New List of Contests and Awards for SMBs


This list of contests, competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.

If you’ve entered and won a contest or award listed here, let me know so we can share your news.


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HP Smart Color Sweepstakes
Enter by July 13, 2011

HP is giving away an HP Printer each day until July 13th, and one grand prize winner will win $10,000. Answer the question “What would your business do with $10,000?”
See website for entry details.

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Flights. Camera. Action. Video Upload Contest
Enter by July 15, 2011

Success is in the air! Upload a short video about how flying benefits your business – and you could win up to 50 tickets for your company and exposure to thousands of potential customers. The first 200 businesses to upload a video online will also receive 300 Business ExtrAA points. See website for entry rules and details. Sponsored by American Airlines and SCORE.

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Forbes List of America’s Most Promising Companies
Enter by July 15, 2011

For the second year Forbes is assembling a list of dynamic, privately held businesses with truly scintillating growth prospects—the kind of companies investors love to bet on, customers love to buy from, and talented employees love to work for. All industries and geographies are welcome. The best will earn a spot on Forbes’ ranking of America’s Most Promising Companies. That means serious exposure—to customers, investors and talented job applicants. Enter by completing this survey.

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pbSmart Connections Small Business Makeover Contest

 

Enter by July 19, 2011

Pitney Bowes wants to give your business a communications makeover. This national contest was designed to help small businesses improve customer communications to better position themselves for growth. Five Grand Prize winners will receive a customer communications plan makeover, valued at $10,000. The Grand Prize winners will receive a full-day consultation and planning session with renowned small business experts. Together with a team of Pitney Bowes communication specialists, the experts will assess each Grand Prize winner’s existing communications and provide custom coaching to develop a program that suits their unique needs. They will also receive one year of free access to the pbSmart suite of customer communications tools, including pbSmartPostage, cloud-based postage for shipping and mailing, and pbSmart  Connections for email marketing. In addition, 20 First Prize winners will receive one year of free access to the pbSmart suite of products, valued at $2,500, and have their businesses featured as part of the pbSmart Essentials online community.

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Make Your Small Business Fly Contest
Enter by July 20, 2011

Join Virgin America’s free corporate rewards program, Elevate, Inc., and enter to win 2 free roundtrip tickets to any Virgin America destination and a Samsonite luggage set.

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10th Annual Chicago Innovation Awards
Enter by July 31, 2011

To be eligible for a Chicago Innovation Award, the product, service or company nominated must be:

  • Introduced within the past three years, and
  • Headquartered in the greater Chicago region, including the northern half of Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and northwest Indiana.

Through many events occurring throughout the year, the Chicago Innovation Awards not only recognize nominees and winners, but also provide valuable business networking and development opportunities; learning experiences through mentoring, scholarships and panel discussions; and educational courses in innovation.

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Recycle Your Business Cell Phone Apple iPad2 Giveaway
Enter by July 31, 2011

e-Cycle’s Apple iPad2 Earth Day Giveaway was such a success, we are giving companies another opportunity to win simply by recycling your company cell phones. Businesses and organizations that recycle and/or sell their used mobile devices and cell phones through e-Cycle from now through July 31 will be entered into a random drawing for the chance to win one of four Apple iPad2s.

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The Conway Center for Family Business Awards
Enter by August 4, 2011

The Conway Center for Family Business Awards Program was established in 1998 to recognize excellence in family business and has honored more than 115 Central Ohio family businesses.

The program honors recipients in categories consistent with the success and longevity of a family business: leadership, planning, communication, support and community service. For more details, see the website.

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Avaya Small Business Innovators Contest
Enter by August 30, 2011

Do you have an idea that will change the way your business serves your customers? Innovation is the engine that makes every business more productive and helps it to grow. To enter Avaya’s Small Business Innovators contest, fill out their ROI tool and send them the results. Include how you would spend the savings over the next five years to innovate new ways to serve your customers, staff and suppliers. Grand prize of $50,000 worth of IP Office equipment and software and $5,000 cash. Five runner up prizes of $10,000 worth of IP Office equipment and software.

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Supreme Studio Makeover Contest
Enter by August 31, 2011

MacMall’s second annual Supreme Studio Makeover Contest features $26K in total tech prizes for small businesses and creative studios, including highly sought after products such as: Maya 2012, Adobe CS5.5, HP Designjet large format printers, an HP 24″ DreamColor monitor, Microsoft Office for Mac and Apple Time Capsule storage units.

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Cleantech Open Idea Competition
Enter by September 12, 2011

The Cleantech Open runs the world’s largest clean technology business competition, and they’re looking for the best clean technology ideas from around the world.

Enter to win a prize package of services worth $100,000 to help you start a business to grow your idea. If your idea beats out the competition in the National Competition, you get to represent your country as a Global Ideas finalist at the annual Cleantech Open Awards Gala on November 17, 2010 in San Francisco. There, your idea will be presented in a five-minute pitch in front of a crowd of 2,500 investors, entrepreneurs, sponsoring companies, corporations, members of academia, press, and others interested in hearing your ideas and getting involved. The crowd will vote via text message for the “People’s Choice” winner.

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Women Who Mean Business 2011
Enter by September 16, 2011

The Washington Business Journal announces the eighth annual Women Who Mean Business awards program. This award is designed to honor the region’s most influential business women. We’re looking for women from every industry and profession; women who’ve made a difference in their communities, blazed a trail for the rest of us and are leaving a mark on the Washington-area community.
Nominees must be female residents of the Washington area who are employed in the region.
A nominee should be an established business leader with a strong record of innovation in her field, outstanding performance in her business and/or a clear track record of meaningful community involvement.

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To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar.

If you are putting on a small business contest, award or competition, and want to get the word out to the community, please submit it through our Small Business Event and Contests Form (it’s free).

Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award.

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Laura Leites Laura Leites plans and manages events for clients through her company, L2 Event Production. Laura's projects include the Small Business Influencer Awards, The Small Business Summit, and many of SmallBizTechnology's live and virtual events, including the five-city Small Business Technology Tour.

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