Rules

Rules & Eligibility

The Successful You (SY) Business Awards is FREE to enter and open to all new or existing small businesses operating in British Columbia, Canada.

Contest Eligibility:

To be eligible for the SY Business Awards, all Participants must be starting or growing a small business in British Columbia, Canada.
A Small Business is defined as one with fewer than 50 employees, or a business operated by a person who is self-employed.
All Participants must submit a business plan before 12:00 noon on Monday March 31, 2010.
The business plan and/or application must be written by the owner or partner of the business.
Plans may be submitted in either official language (English or French).
Review the Judging Criteria & Selection Process

Important Contest Dates:

How to Enter the Contest:

Select & Apply to one Award Category
Submit your business plan and/or Nomination Application:
- For Business Plan Submissions: Be sure to include business definition, company structure, market analysis, marketing plan, management plan, operating plan, financial strategies, risk & contingency plan and relevant appendices.
- For Nomination Submissions: Be sure to answer and provide materials for all the required fields.
- Single space, single-sided with 12 font letter size on 8.5 x 11 paper (letter size);
- Maximum length of application shall not exceed 25 pages, EXCLUDING Title Page, Table of Contents, Financials, and any Appendices;
Submissions must be done either online, mailed-in or sent in-person. FAXES and EMAILS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
Only choose ONE submission method (online, mail or in-person).
All MAILED submissions are FINAL. There will be NO REPLACING DOCUMENTS OR PARTS THEREOF.
Organizer will not be responsible for loss or damages to the materials submitted. All submissions will NOT BE RETURNED.

Contest Rules:

All Participants must be eligible to enter the SY Business Awards.
The deadline for all submissions is March 31, 2010 at 12:00pm (noon).
All staff members at Small Business BC are not eligible for the SY Business Awards event.
All submissions will be categorized as either a Concept (start-up) Business, Growth Business, Company of the Year or Champion of the Year. Small Business BC reserves the right to make all final decisions regarding if the submitted plan is considered for any of the SY Business Award Categories.
Small Business BC reserves the right to update the Rules of the Business Awards at any time and will do their best to keep Participants informed of changes but it is ultimately the responsibility of each and every Participant to be aware of any updates.
Successful Participants understand that this Business Awards should not be construed as an endorsement or determination of future success by Small Business BC.
All successful Participants that make the shortlist in each category authorize Small Business BC to conduct credit and references checks before the top award recipients are confirmed in each category.
The Participant authorizes Small Business BC to identify successful Participant (name/picture) in connection with organizing or promoting the SY Business Awards.

Confidentiality Clause:

ll submissions, references and credit checks will be treated as confidential, seen only by the Judging Panel, and kept in a locked and secure location during the judging process.
Small Business BC agrees to maintain the information submitted in confidence and to not reproduce / distribute / communicate the information within, except to the members of the judging panel, without expressed written consent of the contest entrant.
All submissions submitted will be DESTROYED (shredded) after two weeks of winners’ ceremony held on June, 2010.

Finalists Business Pitch Presentations (May, 2010):

Selected shortlisted participants will face the judges during the Finalists Business Pitch Presentations during May, 2010, where they will have an opportunity to present their business plan “pitches” to judges, following which judges will have an opportunity to pose questions to finalists.
Finalists will make their pitches to the judging panel using one of Small Business BC's partnering video conferencing sites.
Finalists will each be given a strict time limit of ten minutes to present their pitch.
After each pitch, the judges may ask a number of questions. All answers must be kept to less than one minute.
After all of the finalists have completed their pitches, the judging panel will decide on the winners for each category based on the Judging Criteria.

Winners:

The names of the SY Business Awards winners will be posted on www.successfulyou.ca and www.smallbusinessbc.ca by June, 2010 after the selection and verification of the winners.
The winners will receive media coverage through our sponsors and various local media outlets.
Press releases will also be distributed to the winner's local media outlets.