Recognising and celebrating success is something that us Brits appear to be more reticent of doing than our American and European cousins. Are we too shy to share with our clients and suppliers just how great we are? Or, is there something else that holds us back?

Whatever your business strengths are, you need to shout about them to ensure your potential clients choose you over your competitors. If you don’t, who else will? So why not enter the Buckinghamshire Business Awards 2015 and share your success with others?

Participating in and winning business awards will raise your profile, enhance your reputation, help you gain the trust of clients, help you attract new business, and make you more profitable. In short, it will prove you are better than your competitors. It can also be a great reminder for you and your team as to what your strengths really are, help you celebrate your success to date and help you define your business offer more succinctly.

Winning will be great for business – just ask Bob Urie, Chairman and Founder of Mediplus, winner of three Buckinghamshire Business Awards in recent years. “Winning the Buckinghamshire Business Awards gives our business credibility,” Bob said, ”a certain status that makes us stand out from the rest, particularly when hiring new staff. Potential employees see that they would be joining a winning team.”

Tony Laurenson is Managing Director of Global Infusion Group who won Company of the Year and Exporter of the Year at this year’s Buckinghamshire Business Awards. “We were thrilled to be rewarded for our efforts at the Buckinghamshire Business Awards,” said Tony. “To receive the plaudits from those close to home where you have the greatest connection is something really special.”

However, just like any other competition, you have to be in it to win it. Deciding to enter an award is all about the participation. Whether you enter local, national or international awards, selecting the right category is critical to your success. My advice would be to start off at a smaller, local level and access any help or support that is on offer from the organisers.

The benefits are clear to actually taking the time, care and effort to complete a successful and compelling application. Buckinghamshire Business First are organising Entrants Workshops to help you with your application for the Buckinghamshire Business Awards.

Lastly, anyone that really knows me will recognise that I am a “words of affirmation” type of girl and winning awards really resonates with me. We all at some point like to hear we have done well, are making progress, can run faster, jump higher - since it encourages us to strive to do better and improve ourselves. Over the years I have been the lucky recipient of several awards from “Queen of the Mountains” whilst on a triathlon training camp in the Italian mountains, to the “Laziest Triathlete” - an award that definitely made me strive to do better, resulting in me recently being voted the “Most Smiley Triathlete”. Progress indeed!

So, if you would like some help with choosing a suitable award category to enter, I would be very happy to assist you further with this. There are also some very good online resources and a whole directory of awards to enter online, so there really is something for everyone irrespective of size or sector.

Finally, thank you for your suggestions of song titles relating to last month’s “club” theme  – I didn’t realize there were so many of you out there and I enjoyed hearing about your favourites. This month, I would be interested in hearing about any awards you have won!