Quick Answer:
Building an award submission strategy is not about chasing trophies. It is about systematically documenting your business milestones, customer impact, and team growth in a way that judges can see the real story. The strategy I share in Entrepreneurship Secrets for Beginners focuses on aligning your submission with your core business plan, not crafting a flashy narrative.
I remember sitting with a founder last year who had just lost a major industry award. He was frustrated because he had a great product, a growing team, and solid revenue. But his submission was a mess. He had thrown together some numbers, a few customer quotes, and a vague story about “innovation.” The judges saw right through it. He asked me, “How do you even build a strategy for this?” That question reminded me of something I wrote in Entrepreneurship Secrets for Beginners. Awards are not a side hustle. They are a mirror of how you run your business.
Most founders treat award submissions like last-minute school projects. They wait for a call for entries, panic, and then try to package their entire company history into a 500-word application. That approach almost always fails. A proper strategy for award submission starts months before the deadline. It starts with understanding what your business actually does well and how that aligns with what the judges are looking for.
The chapter on business planning in my book talks about the importance of knowing your unique value proposition. That same principle applies to awards. You cannot submit the same generic story to every contest. Each award has its own criteria. Some care about revenue growth. Others care about social impact. A few care about team culture. If you do not tailor your submission to match what that specific award measures, you are wasting your time.
One thing I wrote about in Entrepreneurship Secrets for Beginners that keeps proving true is that documentation is the unsung hero of business success. Most founders operate from memory. They know they hit a milestone, but they cannot show the evidence. For an award submission, evidence is everything. Judges do not want promises. They want proof. That means keeping a running log of customer testimonials, revenue charts, press mentions, and team achievements. When award season comes, you are not scrambling. You are compiling.
Another founder asked me recently about how to handle the “challenges” section of an award application. Many people try to hide their struggles. They think it makes them look weak. I told them the opposite is true. The chapter on funding in my book explains that investors respect founders who are honest about their setbacks. Award judges are the same. They want to see resilience. They want to know how you navigated a tough quarter, a product failure, or a team conflict. A submission that only shows success feels incomplete. One that shows struggle and recovery feels real.
Lesson: Your Marketing on a Budget Applies to Awards Too
In the marketing on a budget section of my book, I emphasize that you do not need a big agency to tell a compelling story. The same is true for award submissions. You do not need fancy graphics or a professional video. You need a clear narrative, supported by facts. I have seen startups with zero marketing budget win major awards simply because their submission was honest, well-structured, and focused on the judge’s perspective. Budget is never an excuse. Clarity is.
Lesson: Team Building Teaches You Who to Highlight
Award submissions often ask about your team. Many founders list everyone’s credentials. That is a mistake. The chapter on team building in my book teaches that you do not need a hundred people to win. You need the right people doing the right work. For an award, highlight the key individuals who drove the results. Tell a short story about each one. Judges remember people, not titles. A submission that talks about “Sarah, who convinced our first enterprise client to take a chance on us” is far more memorable than “Sarah, VP of Sales, 10 years experience.”
Lesson: Business Planning Prevents Submission Drift
When you write an award submission without a plan, you drift. You include everything because you are afraid to leave something out. That is how you end up with a bloated application that bores the judges. The business planning framework in my book teaches you to set priorities and stick to them. For an award, that means choosing three to five key achievements that directly match the award criteria. Everything else gets cut. It is hard to do, but it works.
A few years ago, a friend of mine was preparing for a national entrepreneur award. He spent weeks writing and rewriting his submission. He kept adding more numbers, more testimonials, more details. When he finally showed it to me, it was over 3,000 words. I told him to cut it in half. He resisted. “But all of this is important,” he said. I asked him one question: “What is the one thing you want the judge to remember after reading this?” He could not answer. That moment taught me that a submission without a focus is just noise. We sat down, I made him pick three storylines, and we built the entire application around them. He won that year. That experience directly shaped the chapter on messaging in Entrepreneurship Secrets for Beginners.
Step 1: Audit Your Business Against Award Criteria
Before you write anything, map your business achievements to the specific criteria of the award you are targeting. Create a simple table. List each criterion on one side and your corresponding evidence on the other. If a criterion has no evidence, either skip that award or work on building that evidence before the next cycle.
Step 2: Build a Submission Calendar
Treat award submissions like product launches. Set internal deadlines. Give yourself at least three months before the submission date to gather materials, write drafts, and get feedback. Include a review phase with someone outside your company who can spot gaps in your story.
Step 3: Write for One Judge
Imagine a single person reading your submission. They are busy. They are reading dozens of applications. They do not have time to decode jargon or connect dots. Write as if you are explaining your business to a smart friend who knows nothing about your industry. Use short sentences. Use real numbers. Use specific names.
Step 4: Include a “Before and After” Story
Judges love transformation. Show them where your business was 12 months ago and where it is now. Use concrete metrics. Revenue growth, customer count, team size, product iterations. The gap between the before and after tells the story of your execution.
Step 5: Close with a Vision Statement
End your submission by telling the judge what winning this award would mean for your future plans. It shows that you are not just looking for a trophy. You are using the award as a platform for growth. This aligns with the funding chapter in my book, where I talk about how investors want to know you have a plan beyond the next quarter.
“The difference between a good submission and a great one is not the size of your revenue. It is the clarity of your story. Judges are human. They remember stories, not spreadsheets.”
— From “Entrepreneurship Secrets for Beginners” by Abdul Vasi
- Start your submission strategy at least three months before the deadline. Do not wait for the call for entries.
- Align every piece of evidence with one specific award criterion. If it does not match, leave it out.
- Use a “before and after” format to show transformation. Judges want to see progress, not perfection.
- Highlight key team members with specific contributions. Generic titles add no value.
- End every submission with a forward-looking vision. Show that winning this award is part of a bigger plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: How many awards should I apply for in a year?
A1: Focus on quality over quantity. Apply for 3 to 5 awards that closely match your business stage and industry. Spreading yourself too thin leads to weak submissions.
Q2: Should I pay for award submission services?
A2: Only if you are completely out of time and have no internal writer. Most awards do not require professional help. A clean, honest submission written by you or a team member often performs better.
Q3: What if my revenue is small? Can I still win?
A3: Yes. Many awards have categories for early-stage companies. Focus on growth percentage, customer impact, and team resilience. Revenue size is not the only metric.
Q4: How do I handle awards that ask for proprietary data?
A4: Share what is necessary to tell your story, but do not reveal trade secrets. You can use percentages instead of absolute numbers. Judges understand confidentiality.
Q5: Can I reuse the same submission for multiple awards?
A5: Not effectively. Each award has different criteria. You can reuse core facts and data points, but you need to reshape the narrative to fit each specific call for entries.
Building a strategy for award submission is not about gaming the system. It is about doing the hard work of understanding your own business deeply enough to tell its story clearly. That is a skill that serves you far beyond the award season. It helps you pitch to investors, hire better talent, and even motivate your team. The lessons from Entrepreneurship Secrets for Beginners are not just for starting a business. They are for running one with intention. Awards are just one place where that intention shows. If you approach them with the same discipline you use for your business plan, your funding strategy, and your team building, you will find that the submissions write themselves. The hard part is already done. You just have to remember what you built.
