, online visitors, social media followers, clients and wider circulation. Nominating parties are invited to put forward either third-party businesses whom they hold in high regard, or their own organisation.

The Shortlisting of nominees

All nominees are formally requested to accept their nomination. Should any firm or individual rather decline at this point, they are simply taken out of the running. Those who formally accept are given the opportunity to submit additional materials in support of their nomination. Although there is no obligation to complete and supply material, we have found that many nominees value this stage, in the process, and our research team find this very beneficial when determining businesses deserving of recognition.

Professional evaluation and judging of those shortlisted

Our dedicated research team will assess all information presented to them and also gather information independently from a variety of publicly accessible sources, which are assessed alongside any material supplied by a nominating party or the nominee themselves. The research team casts their final judgment, based on various criteria including client and customer dedication, innovation, business growth, longevity, online reputation, customer feedback and business performance.

Our winners

Once winners are determined, they are personally notified before any public announcement is made, allowing time for any communications throughout the wider business and the coordination of marketing strategies. Unfortunately, not everyone can be a winner; however, all who take part are encouraged to come back next year. Once the press embargo is lifted, details of our The Business Concept award winners will be made public via the website, award winners’ magazine and subscriber newsletter.

Gain maximum exposure for your win

The Business Concept award winners are offered a range of promotional packages which vary from inclusion in the free-of-charge winners’ directory, to trophies, content in our magazine and on our website. We encourage all winners to publicly announce their win independently. Announcements via company websites, social media, via publicly released press releases, and through local and national press are all great ways of maximising the exposure which can be gained from such an amazing achievement. If you have need of further advice, on how to gain maximum exposure from your win, please feel free to get in touch. We are more than happy to assist our clients with their marketing needs and initiatives.

Awards Team

Tony Garner

Tony Garner - Technology and Finance Director

Tony is one of three directors at AI Global Media, the digital group behind The Business Concept. As the director of technology of the business Tony is committed to ensuring that The Business Concept recognises the most inventive, progressive and forward-thinking of businesses with its award programmes and that each winner not only has a great experience but also gains maximum value for their award win.

Phil Pearson

Phil Pearson - The Business Concept Lead Researcher

Phil joined the business in 2016 and rapidly became an integral part of the research team. Phil has a keen interest in all things innovative and is keen to gain further insight into how businesses introduce and integrate new concepts, ideas and processes. He also understands that an award win such as one of The Business Concept’s can be a powerful marketing tool for small businesses making it key for the research team to select those most fitting and most worthy of one of these highly regarded accolades.

Katherine Benton

Katherine Benton - Team Leader

Katherine is an English Literature and Creative & Professional Writing graduate. Amongst many things her background has driven Katherine to become exceptionally focussed, diligent and conscientious, qualities that she oozes in her work today. Katherine is dedicated in ensuring that the The Business Concept awards offer both maximum value for those who win and that the awards showcase only the most innovative and trusted of businesses.

Hall
of
Fame.

Browse our previous winners

You will find details of all our award winners here. Our featured winners are included in our digital award supplement on our website and distributed to the greater circulation. All winners are included in the online directory, which can be viewed in full on the website once the embargo has been lifted and a public announcement has been made. Please feel free to browse through our archived winners lists by clicking on the appropriate year below.

FAQs

FAQs
How long has The Business Concept been around?+
The Business Concept as a stand alone brand has been launched early 2022, born out of a need for real focus on those truly innovate firms pushing boundaries and bringing pioneering concepts, ideas and businesses to the forefront of business. The Business Concept is owned by AI Global Media, a UK based digital group with 14 brands in its portfolio
Where do nominations come from?+
Nominations come to us via three avenues; we put forward businesses ourselves, we accept third-party nominations and businesses also have the option to put their own business for consideration. In the interest of nurturing an environment proven to produce a high response rate, we don’t ask nominees to reveal their identity at the time of submitting a nomination. The ability to succeed and ultimately win an award is not linked to the number of votes received, meaning your award is presented purely on merit. In the interest of security and fairness, we track unusual behaviour on our website to identify repeat votes and cyber-threats.
What happens if I agree to be shortlisted?+
In the interest of focusing our efforts on relevant and eager candidates, we ask all nominees to accept their position on the shortlist giving people complete control in the decision on whether they would like to move forward with the award. Nominees who accept are subject to our scrutiny during the internal vetting procedure and are given the opportunity to present their own data to be considered alongside information collated by our research team. This can take up to 8 weeks for final assessments to be rendered.
Who makes the final decision?+
We employ a highly diligent panel of 5 individuals to conduct all research. At the helm of the panel, is a veteran academic leader with international academic and training experience who is well versed in research, fact-checking and mediation.
Is there a winner’s ceremony or awards dinner?+
The short answer is no. Despite being an enjoyable occasion, it wouldn’t support our group’s philosophy of cost-effective marketing by holding a celebrator event. We follow the belief that optional costs associated with an award are better placed in a year’s worth of online marketing for the winner rather than spending large sums on a ceremony. Our press announcements are made digitally, online and across our network to enforce our position as digital publishers. We aim to provide you with the tools (both digital and physical) to generate real-world value.
What happens if I am successful?+
After you have been notified of your award win, we enforce a short press embargo while our dedicated awards team will liaise with you to establish your preferred method of coverage. Generally, our coverage takes the form of a digital celebratory magazine, we also offer physical trophies, wall mounted certificates and plaques and digital certificates, web-based advertisements and press releases which can be custom designed for you or your company.
Are there any costs involved?+
There are no compulsory costs in accepting a nomination or winning an award with The Business Concept. We do offer a variety of paid additional benefits for our winners, but these are completely optional. To demonstrate our commitment to no mandatory fees, all winners are offered a free of charge promotional package. Our company policy will always remain regardless of budget, our clients should always be able to garner the full value of the award and our seal of approval. We offer a variety of promotional opportunities to our winners, as we have an extensive network and we know, more than anyone, the wider business benefits from promoting industry awards.
Why does your email domain differ from your website domain?+
Because we send a large volume of emails, we separate our campaign email sends from our transactional ones. This structure helps to ensure a prompt and thorough response from one of our diligent team members. The sending email address will always be recognisable but please contact us via the address on this page if you have any concerns.