Start-ups encouraged to enter first dedicated UK-wide Rural Business Awards
A new awards is set to showcase the very best in rural enterprise as the Best New Rural Start-up Award offers new firms a chance to shine.
The UK’s first ever Rural Business Awards will be held in 2015 – and there’s a category specifically for best new rural start-up.
The awards are the brainchild of Be Rural founder Jemma Clifford and management consultant Anna Price. Supported by the Countryside Land & Business Association (CLA), backed by a range of MPs and sponsored by the Sturgess Motor Group, they are the UK’s first to be especially dedicated to the rural business sector.
The best new rural start-up is one of ten categories in the awards. Judges want to hear from companies which have operated for three years and under and are demonstrating growth and commitment to the rural sector through:
- Job creation
- Contribution to the rural and wider business economy
- Service and infrastructure development
- The impact on communities or people
- How the product, service, project or offering makes life easier or better for people living or working in rural locations
The Rural Business Awards aims to put more focus on the many British businesses which choose not to base themselves in the big cities, instead bringing greater diversity and economic prosperity into the great British countryside.
Companies entering the awards will get a chance to gain recognition as a rural business, a sector of British economic life which is all too often overlooked, despite making a huge positive impact on the country’s finances.
It will be particularly interesting to hear from new companies which have turned their back on the urban sprawl in favour of the economic benefits of the countryside.
Rural Business Awards joint founder Anna Price says, “These awards will acknowledge the vital contribution rural companies make, encourage the countryside’s superb entrepreneurial spirit and recognise business excellence within the rural sector.”
“We are celebrating ten categories from start-ups to renewable energy and farm diversification to agricultural innovation. The awards will be judged by an independent panel of judges, including CLA Director General Helen Woolley, and we are encouraging all businesses, whatever their size to get involved in the Rural Business Awards and get the recognition they deserve.”
Businesses can nominate themselves or someone else, and entries must be in by 5pm on 7th August, 2015, with postal entries postmarked no later than this date. There will be an awards ceremony on October 1, 2015, at the Grade 1 listed Stapleford Park and Hall in Leicestershire.
The Rural Business Awards ten categories consist of:
- Best New Rural Start-up
- People’s Choice Award
- Best Renewable Energy Project
- Outstanding Farm Diversification Project
- Best Rural Apparel Product or Brand
- Outstanding Agricultural Innovation
- Outstanding Manufacturing Business
- Best Rural Professional Services Business
- Best Rural Construction Project
- Best Rural Field Sport, Equestrian or Rural Recreational Business
Businesses can also find out more about the Rural Business Awards at:
Twitter: @RuralRBAs
Facebook: The Rural Business Awards
