{"id":45,"date":"2016-09-30T10:56:17","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T09:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wearecentrifuge.com\/?p=45"},"modified":"2017-01-02T12:00:19","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T12:00:19","slug":"going-for-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/30\/going-for-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Going for Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Drawing by Zephonarch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another way to get yourself noticed and make interesting contacts is via awards. Before starting this company\u00a0I had no idea that you could just nominate yourself for awards \u2013 but you totally can!<\/p>\n

Start with your local area \u2013 does your local paper or Chamber of Commerce have a yearly awards event? There is usually a category for new businesses or small businesses or entrepreneurs \u2013 you\u2019re bound to find one that you can fit in. Most are free to enter \u2013 they just need a bit of work and imagination on your part. The submissions are usually done\u00a0via an online form which asks about your company, who works there, what you do and some will ask for financial information and forecasts.<\/p>\n

Our local Business Boost Awards asked for a Business Plan too and offered a free course on how to write one. This was great \u2013 as I attended it and it made us actually get one written. These are useful for trying to get financial backing or a business loan down the line \u2013 so I was so happy to learn how to do a really good one. The course was actually run by an ex-bank manager \u2013 so he told us exactly what they look for when asked for loans by companies.<\/p>\n

All that information for free!<\/p>\n

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Drawing by A.S<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So once you\u2019ve submitted your application you have a few weeks of wondering when you\u2019ll hear something. If you are new, a little bit different\u00a0and interesting then you will stand a good chance of at least being chosen as finalists. We\u2019ve discovered that have \u201cAward Finalist\u201d on your website and promotional literature is practically as good as \u201cwinner\u201d Quite often you\u2019ll get a ready-made logo to use wherever you want and you\u2019ll be invited to the actual Awards Ceremony.<\/p>\n

Our local paper\u2019s Sentinel Business Awards don\u2019t charge finalists or their guests for the event itself\u2013 as it is sponsored by other businesses \u2013 but usually you will have to pay, and they can be quite pricy. However, if you can afford to send a couple of staff (which is actually the whole company in our case!) then not only will you get lots of publicity but also have chance to meet other business owners and influential people in the business community. It’s all about the networking!<\/p>\n

You may also get lots of coverage in your local press and even have a video made of your company and its operations to be shown on the night. You\u00a0could get to keep the footage to use yourself too. So, it may be worth the cost of a fancy meal to get all this coverage and networking too.<\/p>\n

You can also look out for awards in your own industry too \u2013 in our case computer games. It is worth having a look around. I wouldn\u2019t bother with ones you have to pay to enter \u2013 but we have just tried for the TIGA awards, which has categories for Indie Games Studios like ourselves. We are just waiting to hear if anything comes of it\u2026 keep your fingers crossed!<\/p>\n

UPDATE: We found out that we have been shortlisted for two awards \u2013 Most Original Game and Social\/Casual Game! We are beyond excited!!\"tiga-award-finalist-logo-2016-01\"<\/p>\n

That also means that we are also up for Game of the Year \u2013 as voted by the public. Here\u2019s the link if you love Interference: https:\/\/tiga.org\/awards\/game-of-the-year<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got until 31st<\/sup> October to vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another way to get yourself noticed and make interesting contacts is via awards. Before starting this company\u00a0I had no idea that you could just nominate yourself for awards \u2013 but you totally can! Start with your local area \u2013 does your local paper or Chamber of Commerce have a yearly awards event? There is usually … Continue reading “Going for Gold”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}